Edith Norma Shearer (August 10, 1902 – June 12, 1983)
Her early films cast her as a spunky ingenue, but in the Pre-Code film era, she played sexually liberated women. She excelled in drama, in comedy, and in period roles. She gave well-received performances in adaptations of Noël Coward, Eugene O'Neill, and William Shakespeare. She was nominated six times for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won once, for her performance in the 1930 film The Divorcee. Shearer's fame declined after her early retirement in 1942. She was rediscovered in the late 1950s, when her films were sold to television, and in the 1970s, when her films enjoyed theatrical revivals. By the time of her death in 1983, she was best known for her "noble" roles in Marie Antoinette and The Women. Shearer was married to producer Irving Thalberg from 1927 until his death in 1936. Shearer retired from movies in 1942. Although often attending public events in her later life, Shearer gradually withdrew from the Hollywood social scene. In 1960 her secretary stated: "Miss Shearer does not want any publicity. She doesn't talk to anyone. But I can tell you that she has refused many requests to appear in motion pictures and TV shows. On June 12, 1983, Shearer died of bronchial pneumonia at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, California. She is interred at Forest Lawn in Glendale, inside the Great Mausoleum.