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Donna Reed Biography

Donna Reed

Donna Reed

Donna Reed (January 27, 1921 – January 14, 1986) was an American actress. Born Donna Belle Mullenger to William Richard Mullenger (whose paternal grandparents were born in England) and Hazel Jane Shives on a farm near Denison, Iowa.

Reed is probably best remembered for her roles as the wholesome housewife "Donna Stone" on television's The Donna Reed Show and as "Mary Bailey" in Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. She won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for playing a prostitute in 1953's From Here to Eternity.

In her later years she temporarily replaced an ailing Barbara Bel Geddes as "Miss Ellie" in the television series Dallas in the 1984–1985 season. When Bel Geddes was well enough to return to the role, Reed was fired. She sued the show's production company and received an undisclosed seven-figure settlement, but it was not long before her own death.

She died at age 64 in Beverly Hills, California from pancreatic cancer, and was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.

The Donna Reed Foundation for the Performing Arts, based in Reed's hometown of Denison, was organized after Reed's death in 1986. The non-profit organization grants scholarships for performing arts students, runs an annual festival of performing arts workshops, and operates The Donna Reed Center for the Performing Arts. The performing arts center was formerly an opera house built in 1914, and later renovated into the Ritz Movie Theater where Donna Reed, as a young girl in Denison, first fell in love with movies.

Donna Reed's Films

  • Filmography
  • The Get-Away (1941)
  • Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
  • Babes on Broadway (1941)
  • Personalities (1942) (short subject)
  • The Bugle Sounds (1942)
  • The Courtship of Andy Hardy (1942)
  • Mokey (1942)
  • Calling Dr. Gillespie (1942)
  • Apache Trail (1942)
  • Eyes in the Night (1942)
  • The Human Comedy (1943)
  • Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case (1943)
  • The Man from Down Under (1943)
  • Thousands Cheer (1943)
  • See Here, Private Hargrove (1944)
  • Mrs. Parkington (1944)
  • Gentle Annie (1944)
  • The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)
  • They Were Expendable (1945)
  • Faithful in My Fashion (1946)
  • It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
  • Green Dolphin Street (1947)
  • Beyond Glory (1948)
  • Chicago Deadline (1949)
  • Screen Actors (1950) (short subject)
  • Saturday's Hero (1951)
  • Scandal Sheet (1952)
  • Hangman's Knot (1952)
  • Trouble Along the Way (1953)
  • USSR Today (1953) (documentary)
  • Raiders of the Seven Seas (1953)
  • From Here to Eternity (1953; Best Supporting Actress Academy Award)
  • The Caddy (1953)
  • Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Laugh Parade (1953) (short subject)
  • Gun Fury (1953)
  • They Rode West (1954)
  • Three Hours to Kill (1954)
  • The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954)
  • The Far Horizons (1955)
  • The Benny Goodman Story (1955)
  • Ransom! (1956)
  • Backlash (1956)
  • Beyond Mombasa (1956)
  • The Whole Truth (1958)
  • Pepe (1960) (Cameo)
  • Yellow-headed Summer (1974)

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