Today is Gail Patrick's 100th birthday. And even though I am away from my computer, I'm too big a fan not to at least mention her on her big day. This is what I wrote about her last year:Born Margaret LaVelle Fitzpatrick in Birmingham, Alabama, Patrick was the dean of women at Howard College and was studying law at the University of Alabama when she entered a nationwide contest for a part in a Paramount film. She didn't win, but she was offered a film contract and moved to Hollywood.Patrick made her film debut in the 1932 film If I Had A Million, starring Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton and George Raft. She typically played arrogant socialites and femme fatales and is best known for three comedic roles—Carole Lombard's scheming sister in My Man Godfrey, a haughty wannabe actress who clashes with Ginger Rogers and Katharine Hepburn in Stage Door and Cary Grant's not-so-favored bride in My Favorite Wife.
Patrick appeared in sixty-two movies between 1932 and 1948.She abandoned acting when she married her third husband, literary agent Cornwell Jackson. One of Jackson's clients was mystery writer Erle Stanley Gardner who created the fictional defense lawyer Perry Mason. Patrick (credited now as Gail Patrick Jackson) obtained the rights to Perry Mason and for nine seasons produced one of the most successful television series in American history.
Patrick died of leukemia in 1980 at the age of sixty-nine.And now because I love you, I offer up once again this public domain copy of her best movie, My Man Godfrey. Enjoy.
My Man Godfrey
ReplyDeleteHow I love that movie
What a nice tribute to Gail Patrick. I love her sparring with Rogers in Stage Door.
ReplyDeleteI'd be up for a Perry Mason marathon if anybody else is.
ReplyDeleteMM,
ReplyDeleteA really nice tribute! Happy 100th Gail and Happy Birthday to Errol Flynn too.
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I'd be up for a Perry Mason marathon if anybody else is.
ReplyDeleteI've got the first two seasons on DVD -- a good start anyway.
Hey oh! I guess I'm RESEARCHING this movie 'cause I already searched it for Gail ONCE and now I'm RE-searching it AGAIN! So THANKS again -- she's of course jaw-dropping great in this movie -- which movie you of course first turned me onto just last fall!
ReplyDeletewhich movie you of course first turned me onto just last fall!
ReplyDeleteWhich, speaking seriously, is on a very short list of the highlights of doing this blog. Introducing someone to a great movie and a hot actress all in one go really makes this worth while.
Introducing someone to a great movie and a hot actress all in one go really makes this worth while.
ReplyDeleteTruer words was never spoked.
May I heartily recommend Spirit of Seventy Sex, an important and great movie touching on political themes and, well, just touching, in which we find the hot actress Annette Haven portraying Martha Washington. . . .
I recommend this movie only because I'm a Founding Father, after all.
She was equally impressive in Autobiography of a Flea and did interesting work in Barbara Broadcast. . . .
You're right, MythMon, how rewarding!
word verification? hookiess
Annette Haven portraying Martha Washington
ReplyDeleteThat'd be a little like casting Lady Gaga as Barbara Bush, but then I've always thought historical accuracy is a bit overrated ...
don't you just hate people that went to law school in Alabama?
ReplyDeleteoh wait...