Yeah, Connie didn't make old bones. I read an interview with her son, I believe it was, who said that it was a mercy, as she would have hated getting really old...
She seems actually to have been rather a pain in the neck - vain, demanding, and silly - but she certainly did have style. It would have been fun to see her on tour in Auntie Mame.
Actually, probably a better fit, but she really did barnstorm/summer stock it for a couple of seasons as the title character. Companies loved getting her, 'cause she used her own wardrobe and jewels...
So the story goes: She was post operative for a face lift when she filmed Madam X (which is why she kinda looks better than Lana) and her scars weren't sufficently healed yet. There was lead content in the make up used on her in the movie and, BAM, lead poisoning.
Don't know if it's true, but it's a damn fine story of someone, quite literally, dying for her vanity.
Miss Constance Bennett, superb, steely, languorous with self regard. She's the rare creature who can look both fluffily blonde and carnivorous... 
i loved her as that plotting witch in
ReplyDelete"madame x"....which i see may have
been her swan song; all the better.
Yeah, Connie didn't make old bones. I read an interview with her son, I believe it was, who said that it was a mercy, as she would have hated getting really old...
ReplyDeleteShe seems actually to have been rather a pain in the neck - vain, demanding, and silly - but she certainly did have style. It would have been fun to see her on tour in Auntie Mame.
...as vera?
ReplyDeleteActually, probably a better fit, but she really did barnstorm/summer stock it for a couple of seasons as the title character. Companies loved getting her, 'cause she used her own wardrobe and jewels...
ReplyDeleteShe'll always be Marion Merby to me.
ReplyDeleteLoved her quote on the imdb:
I'm a lot more sartorial than thespian. They come to see me and go out humming the costumes.
So the story goes: She was post operative for a face lift when she filmed Madam X (which is why she kinda looks better than Lana) and her scars weren't sufficently healed yet. There was lead content in the make up used on her in the movie and, BAM, lead poisoning.
ReplyDeleteDon't know if it's true, but it's a damn fine story of someone, quite literally, dying for her vanity.
Joan Bennett, her sister, was my great-aunt. I so like to see pictures of them; few people remember.
ReplyDeleteOn my blog, known as "Saint Constance of Bennett." And the first actress, I believe, to get a million dollar divorce.
ReplyDelete