THE RELEVANT QUEER: Tallulah Bankhead, Unrepentant Star of Stage and Screen, Born January 31, 1902

“If I had to live my life again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner.”

TRQ: Tallulah Bankhead, Born January 31, 1902

Actor on the stage and screen, Tallulah Bankhead was born on January 31, 1902. Celebrated as one theatre’s great actresses, Bankhead fuelled her career and won over titillated audiences by publicly embracing of her scandalous private life, which forever teetered on overshadowing her undeniable artistic talent. She performed in almost 300 roles in film on stage, television and the radio. She amassed a large gay following, and Ebony magazine featured her as the first white woman to make the cover. 

Bankhead was born in Huntsville, Alabama to a political family. Her father was the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Her grandfather and uncle were U.S. Senators. Even as a child, Bankhead was confident, and she often opposed the conservative Southern Democrat agenda of her family. Tragically her mother died of blood poisoning just three years after her daughter’s birth. 

Bankhead rebelled against her convent school education at every opportunity, often in competition for her father’s attention. After going to the circus, she mimicked the performances. At age 15, she won a beauty contest for Picture Play. The magazine brought her to New York, and Bankhead took on a minor role in Who Loved Him Best. 

Soon afterwards, Bankhead took on silent film roles and in 1918, she debuted on Broadway in Squab Farm. From the start, Bankhead possessed stage presence. A childhood case of chronic bronchitis gave her a distinctive husky voice which contrasted with her striking good looks. 

Bankhead moved into the Algonquin Hotel. She eventually joined the Algonquin Round Table where she socialised with the largely queer “Four Riders of the Algonquin,” which included Estelle Winwood, Eva Le Gallienne and Blyth Daly. The Algonquin parties offered Bankhead opportunities to indulge in cocaine and marijuana.

By 1919, Bankhead had stopped making films, and devoted her professional efforts to the stage. Nevertheless, she left New York for London after having earned some critical praise for her standout work in still unsuccessful plays, including 39 East (1919), Footloose (1919), Nice People (1921) and The Exciters (1922). 

Bankhead made her London debut at Wyndham’s Theatre in 1923. Her portrayal of Amy in Sidney Howard’s They Knew What They Wanted (1924) finally established her reputation as an actress. 1925 the play won the Pulitzer Prize. During the eight years that Bankhead performed in the UK, she won audiences and critics over with her playfully subversive approach to some rather inferior material. 

“It’s the good girls who keep diaries; the bad girls never have the time.” 

— Tallulah Bankhead 

Bankhead played into the rumours of her romantic relationships with men and women, including Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo and Billie Holiday. She described herself as “ambisextrous.” When she returned to Hollywood in 1931, Bankhead was motivated more by finances and the potential for sex with costars. When describing her work in Devil and the Deep (1932), Bankhead said, “Dahling, the main reason I accepted [the part] was to fuck that divine Gary Cooper!” 

Preferring to work on Broadway, Bankhead returned to the stage in 1933 with Forsaking All Others. Next she starred in Owen Davis’s Jezebel and George Brewer Jr. and Bertram Bloch’s Dark Victory. All three plays were adapted to more successful films starring iconic actors Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. 

In 1933, Bankhead underwent an emergency hysterectomy necessitated by a case of gonorrhoea and nearly died. Undeterred, she warned, “Don’t think this has taught me a lesson!” 

Following her surgery, Bankhead went on to well-reviewed performances in Broadway productions. Her portrayal of Elizabeth in The Circle was a high point. David O. Selznick, the producer of Gone with the Wind, considered Bankhead the frontrunner for the iconic role of Scarlett O’Hara. However, she failed to land the role given her age and how she photographed in Technicolor. Instead, Selznick offered her the role of a prostitute. Bankhead refused. 

On August 31, 1937, Bankhead married actor John Emery. She divorced him in May 1941. 

In 1939 she won Variety’s Best Actress of the Year award for her performance as Regina Giddens in The Little Foxes (1939). She also landed on the cover of Life magazine. Then, in 1942, she took on the role of Sabina in Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth, for which she won awards form Variety and the New York Drama Critics’ Award. 

In 1943, Bankhead landed the role of Constance Porter in Alfred Hitchcock’s Lifeboat, easily her most successful film. Considered her best film performance, her work won the actress the New York Film Critics Circle award. Bankhead’s career hit another high when she joined Noël Coward’s Private Lives. For almost two years, she performed it on tour and on Broadway. 

She had hoped to perform the role of Amanda in Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie, as Bankhead’s idol Laurette Taylor had originated the role that had rejuvenated the alcoholic actor’s career. Director Irving Rapper was so impressed with her screen test that he called it the greatest he had ever seen. By this point, however, Bankhead’s party lifestyle and alcoholism undermined her in the eyes of studio head Jack Warner. 

“My daddy warned me about men and booze but he didn’t say a word about women and cocaine!” 

— Tallulah Bankhead 

In 1952, Bankhead published Tallulah: My Autobiography. Her life of scandal, sleep deprivation, alcohol and sleeping pills had taken its toll physically and professionally. Her every success was a triumph in the face of falling expectations from critics and executives. In 1953, she took the stage at Sands Hotel in Las Vegas in a successful run lasting three years. In 1957, she appeared as herself on The Ford Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show, one of her best television performances. 

In 1956, Bankhead gave a rollercoaster performance of Blanche DuBois, the Tennessee Williams character inspired by her, in A Streetcar Named Desire. By the end of the short run, she had won over audiences and director alike. 

In 1963 she gave her last theatre performance. She was cast in Williams’ The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore. Burned by an exploding match, Bankhead spent much of the production under the influence of heavy painkillers. Her performance was unintelligible. On the radio one last time, Bankhead audibly suffered through her appearance in BBC’s Desert Island Discs in 1964. The horror film Fanatic (1965), praised by critics and embraced by fans as a cult favourite, was her last. On television she appeared in The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, the Tonight Show, and on Batman as Black Widow. 

On December 12, 1968, Bankhead died. Double pneumonia and emphysema from decades of cigarette smoking combined with malnutrition had taken their toll. Her estate was valued at $2 million. 

About the Authors

Troy Wise is currently a PhD student at UAL Central St Martins and teaches fashion and graphic design at London College of Contemporary Arts. His background is in marketing and is founder and co-editor of Image Amplified. He lives in, and is continually fascinated by, the city of London.

Rick Guzman earned his most recent MA at UAL Central St Martins in Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries. He currently holds two MA’s and an MBA in the New Media, Journalism and International Business fields. Co-editor at Image Amplified since its start, he lives in London, is fascinated by history and is motivated by continuing to learn and explore.

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Sources:

GLBTQ Archive

The Times

Britannica