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Claire Bloom(I)

  • Actress
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Claire Bloom
Miss Dali - Trailer
Play trailer1:03
Miss Dalí (2018)
28 Videos
92 Photos
Age has not taken the flower off this Bloom. The well-known and highly respected stage, screen and television actress Claire Bloom continues to be in demand as an octogenarian actress and looks as beautiful as ever.

She was born Patricia Claire Blume on February 15, 1931, in Finchley, North London, to Elizabeth (Grew) and Edward Max Blume, who worked in sales. Her parents were from Jewish families from Belarus. Educated at Badminton School in Bristol and Fern Hill Manor in New Milton, Claire expressed early interest in the arts and was stage trained as an adolescent at the Guildhall School, under the guidance of Eileen Thorndike, and then at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

Marking her professional debut on BBC radio, she subsequently took her first curtain call with the Oxford Repertory Theatre in 1946 in the production of "It Depends What You Mean". She then received early critical accolades for her Shakespearean ingénues in "King John", "The Winter's Tale" and, notably, her Ophelia in "Hamlet" at age 17 at Stratford-on-Avon opposite alternating Hamlets Paul Scofield and Robert Helpmann. By 1949 Claire was making her West End debut with "The Lady's Not For Burning" with the up-and-coming stage actor Richard Burton.

A most becoming and beguiling dark-haired actress whose photogenic, slightly pinched beauty was accented by an effortless elegance and poise, Claire's inauspicious film debut came with a prime role in the British courtroom film drama The Blind Goddess (1948). It was her second film, when Charles Chaplin himself selected her specifically to be his young leading lady in the classic sentimental drama Limelight (1952), that propelled her to stardom. Her bravura turn as a young suicide-bent ballerina saved from despair by an aging music hall clown (Chaplin) was exquisitely touching and sparked an enviable but surprisingly sporadic career in films.

Despite the sudden film attention, Claire continued her formidable presence on the Shakespearean stage. Joining the Old Vic Company for the 1952-53 and 1953-54 seasons, she appeared as Helena, Viola, Juliet, Jessica, Miranda, Virgilia, Cordelia and (again) Ophelia in a highly successful tenure. Touring Canada and the United States as Juliet, she made her Broadway bow in the star-crossed-lover role in 1956, also playing the Queen in "Richard II". A strong presence on both the London and New York stages over the years, she gave other powerful performances with "The Trojan Women", "Vivat! Vivat! Regina!", "Hedda Gabler", "A Doll's House" and "A Streetcar Named Desire". Much later in life she performed in a superb one-woman show entitled "These Are Women: A Portrait of Shakespeare's Heroines" that included monologues from several of her acclaimed stage performances.

Claire's stylish and regal presence was simply ideal for mature period films, and she appeared opposite a roster of Hollywood's most talented leading men, including Laurence Olivier in the title role of Richard III (1955), Richard Burton and Fredric March in Alexander the Great (1956), Yul Brynner in The Brothers Karamazov (1958), and Brynner and Charlton Heston in the DeMille epic The Buccaneer (1958), in which she had a rare dressed-down role as a spirited pirate girl. On the more contemporary scene, she appeared with Burton in two classic film dramas: the stark "kitchen sink" British stage piece Look Back in Anger (1959) and the Cold War espionage thriller The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965). In addition she courted tinges of controversy, playing a housewife gone bonkers in the offbeat sudser The Chapman Report (1962) and a lesbian in the supernatural chiller The Haunting (1963).

Claire met first husband Rod Steiger while performing with him on stage in 1959's "Rashomon". They married that year and in 1960 had a daughter, Anna, who grew up to become a well-regarded opera singer. Claire and Rod appeared in two lesser films together, The Illustrated Man (1969) and Three Into Two Won't Go (1969), in 1969. That same year, they divorced after 10 tumultuous years.

As with other maturing actresses during the 1970s, Claire looked toward classy film roles in TV movies for sustenance, appearing in Backstairs at the White House (1979) as First Lady Edith Wilson and in Brideshead Revisited (1981), for which she was nominated for an Emmy. Also lauded were the epic miniseries Ellis Island (1984); a remake of Terence Rattigan's Separate Tables (1983); The Ghost Writer (1984), an acclaimed adaption of Philip Roth's novel ; and Shadowlands (1986), the latter earning her a British Television Award. Claire married Roth the writer (her third marriage) in 1990 after a brief second marriage to producer Hillard Elkins (1969-1972). The union with Roth lasted five years.

Claire appeared in several Shakespearean teleplays over the decades while also portraying a choice selection of historical royals, including Czarina Alexandra and Katherine of Aragon. On daytime drama, she delightfully played matriarch and murderess Orlena Grimaldi on the daytime drama As the World Turns (1956) starting in 1993. She left the role in 1995 and was replaced.

Continuing sporadically in films from the 1970s on, Claire graced such films as the stylish British social comedy A Severed Head (1971), the tender coming-of-age drama Red Sky at Morning (1971) as Richard Thomas's mother, and one of that year's versions of Ibsen's A Doll's House (1973) (Jane Fonda starred as Nora in the other). She also movingly played George C. Scott's estranged wife in Islands in the Stream (1977) and had a very brief cameo as Hera in Clash of the Titans (1981), a small part as a manipulative mother in Déjà Vu (1985), and mature parts in the romantic dramedy Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987) and classic Woody Allen drama Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989).

