In the photos, Geraldine Fitzgerald; Fitzgerald with Orson Welles in the Mercury Theatre production of Heartbreak House, 1938; Michael Lindsay-Hogg; and Orson Welles
Geraldine Fitzgerald, an Irish-American actress, was born 109 years ago today.
Fitzgerald was born in Greystones, County Wicklow, south of Dublin, the daughter of Edith and Edward Fitzgerald, who was an attorney. She studied painting at the Dublin School of Art. Inspired by her aunt, the actress/director Shelah Richards, Fitzgerald began her acting career in 1932 in theatre in her native Dublin before moving to London.
She quickly came to be regarded as one of the British film industry's most promising young performers and her most successful film of this period was The Mill on the Floss (1937).
Her success led her to America and Broadway in 1938, and while appearing opposite Orson Welles in the Mercury Theatre production of Heartbreak House, she was seen by the film producer, Hal B. Wallis, who signed her to a seven-year film contract.
She achieved two significant successes in 1939: a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Isabella Linton in Wuthering Heights and an important role in Dark Victory. Both films achieved great box office success.
She appeared in Shining Victory (1941), The Gay Sisters (1942) and Watch on the Rhine (1943) for Warner Bros., and Wilson (1944) for Fox. But her career was hampered by her frequent clashes with the management of the studio.
Fitzgerald was the mother of the TV, film and theater director Michael Lindsay-Hogg (Let It Be and Brideshead Revisited). Her son's resemblance to Orson Welles, with whom she had worked and been linked with romantically in the late 1930s, led to rumors Welles was the boy's father.
In the late 1980s, I interviewed Fitzgerald at her east side apartment in New York City about Welles and her remembrances of acting with him. I asked her about the rumors that Welles was the real father of Michael Lindsey-Hogg. She denied it.
But in his 2011 autobiography — Luck and Circumstance: A Coming of Age in Hollywood, New York, and Points Beyond — Lindsay-Hogg reported that his mother's friend, Gloria Vanderbilt, had revealed that Welles was his natural father. However, Lindsay-Hogg’s failure to promote the book led to doubts about how solid the story is.
Lindsay-Hogg became a pioneer in music video production, directing promotional films and music videos for the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. He conceived The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, featuring the Stones and other musicians playing in a circus atmosphere.
Following his work with these bands, he branched out into film and theater, while still maintaining successful careers in television and music video production.
During the 1980s, he returned to directing concert films, including Simon and Garfunkel's The Concert in Central Park, Neil Young's Neil Young in Berlin and Paul Simon, Graceland: The African Concert.
Fitzgerald died at age 91 in New York City following a long battle with Alzheimer's Disease.