Vivian Blaine

 

"I put all my intelligence, such as it is, into playing dumb blondes."

Vivian Blaine was born Vivian Stapleton in Newark, New Jersey on November 21, 1921.  She was the only child born to father Leo, an insurance agent, and mother Wilhelmina.  She set her sites on the stage at an early age, with ambitions of an actress and singer.  She began touring after high school.

By the 1940s, Blaine was the top-billed act at New York City's Copacabana nightclub, the place where music and passion were always in fashion.  She outsold many top acts of the time, including Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. 

Bolstered by her success, she moved to Hollywood in 1942, where she signed a contract with Twentieth Century Fox.  She made her screen debut that year in the film It Happened in Flatbush, appearing opposite actor Lloyd Nolan.  Her film career was sporadic, making just 14 features over the next forty years, including the 1945 classic State Fair.

In 1950, Blaine made her Broadway debut in what is considered to be her signature role, Miss Adelaide, in Guys and Dolls.  She proved so popular in the role that she reprised it in the 1955 theatrical adaptation.  Between 1950 and 1983, Blaine would headline six successful Broadway productions.

By 1995, Blaine's health was in decline.  She ultimately died of congestive heart failure on December 9th.  She was 74 years old.

Vivian Blaine was laid to rest in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.  She shares a plot with actress Marion Ferguson, with whom she had no prior relationship.  The two are among many stage and screen actors buried in the Actor's Fund Plot. 

Location: Actor's Fund Plot, Grave #462.

Rest in peace.

Trivia

• Sadly, there are no biographies or museums dedicated to Blaine, but there is a collection of career artifacts at the Museum of the City of New York.
  
  
• Between 1973 and 1983, Blaine appeared on many "Best Dressed Women in America" lists.
  
  
• In the 1940s, Blaine appeared in advertisements for Camel cigarettes.  One such ad quotes her as saying "a singer must think of her throat.  I've found the cigarette that suits my throat best is Camel!"
  
  
• Blaine had three husbands - her agent, the head of Universal Pictures, and finally, a businessman who helped revive her career in the 1970s.  While the first two ended in divorce, her final marriage to Stuart Clark lasted more than 20 years, until her passing in 1995.
  
  
• Blaine's final credit was a 1985 episode of Murder, She Wrote.  Check out a clip on YouTube.