In the new millennium, Claire has been seen in such quality films as and The Book of Eve (2002), Imagining Argentina (2003), The King's Speech (2010) (as Queen Mary), And While We Were Here (2012), Max Rose (2013) starring a dramatic Jerry Lewis, and Miss Dalí (2018). She has also made appearances on such TV miniseries as The Ten Commandments (2006) and Summer of Rockets (2019).

Claire wrote two memoirs. The first was the more career-oriented "Limelight and After: The Education of an Actress," released in 1982. Her more controversial second book, "Leaving a Doll's House: A Memoir," published in 1996, focused on her personal life.
BornFebruary 15, 1931
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BornFebruary 15, 1931
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  • Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy

Photos92

Claire Bloom and Julie Harris in The Haunting (1963)
Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, and Russ Tamblyn in The Haunting (1963)
Claire Bloom, Julie Harris, Richard Johnson, and Russ Tamblyn in The Haunting (1963)
Claire Bloom and Julie Harris in The Haunting (1963)
Claire Bloom in The Haunting (1963)
Claire Bloom, Julie Harris, Richard Johnson, and Russ Tamblyn in The Haunting (1963)
Claire Bloom and Julie Harris in The Haunting (1963)
Martin Landau and Claire Bloom in Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
Claire Bloom in Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
Claire Bloom, Mary Kerridge, Laurence Naismith, and Douglas Wilmer in Richard III (1955)
Claire Bloom, Helen Haye, Mary Kerridge, Laurence Naismith, and Douglas Wilmer in Richard III (1955)
Laurence Olivier and Claire Bloom in Richard III (1955)

Known for

Clash of the Titans (1981)
Clash of the Titans
6.9
  • Hera
  • 1981
Julie Harris in The Haunting (1963)
The Haunting
7.4
  • Theodora
  • 1963
Colin Firth in The King's Speech (2010)
The King's Speech
8.0
  • Queen Mary
  • 2010
Charles Chaplin and Claire Bloom in Limelight (1952)
Limelight
8.0
  • Thereza 'Terry' Ambrose
  • 1952

Credits

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IMDbPro

Actress

  • Sophie's War
    • Pre-production
  • Caroline Catz and Martin Clunes in Doc Martin (2004)
    Doc Martin
  • Timothy Spall, Keeley Hawes, and Toby Stephens in Summer of Rockets (2019)
    Summer of Rockets
  • Miss Dalí (2018)
    Miss Dalí
  • Neil Dudgeon and John Nettles in Midsomer Murders (1997)
    Midsomer Murders
  • Casualty (1986)
    Casualty
  • Jerry Lewis in Max Rose (2013)
    Max Rose
  • Day of the Siege (2012)
    Day of the Siege
  • And While We Were Here (2012)
    And While We Were Here
  • Colin Firth in The King's Speech (2010)
    The King's Speech
  • Colin Blumenau, Nula Conwell, Peter Ellis, Trudie Goodwin, Jon Iles, Gary Olsen, Eric Richard, John Salthouse, Tony Scannell, Jeff Stewart, and Mark Wingett in The Bill (1984)
    The Bill
  • Bradley Walsh, Jodie Whittaker, Tosin Cole, and Mandip Gill in Doctor Who (2005)
    Doctor Who
  • Fiona's Story
  • Alun Armstrong, James Bolam, Amanda Redman, and Dennis Waterman in New Tricks (2003)
    New Tricks
  • Trial & Retribution (1997)
    Trial & Retribution
  • The Ten Commandments (2006)
    The Ten Commandments

Videos29

Trailer
Trailer 1:26
Trailer
Official Trailer
Trailer 2:51
Official Trailer
Official Trailer
Trailer 1:38
Official Trailer
Trailer
Trailer 1:31
Trailer
Trailer
Trailer 1:08
Trailer
Official Trailer
Trailer 1:48
Official Trailer
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold
Trailer 1:53
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold
Clash of the Titans
Trailer 1:38
Clash of the Titans
The Chapman Report
Trailer 4:02
The Chapman Report
A Severed Head
Trailer 2:26
A Severed Head
The Outrage
Trailer 2:44
The Outrage
And While We Were Here
Trailer 1:59
And While We Were Here

Personal details

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    • February 15, 1931
    • Finchley, London, England, UK
    • Philip RothApril 29, 1990 - 1995 (divorced)
    • Anna Steiger
    • John Bloom(Sibling)
  • Other works
    (11/98) Stage: Appeared (as "Clytemnestra") in "Electra", a play by Sophocles. Ethel Barrymore Theater, New York City, USA).
  • Publicity listings
    • 1 Biographical Movie
    • 2 Print Biographies
    • 2 Interviews
    • 3 Articles
    • 2 Pictorials
    • 2 Magazine Cover Photos

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    According to Richard Burton's biography "And God Created Burton" they began an affair in 1949 days after the actor's wedding to Sybil Williams; the affair carried on intermittently until 1957.
  • Quotes
    I think that few professions have so much to do with chance and so little to do with the calculation of will.

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