Ona Munson (born Owena Elizabeth Wolcott; June 16, 1903 – February 11, 1955)[1] was an American film and stage actress. She starred in nine Broadway productions and 20 feature films in her career, which spanned over 30 years.
Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, Munson began her stage career in New York theater in 1919, debuting on Broadway in George White's Scandals. She starred in another four Broadway plays and musicals before the end of the 1920s. In 1930, she moved to Los Angeles to embark on a career in film, but after appearing as leads in several films, such as Going Wild (1930) and The Hot Heiress (1931), she returned to Broadway, starring in several productions, including Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts (1935).
Munson resumed her film career in the late 1930s, and was cast as madam Belle Watling in David O. Selznick's Gone with the Wind (1939), a role which became her most famous. She starred in numerous films for Warner Bros. in the 1940s, but was often typecast based on her performance in Gone with the Wind, for instance in von Sternberg’s The Shanghai Gesture (1941).
Munson married painter Eugene Berman in 1950, her second husband after a five-year marriage to director Edward Buzzell. She also had several documented affairs with women, including Alla Nazimova and playwright Mercedes de Acosta. Some commentators have considered her marriages as "lavender marriages", concealing Munson's homosexuality. By the mid-1950s, Munson was suffering from health complications following an unspecified surgical procedure, and frequently was using barbiturates. In February 1955, Berman found Munson dead in their Manhattan apartment, having committed suicide via a barbiturate overdose.
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OnaMunson (born Owena Elizabeth Wolcott; June 16, 1903 – February 11, 1955) was an American film and stage actress. She starred in nine Broadway productions...
Sternberg and starring Gene Tierney, Walter Huston, Victor Mature, and OnaMunson. It is based on a Broadway play of the same name by John Colton, which...
western drama film directed by Bernard Vorhaus and starring John Wayne, OnaMunson and Ray Middleton. It was produced and distributed by Republic Pictures...
River Caroline Grant Withers Lost film 1931 The Hot Heiress Lola Ben Lyon OnaMunson Walter Pidgeon 1931 Aloha Winifred Bradford Ben Lyon Raquel Torres 1931...
three songs by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. The film stars Ben Lyon, OnaMunson, Walter Pidgeon, Tom Dugan, Holmes Herbert and Inez Courtney. The film...
directed by Christy Cabanne. It stars OnaMunson, Stuart Erwin, and Peggy Moran, and was released on July 17, 1942. OnaMunson as Dr. Ann Montgomery Stuart Erwin...
teacher Walter Matthau, actor Marilyn Monroe, actress Zero Mostel, actor OnaMunson, actress Isaac Bashevis Singer, writer Richard Stengel, journalist Lee...
musician Khalid Abdul Muhammad (1948–2001), black nationalist and separatist OnaMunson (1910–1955), actress Dwight Arrington "Heavy D" Myers (1967–2011), rapper...
which premiered on television in 1948. In 1926, Buzzell married actress OnaMunson, who later played Belle Watling in Gone with the Wind. They divorced in...
Josef von Sternberg's 1941 The Shanghai Gesture contains a performance by OnaMunson as 'Mother' Gin Sling, the proprietor of a gambling house, that bears...
Archived from the original on March 24, 2017. Retrieved March 24, 2017. "OnaMunson". The Los Angeles Times. February 12, 1955. Archived from the original...
rewrite her lines to suit her own persona. The role eventually went to OnaMunson. In 1939, Universal Studios approached West to star in a film opposite...
Ruggles, Richard Lane, Maxie Rosenbloom, Marion Martin, Stepin Fetchit and OnaMunson. The film was released on November 11, 1938, by Universal Pictures. On...
Mundlos (2011), German National Socialist Underground terrorist, gunshot OnaMunson (1955), American actress, barbiturate overdose David Munrow (1976) English...
Harrison Jacobs and starring Chester Morris, Anita Louise, Buck Jones, OnaMunson, George "Gabby" Hayes and Guinn "Big Boy" Williams. It was released on...
famous actresses and dancers, including Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, OnaMunson, and Russian ballerina Tamara Platonovna Karsavina. Additional unsubstantiated...
(which went to Barbara O'Neil), to prostitute Belle Watling (which went to OnaMunson). Gish's television debut occurred February 6, 1949, when she portrayed...
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