Born On This Day- August 10th... Forgotten Star- Norma Shearer

I was so callow as a youth, that in Film Theory class, all that I could muster for the work of Norma Shearer was cynical comments about about her crossed eyes & unusual mannered performances. I would later come to appreciate her talent. Now mostly forgotten, unlike the other ladies of MGM's Golden Years, she had a career that lasted less than 20 years, yet made 100+ films (in 1927 alone, she made 13 silent movies), almost all of them hits & well reviewed. She was Oscar nominated 6 times, winning for The Divorcee (1930). Norma Shearer was just the perfect personality for her era, & she made a series of highly successful "Pre-Code" adult oriented films: Let Us Be Gay (1930), Strangers May Kiss (1931), A Free Soul (1931), Private Lives (1931) & Riptide (1934). All of these were box-office hits, placing Shearer in competition with Joan Crawford & Greta Garbo as MGM's top actress through the remainder of the 1930s.



Norma Shearer was dubbed “The Queen of MGM” & indeed she was married to studio head- Irving Thalberg. Shearer's marriage to Thalberg gave the sort of power in Hollywood that was resented by other stars. Joan Crawford: "How can I compete with Norma when she's sleeping with the boss." Although she was devastated by the early death of Thalberg, she did enjoy liaisons with the then married actors George Raft, Mickey Rooney, & the unmarried actor James Stewart.


Shearer retired from films in 1942 & married ski instructor Martin Arrougé, 10 years younger than the star. Shearer withdrew from the glamor of Hollywood & preferred anonymity. They were still married at the time of her death in 1983 from Alzheimer's disease at 80 years old, although in her declining years she reportedly called Martin "Irving”. She is entombed at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in a crypt marked "Norma Shearer Arrouge", along with Irving Thalberg. Her friend Jean Harlow is in the crypt next door. Thalberg's crypt was engraved "My Sweetheart Forever" by Shearer.

Norma Shearer was one of the muses of the great photographer- George Hurrell.