Ida Lupino as actress best remebered for her film noir roles

Ida Lupino: Actress

"Whereupon, at the tender age of thirteen...

I set upon the path of playing nothing but hookers.”

On film in her earliest roles in England, Ida Lupino played much older parts than her chronological age, usually as a heavily made-up, bleached blonde tart, and she was billed as the “Jean Harlow of England”. Within a year she was in Hollywood, signed to a contract at Paramount Studios, and playing small roles in films like Peter Ibbetson (1935), Anything Goes (1936), and Artists and Models (1937). Unhappy with the direction her career was taking, she left Paramount for Warner Brothers. It was here that Lupino was finally given a chance to shine in The Light That Failed (1939) opposite Ronald Colman. The role did not come easily to Lupino. She is supposed to have stolen the script, memorized a scene and broken into director William Wellman’s office, forcing him to let her audition. Her co-star Colman did not want Lupino at first because he was hoping to get Vivien Leigh. Lupino managed to impress not only Colman, but the critics who highly praised her performance. It was the role which, as Mary G. Hurd wrote in her book Women Directors, “introduced Lupino’s signature acting style which emerged as a cynical outwardly tough persona. While she was at Warner Brothers, she starred in They Drive by Night ([directed by] Raoul Walsh, 1940), High Sierra ([directed by] Raoul Walsh, 1941),The Hard Way ([directed by] Vincent Sherman, 1943), and Deep Valley ([directed by] Jean Negulesco, 1947).”

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Her time at Warner Brothers was as frustrating as her experience at Paramount. Typecast – as she once put it – as “a poor man’s Bette Davis”, and unhappy with the roles the studio was trying to force upon her, Lupino spent a lot of time on suspension. Instead of taking a trip to Europe or New York, as many other stars in her situation, Lupino hung around movie sets, becoming friends with directors and learning their techniques. When she left Warner Brothers in 1947, Ida Lupino decided to expand her horizons and became a freelancer, not attached to any one studio.

Acting Awards
TELEVISION ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES AWARD - "EMMY"
1959	Nominated	Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series
1958	Nominated	Best Continuing Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic or Comedy Series
1958	Nominated	Best Continuing Performance by an Actress in a Dramatic Series
NEW YORK FILM CRITICS AWARD
1943	Recipient	Best Actress for: The Hard Way (1943)
HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME	Star	Motion Picture & Television

Ida Lupino is the second woman to be admitted to the Director's Guild (Dorothy Arzner was first). Her directing efforts were primarily for television productions such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone, The Untouchables, The Fugitive, and Bewitched.

As rigid and tough-minded as Bette Davis, Ida Luino would often refuse to play a Davis hand-me-down role and was often suspended by Warner Bros. for doing so. It was during those breaks that she would go on movie sets, chum around with the male directors and learned the craft of directing. Blazing new trails, she became the only notable and respected female filmmaker of her era in Hollywood.

Ida Lupino Filmography

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