Donna Reed

Donna Reed (born January 27, 1921, Denison, Iowa, U.S.—died January 14, 1986, Beverly Hills, California) was an American film and television actress who embodied a wholesome, engaging girl next door in numerous movies in the 1940s and ’50s and later on television.

Reed graduated from high school in Iowa and then moved to California to attend Los Angeles City College. She was named campus queen while there, and the resultant newspaper photographs brought her to the attention of movie talent scouts. Reed made her film debut in a substantial role in the B-movie The Get-Away (1941). She also appeared in the fourth entry in the Thin Man film series, Shadow of the Thin Man (1941), and she had an uncredited part in Babes on Broadway (also 1941). A string of movies followed, among them Calling Dr. Gillespie (1942), with Lionel Barrymore; The Human Comedy (1943), from a story by William Saroyan; See Here, Private Hargrove (1944), in which she played opposite Robert Walker; and Albert Lewin’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), based on the novel by Oscar Wilde. Reed’s radiant portrayal of the sweet and steady Mary in the Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) brought her lasting admiration.

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Reed played similar roles in such films as Green Dolphin Street (1947), Saturday’s Hero (1951), and Trouble Along the Way (1953; with John Wayne). She finally had a chance to play against type when she was cast as a hardheaded prostitute who is surprised by her own vulnerability in the acclaimed epic From Here to Eternity (1953); her emotionally charged performance won her an Academy Award as best supporting actress. The Oscar did not result in more challenging roles, however. Her later films included The Caddy (1953), with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, and Raoul Walsh’s Gun Fury (1953), with Rock Hudson. Reed portrayed Sacagawea in The Far Horizons (1955), appeared as the title character’s love interest in The Benny Goodman Story (1956), and played opposite Richard Widmark in John Sturges’s Backlash (1956).

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Reed later starred as a wise and loving wife and mother in the long-running television sitcom The Donna Reed Show (1958–66); she was nominated four times (1959–62) for Emmy Awards and in 1963 won a Golden Globe Award for that role. Following the end of that series, she acted only sporadically. She starred in TV movies in 1979 and 1983, guest-starred (1984) on the series The Love Boat, and replaced Barbara Bel Geddes in the role of Miss Ellie Ewing during the 1984–85 season of Dallas.