BARBARA LODEN : TALENTED ACTOR AND DIRECTOR : MISTRESS, THEN WIFE OF CONTROVERSIAL HOLLYWOOD DIRECTOR ELIA KAZAN

BARBARA LODEN

Image from Found A Grave

1932-1980

Who says a man never marries his Mistress? Or that a woman can't accomplish something great just because she had a disadvantaged childhood? The story of our Mistress of the Month, actress Barbara Loden, begins in North Carolina, where she was raised by her grandparents, and ends in Manhattan, with lots of Hollywood in between. 

An actor who studied at the famous Actor's Studio, where James Dean, Marlon Brando, and Marilyn Monroe also studied, and which was founded in 1947 by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, and Robert Lewis, in New York City, Loden became an accomplished actor. The Actor's Studio is famous for an acting technique called "The Method," an emotion-based performance in which the actor embodies the character. Though her study there she was noted by Elia Kazan, who thought her range was limited but that when she was good she was very good. At some point they began an affair which endured.

Barbara Loden, though not a household name, was a working actress on stage, in film and on television. According to the IMBd, a film database, "A one time pin-up beauty and magazine story model, Barbara Loden studied acting in New York in the early 50's and was on the Broadway boards within the decade. She was discovered for films by legendary producer/director Elia Kazan, who was impressed with what she did in a small roll as Montgomery' Clift's secretary in Wild River (1960). He moved her up to feature status with her next tole as Warren Beatty's wanton sister in is classic Splendor in the Grass (1961). As Kazan's protégé she appeared as part of Kazan's stage company in the Lincoln Center Repertory Theater's [production of After the Fall (1964), winning the Tony and Outer Critic's Circle awards for that dazzling performance..." 

As a contemporary of actresses such as Elizabeth Taylor and Natalie Wood, Barbara was most compared to Marilyn Monroe or Jean Harlow - blonde sex goddesses. She played a version of Marilyn in "After the Fall" which had been written by Marilyn Monroe's real life ex husband, Arthur Miller and a character that most people - including Marilyn - assumed to be based on Marilyn. Yet, unlike these other actresses, she became a feminist icon after her film Wanda. Was she a feminist?  Probably not, in my opinion, but certainly she was influenced by the 1970's feminist movement.

Though she was in plays and in films, early on she appeared on television as a comedic sexy sidekick as a regular on the Ernie Kovacs Television Show. Her first husband, Larry Joachim, to whom she was married from 1954 to1967, was a TV producer and film distributor and acted as her manager and promoter and got her the audition. Together they had one son but Barbara, while still married to Larry, also had a son with Elia Kazan, with whom she had an on and off again relationship and.  After the death of his long time wife, Molly, married Kazan.

Elia Kazan was married to Molly and had children with her from 1932 to 1963.  Molly died, and that freed Elia to marry Barbara, who Molly did know of as an actor.  

Elia married Barbara in 1967, after she'd been his mistress for several years. Sadly, while they were still married at the time of her early death because of breast cancer, at the age of 48,  Kazan was rumored to be involved with another Mistress at the time. In fact, in his autobiography he admitted to having bedded the wives of a number of men who had funded his films and while the book was published in 1988, years after Barbara's death, he is not very complimentary to her. He called her a "hillbilly" for instance, because she was raised in the Appalachian Mountains in rural poverty. He, however, could be called a Turkish refugee.  As I see it, that she got out of there and attempted a career at all is more important. Barbara had risked moving to New York while still a teenager, and like many young women of her generation, took work she could get in which she relied on her beauty.

Kazan (1909 - 2003) is considered to be of one if the greatest film directors in Hollywood with numerous Oscar nominations for his films which you may have seen such as Streetcar of Desire. His films won eight. In 1999 he was given an honorary Oscar as a director, which was controversial because during the hunt for Communists in the McCarthy era, he had named names and testified against others. Many people in the film industry who were labeled as Communists were blacklisted and could no longer find work. As a result, protestors appeared outside the event. Some speculated that he had a habit of turning against people who had helped him.

About Wanda. This film was a remarkable accomplishment for any woman at the time.  Film schools have been full of women in recent decades but it was the first ever film in which a woman wrote, directed, and starred.  Wanda came out in 1970. This crime drama was filmed on a low budget of about $115,000 and had a crew of four - just one other actor. It's gritty realism was notable and no doubt the character Wanda was inspired by Barbara's childhood, the woman she might have become if she had not moved to New York. It's been reported that for all his accomplishments, Kazan attempted to take credit for her film. 

Barbara discovered she had breast cancer when she was about forty-six. She attempted holistic treatment but it didn't work. Eventually she accepted radiation and then chemotherapy. At the time Kazan wanted a divorce but didn't file because of her illness. In his autobiography, he says that their relationship after the success of Wanda had changed as Barbara became more self assured and less dependent and that they were no longer intimate. However, as she first fought the disease with less traditional or "medical establishment" methods and then in desperation took radiation and chemotherapy, he didn't abandon her. It is said that she had agreed to divorce and that he had another Mistress. 

Though she never approached the celebrity of her peers such as Elizabeth Taylor, Natalie Wood, or Marilyn Monroe, the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress (United States) considered the film Wild River (1960), which Barbara acted in, to be significant.  The film Wanda is also noted by the National Film Registry and has been preserved and refurbished by UCLA.

This month I will link to much more information about Wanda, the film, and Barbara and Elia. Stick with me, won't you, and learn much more about this fascinating woman.

C 2021

References for this months posts include a wide variety or resources, some which we will link to, including Wikis, the IMBd database, YouTube videos, and Elia Kazan's autobiography. A few years ago when I wanted to write about Barbara Loden not so much was available.  Today there is great interest in her. 

You might want to search for Hollywood in my archives.