Actress. She is remembered for her Academy Award supporting role of Rosemary Bartlow in "The Bad and the Beautiful" (1952), but is often best remembered for her smaller role of Violet Bick in the Christmas classic movie, "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946). Born Gloria Hallward in Los Angeles, California, she was the second and last child of Reginald Michael Bloxam Hallward, an architect, and Jeanne McDougall, a British actress who used the stage name Jean Grahame. It was from her mother's stage name that Gloria adopted her own stage name. Gloria began her acting career under the tutelage of her mother, as a teenager on the stage and winning small roles on Broadway. There she was discovered by Louis B. Mayer and signed to a contract with MGM Studios. She made her film debut as Sally in "Blonde Fever" (1944), and it is for her third film, "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) that she is often still remembered today. But MGM believed she was not of star potential and sold her contract to RKO Studios in 1947. RKO Studios had similar problems identifying her potential, and over the next couple of years, would often loan her out for movies by other studios, despite her Oscar nomination for her role in RKO's "Crossfire" (1947). She was married four times, first to actor Stanley Clements in 1945, divorced three years later, second to director Nicholas Ray in June 1948 and divorced in 1952; they would have a son, Timothy. She then married Cy Howard, a writer, in 1954, divorcing three years later after having a daughter, Marianna. She then married her former stepson, Anthony Ray (son of Nicholas Ray and his first wife) in May 1960; they divorced in 1974 after having two sons, Anthony Jr and James. In 1950, she starred with Humphrey Bogart in "In a Lonely Place" (1950), another loan out role that got her considerable praise, and is often considered her best work, but still, the studio bosses didn't notice her for it, and shortly afterwards, she left RKO. Gloria finally got studio attention with her Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in "The Bad and the Beautiful" (1952). "The Bad and the Beautiful" won four additional Oscars, making it the highest Oscar winning film of 1952. She then had a series of successful roles for the next three years, but during this period, her marital problems and child-custody battles with her soon to be ex-spouse, Cy Howard, earned her a reputation for being a difficult actress to work with. This reputation, as well as being perceived as very difficult to cast (she was viewed as too naughty to be innocent, yet not evil enough to be really bad), and her career began to slip away with fewer film offers. Despite a successful playing of Annie Carnes in the musical "Oklahoma!" her job offers soon dropped to a minimum. She made only one movie in the 1960s, in "Ride Beyond Vengeance" (1966), and she resumed stage acting, supplemented with television guest roles, to keep employed. In the early in 1970s, she saw a resurgence of interest in her, with an additional steady series of movies in that decade. She was a skillful actress, strong-willed but imaginative, and serious to the point of having plastic surgery on her lips to enhance her appearance. In 1980, she was diagnosed with stomach cancer, but refused to have surgery. While in England in 1981, she had her stomach drained, which resulted in a perforated bowel, and she collapsed during a stage rehearsal. Despite medical treatment, she was in serious condition, and her children took her back to New York City, where she died shortly afterwards. Her last film role was that of Florinda, in "The Nesting" (1982), filmed before she went to England but released just after her death. She is buried in Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery under the name Gloria H. Grahame.