10 Hollywood Legends You've Probably Never Heard Of

Although Jean Arthur was a major film star in the thirties and forties, the former Gladys Greene’s career took a while to get going. For a decade, bad reviews and indifference plagued her, leading to her release from her contract with Paramount in 1931 at the age of thirty - practically old age for a young ingénue in those days.

Arthur retreated back home to the New York from Hollywood, setting up camp on Broadway and refining her craft. Astonishingly, she got a second bite of the cherry on the stage, consistently being rated the best thing in everything she did, big or small. That’s when she relaxed into the throatier vocal register that helped to make her name as an actress.

Her confidence restored, Arthur signed with Colombia Pictures in 1934, turning blonde and making a name for herself as a slightly kooky comic actress with star quality. More career savvy than when she’d first tried to crack the business, Arthur almost exclusively insisted on being filmed from the left, claiming that it was her best side, determinedly controlling her image.

Frank Capra’s favourite actress remained the studio’s top star for the next decade, expiring in 1944 after twenty-six pictures, three of which were directed by Capra. She only made two more movies after that - including her biggest box office hit, the classic Western Shane - and, having more or less retired, went on to teach drama. One of her students was a young Meryl Streep, and Arthur was the first to see the astonishing talent in her young charge, claiming that it was already, “like watching a movie star.”

Jean Arthur died in 1991 of a heart attack, at the age of ninety, having been called “one of the greatest comediennes the screen has ever seen”, and “the quintessential comedic leading lady.”