Ruby Katherine Stevens (Barbara Stanwyck
16th July 1907 - 20th January 1990

BIOGRAPHY


Barbara Stanwyck was an American film and television actress.

Barbara's parents were Byron and Catherine McGee Stevens, both originally from Chelsea, Massachusetts, and then Brooklyn, N.Y.
She was the last of five children, four whose names all started with the letter M. Maud, Mabel, Mildred, And Malcolm. Why they changed for Barbara no one knows.
She was born in New York City, and her mother died when she was only four. She took her stage name from the name of a play, Barbara Frietchie, about a fictional Civil War heroine. The play starred a British actress named Joan Stanwyck.
Barbara starred in almost a hundred films during her career and received four nominations for an Academy Award for Best Actress: Stella Dallas (1937), Ball of Fire (1941), Double Indemnity (1944), and Sorry, Wrong Number (1948).
She received an Academy Honorary Award for superlative creativity and unique contribution to the art of screen acting in 1982. In her later years, she also starred in television, notably in the 1960s Western series, The Big Valley. Her last starring role was in 1985, in The Colbys.

Barbara married actor Robert Taylor (who died in June 1969) and owned a large ranch and home in the Mandeville Canyon section of Brentwood, Los Angeles, CA that is still to this day referred to by locals as the old Robert Taylor ranch."

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Barbara Stanwyck has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Vine Street.
In 1973, she was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Late in the afternoon of January 20, 1990, Barbara's heart stopped and she died in her sleep. She had no funeral and has no grave. Her body was cremated and the ashes scattered over Lone Pine, California, near Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.