|
|
Article: Claudette Colbert, 92; actress won Oscar for `It Happened One Night'
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- July 31, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1996 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
|
Claudette Colbert, whose breezy modernity and pinpoint timing made
her the first actress to win a Best Actress Oscar for comedy, died
yesterday at her oceanfront home in Barbados. She was 92.
Ms. Colbert won her statuette as part of an 1934 Oscar sweep for
Frank Capra's "It Happened One Night," launching the screwball comedy
genre by playing a spoiled heiress who lets newspaperman Clark Gable
chase her until she catches him.
That role and another performance, one for which she was
nominated but did not win, as a mother holding a family together with
quiet strength during World War II in "Since You Went Away" (1944),
neatly encompassed Ms. Colbert's range.
She moved easily between dignified ...