Jeanne Eagels' Legacy

Eagels' Broadway performances elevated the main character in "Rain", the carefree prostitute Sadie Thompson, into an American cultural icon. The role of Sadie Thompson has been a vehicle for three other legendary film actors, including Gloria Swanson ("Sadie Thompson",1927), Joan Crawford ("Rain", 1931), and Rita Hayworth ("Sadie Thompson",1946).

In 1926, Gloria Swanson left Paramount Pictures to join United Artists and to become a producer. Her first production, "The Loves of Sunya" was not a box office success. Swanson gambled that a film version of "Rain" would change her luck. She used her influence to pass censorship approval to produce a film version of the play, which was considered highly immoral. The film version was titled "Sadie Thompson", and with it Swanson achieved a critical and financial success.

According to Eagels' only biographer (to date), Louis B. Mayer was so impressed by the naturalness and power of Eagels' acting style in the new medium of talking pictures, he made "The Letter" required viewing for all MGM actors. This film was produced by Paramount Pictures.

Eagels was nominated for an Academy Award for "The Letter" after her death in October, 1929. In a famous example of the early cronyism of the Academy Awards, the Oscar went to Mary Pickford for "Coquette". Compared with Eagels' film, Pickford's performance is painfully old-fashioned and clichéd. This injustice persists to this day, as "Coquette" is readily available for rent or purchase on video, while "The Letter" is rarely screened and exists only in two film archives (the Museum of Modern Art, and the LOC).

The only two talking films made by Eagles, "The Letter" (1929) and "Jealousy" (1929), were remade as vehicles for Bette Davis ("The Letter",1940; and "Deception", 1946).

A film noir version of "The Letter" starring Ann Sheridan was titled "The Unfaithful" (1947) and was set in Los Angeles. Some of the dialogue and staging from this later film is remarkably similar to that in the original (1929) film.

Leslie Howard achieved his first major Broadway success co-starring opposite Eagles in "Her Cardboard Lover". This play was directed on stage by George Cukor. It was also made into a silent film, featuring Marion Davies.

Jeanne Eagels' tragic life has been a source of inspiration for playwrights, screenwriters, and actors. According to her biographer, her primary ambition was to be the greatest actress in the world, but this was coupled with a self-destructive nature: She died of a narcotic and alcohol overdose at the age of 39. In a story loosely based on Eagels' life , Bette Davis won her first Academy Award playing a moody, alcoholic, faded Broadway star in "Dangerous" (1935). The 1933 Broadway play "The Shooting Star" was also based on Eagels' life and starred Francine Larrimore. In reviewing her career, Larrimore recalled her favorite role as that of "Julie Leander" in this play. Kim Novak played the lead in the 1957 film "Jeanne Eagels". While Novak looks quite similar to Eagels in some scenes, this film seems to be more invested in showcasing Novak's sex appeal versus the true story of Eagels' amazing ambition, talent, and tragic end.

At the height of her fame, Eagels was briefly and unhappily married to a nationally recognized college football hero (Ted Coy). In fact, many parallels between Eagels' life and that of Marilyn Monroe have been noted by author Eve Golden.

In a macabre twist, Sam Fuller, the director the 1960s films "Shock Corridor" and "The Naked Kiss", was the newspaper reporter who broke the story of Eagels' death on October 3, 1929. He describes this story in detail in his posthumously published autobiography. Like many others, he mistakenly assumed that Eagels began her career as a circus or carnival performer. He described opening her casket and seeing the most gorgeous corpse he'd ever seen.