Eve Arden
Arden's quick wit made her a natural talent for radio; she became a regular on Danny Kaye's short-lived but memorably zany comedy-variety show in 1946, which also featured swing bandleader Harry James and gravel-voiced character actor-comedian Lionel Stander.
Kaye's show lasted one season, but Arden's display of comic talent and timing set the stage for her to be cast in her most well-known role, Madison High School English teacher Connie Brooks in Our Miss Brooks. Arden portrayed the character on radio from 1948 to 1957, in a television version of the program from 1952 to 1956, and in a 1956 feature film. Arden's character clashed with the school's principal, Osgood Conklin (played by Gale Gordon), and nursed an unrequited crush on fellow teacher Philip Boynton (played originally by future film star Jeff Chandler and later in the series by Robert Rockwell).
Arden's portrayal of the character was so popular that she was made an honorary member of the National Education Association, received a 1952 award from the Teachers College of Connecticut's Alumni Association "for humanizing the American teacher," and even received teaching job offers.
Arden won a radio listeners' poll by Radio Mirror magazine as the top ranking comedienne of 1948-1949, receiving her award at the end of an Our Miss Brooks broadcast that March. "I'm certainly going to try in the coming months to merit the honor you've bestowed upon me, because I understand that if I win this (award) two years in a row, I get to keep Mr. Boynton," she joked. But she was also a hit with the critics; a winter 1949 poll of newspaper and magazine radio editors taken by Motion Picture Daily named her the year's best radio comedienne.
Arden tried another series in 1957, The Eve Arden Show, but it was cancelled after only a few episodes.
Arden also co-starred with Kaye Ballard in the 1967-1969 situation comedy The Mothers-in-Law, which was produced by her old friend Desi Arnaz after the dissolution of Desilu. A few years afterward, she made a new sitcom pilot co-starring Don Knotts, but it failed to attract a network buyer.
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Other credits
She was one of many stars to take on the title roles in Hello, Dolly! and Auntie Mame in the 1960s; in 1967, she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre.
She became familiar to a new generation of film-goers when she played the harassed Principal McGee in both 1978's Grease and 1982's Grease 2, as well as making appearances on such television shows as Alice and Falcon Crest. In 1985 she appeared as the wicked stepmother in the Faerie Tale Theatre production of Cinderella.
Arden published her biography, The Three Phases of Eve, in 1985. It is notable for its discretion in regard to Arden's many co-stars, and her loyalty to the Hollywood studio system that nurtured her career.
In addition to her Academy Award nomination, Arden also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6714 Hollywood Boulevard. She was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1995.
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Personal life and death
She was married to Ned Bergen from 1939 to 1947, and to actor Brooks West from 1952 until his death in 1984 from a heart ailment. She and West had four children, three of whom were adopted.
According to some sources, she had an affair with Danny Kaye in the 1940s.[2]
Arden died of advanced colorectal cancer and heart disease at her home in Los Angeles, California at the age of 82, and is interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California.
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Filmography
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References
- ^ Tamalpais High School Alumni Directory. 2002. Harris Publishing Co., p 237. Lists "Quedens, Eunice M." in the Class of 1926.
- ^ Gottfried, Martin (1994), Nobody's Fool: The Lives of Danny Kaye, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0671864947
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Further reading
- Tucker, David C. (2007). The Women Who Made Television Funny: Ten Stars of 1950s Sitcoms. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co. ISBN 0-7864-2900-3.
- Karol, Michael (2005). Sitcom Queens: Divas of the Small Screen. iUniverse. ISBN 0-595-40251-8.
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External links
- Eve Arden at the Internet Movie Database
- Eve Arden at Allmovie
- Eve Arden at Find A Grave
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