JAMES WHALE‘s "hot flame" GLORIA STUART who reignited the screen in TITANIC departs this dimension at 100.
The blonde tressed beauty of the 1930s who starred in JAMES (Frankenstein) WHALE’s The Invisible Man and The Old Dark House revived her long dormant career in 1997 with an Oscar nom for her role as old Rose in James Cameron‘s Titanic.
Gloria died yesterday at her home in Los Angeles after being diagnosed with lung cancer, her daughter confirmed.
Stuart, then 87, had joked to the NY Times that playing a 101 year- old survivor of The Titanic she was a "shoo-in" for the part because at that age she was one of the few remaining thesps from the 1930s who was "still viable, not alcoholic, rheumatic or falling down."
One of her earliest roles was in director James Whale’s The Old Dark House where she was stranded among a bunch of future acting legends in the titular dark house to be menaced by Karloff the uncanny.
While the film was low-key darkness gloom and doom, Stuart was dressed in a flowing white gown and lit as if she was a " white flame" among such gloomy thesps as Chas. Laughton, Melvin Douglas and Ernst Thesiger.
Next Whale cast her as the love interest in his classic adaptation of H.G. Wells‘ The Invisible Man opposite then-unknown CLAUDE RAINS who remaining unseen until the final few seconds.
She also acted in more than 40 1930s hits including Gold Diggers of 1935 as Dick Powell’s heartthrob and also teamed with child superstar SHIRLEY TEMPLE in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Film and Poor Little Rich Girl.
Sadly, her first husband discouraged Gloria’s acting career so she concentrated instead on painting, becoming a master of the brush with several one-woman shows .
Still the lure of the silver screen beckoned and she returned to film with a bit in My Favorite Year, dancing onscreen with Peter O’ Toole and worked with Wim Wenders
Gloria’s best known role is, of course, surviving Titanic (1997) as Kate Winslet‘s character Rose in the twilight of her life who also narrates the film.
"When I graduated from Santa Monica High in 1927," Gloria wrote in her memoir, "I was voted the girl most likely to succeed.
"I didn’t realize it would take soooooooo long."
Au revoir Gloria.
