Biography
As the co-star of the landmark
Bonnie and Clyde, actress Faye Dunaway helped usher in a new golden era in American filmmaking, going on to appear in several of the greatest films of the 1970s. Born January 14, 1941, in Bascom, FL, Dunaway was the daughter of an army officer. She studied theater arts at the University of Boston and later joined the Lincoln Center Repertory Company under the direction of
Elia Kazan and Robert Whitehead. Between 1962 and 1967, she appeared in a number of prominent stage productions, including A Man for All Seasons and Arthur Miller's After the Fall, playing a character based on
Marilyn Monroe. Dunaway's breakthrough performance came in an off-Broadway production of Hogan's Goat, which resulted in a contract with director
Otto Preminger. She made her film debut in his 1967 drama
Hurry Sundown, but the two frequently clashed, and she refused to appear in his
Skidoo; after a legal battle, Dunaway was allowed to buy out the remainder of her contract, and she then starred in
The Happening (1967).
Still, Dunaway was virtually unknown when she accepted the role of the notorious gangster Bonnie Parker opposite
Warren Beatty in
Arthur Penn's 1967 crime saga
Bonnie and Clyde. The picture was an unqualified success, one of the most influential films of the era, and she had become a star seemingly overnight, earning a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her sexy performance. Dunaway's next major role cast her with
Steve McQueen in 1968's
The Thomas Crown Affair, another major hit. However, her next several projects --
Amanti, a romance with
Marcello Mastroianni, and the Kazan-directed
The Arrangement -- stumbled, and although 1970's
Little Big Man was a hit,
Puzzle of a Downfall Child (directed by her fiancé,
Jerry Schatzberg) was a disaster. Quickly, Dunaway was reduced to projects like the little-seen 1971 thriller
La Maison Sous Les Arbres and the Western
Doc. When they too failed, she retreated from films, first appearing on-stage in
Harold Pinter's Old Times and then starring in the made-for-television
The Woman I Love.
After portraying Blanche du Bois in a Los Angeles stage adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire, Dunaway returned to the cinema in
Stanley Kramer's 1973 drama
Oklahoma Crude. Subsequent to her appearance in
Richard Lester's
The Three Musketeers, she made headlines for her marriage to rocker Peter Wolf and was then cast in
Roman Polanski's 1974 noir
Chinatown. The performance was her best since
Bonnie and Clyde, scoring another Academy Award nomination, and the film itself remains a classic. The success of
The Towering Inferno later that same year confirmed that Dunaway's star power had returned in full, and she next co-starred with
Robert Redford in the well-received thriller
Three Days of the Condor. In 1976, Dunaway starred as an ambitious television executive in
Sidney Lumet's scathing black comedy
Network, and on her third attempt she finally won an Oscar. A British feature,
Voyage of the Damned, and a TV-movie,
The Disappearance of Aimee, quickly followed, and in 1978 she starred in the much-maligned thriller The Eyes of Laura Mars.
After 1979's
The Champ, Dunaway starred with
Frank Sinatra in
The First Deadly Sin. An over-the-top turn as
Joan Crawford in the tell-all biopic
Mommie Dearest followed in 1981, as did another biography, the TV feature
Evita Peron. Her career was again slumping, a fate which neither the Broadway production of The Curse of an Aching Heart nor another telefilm, 1982's
The Country Girl, helped to remedy. After 1984's
Supergirl, Dunaway spent much of the decade on the small screen, appearing in a pair of miniseries --
Ellis Island and
Christopher Columbus -- and in 1986 appearing as the titular Beverly Hills Madam. The 1987 feature
Barfly found a cult audience, but almost without exception, Dunaway's subsequent films went unnoticed; even the 1990
Chinatown sequel
The Two Jakes was a failure. In 1993, she starred in a short-lived sitcom,
It Had to Be You, and continued to appear in little-seen projects. Dunaway's most prominent roles of the mid-'90s included a supporting turn as the wife of psychiatrist
Marlon Brando in 1995's
Don Juan DeMarco and as a barmaid/hostage in the directorial debut of actor
Kevin Spacey,
Albino Alligator (1996). In 1999, Dunaway gave a nod to her screen past with a cameo appearance in the remake of
The Thomas Crown Affair. That same year, she took on the more substantial role of Yolande d'Aragon in The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide