Ida Lupino
On February 4th, 1914 in London, England, Ida Lupino was supposedly born beneath a table as the Germans conducted a zeppelin raid during World War I. Daughter of actress, Connie O’Shea, and music hall entertainer, Stanley Lupino, Ida came to love show business and would later become one of the first women screen writers and filmmakers.
Growing up in London, Lupino was showered with encouragement and praise from her parents and enjoyed a life of everything an upper class status could provide. The Lupinos acquired wealth from their show business careers and were eventually able to purchase a Tudor mansion which became a showplace filled with entertainers.
Ida was adored by her grandfather, George, also an entertainer. Confined to a wheelchair, he spent many hours with Ida, patiently teaching her to compose music, sing and draw. The high-ceilinged rooms and mysterious nooks and crannies of the mansion encouraged Ida’s wild imagination, and she became overly dramatic in her dealings with parents, grandfather and nannies.
At the age of 15, Lupino came to the United States in August of 1933. By then, she had proven herself to be worthy of the Lupino name by securing a contract with Paramount Pictures and then Warner Brothers where in 1941 she and Humphrey Bogart starred in the highly acclaimed film, High Sierra.
In April 1944 The Screen Guild Theater presented their radio adaptation of High Sierra in which Ida Lupino played her same character from the movie, Marie the love interest of ex-convict Roy Earle recreated again by Humphrey Bogart.
Ida Lupino also starred in other shows from the Golden Age of Radio such as Suspense, Lux Radio Theater and Cavalcade of America. Lupino found that she also enjoyed being a guest on popular radio shows of the times and on 5th September 1937 she appeared on The Chase and Sanborn Hour with Edgar Bergan and Charlie McCarthy . She was also often a guest on ABC’s Hollywood Byline, a panel discussion about films, which aired during 1949 - 1950.
Ida Lupino was best known for her part as a femme fatale in They Drive by Night in 1940 and Road House in 1948. She appeared in fifty-nine films during her forty-eight year acting career and then directed nine other films. Lupino also appeared on television episodes, directed others and served as a writer to films and television. She and husband, Howard Duff were featured on the third and final season of the television series, Batman, where Lupino played a villain named Cassandra – with Duff as her companion, Kabala.
Lupino was married three times to actor, Louis Hayward, studio executive, Collier Young and actor, Howard Duff. She had one daughter with Duff. Ida Lupino died of a stroke in Los Angeles California at age 81 while fighting colon cancer.
Happy listening my friends,
