Barbara Bel Geddes (Deceased) An American actress who came from the same stable as the likes of Shirley Temple and Vivien Leigh, in time long gone when Hollywood actresses knew how to behave and carried themselves in a graceful and dignified manner while in the public eye. Once interviewed by People Magazine Barbara was quoted as saying, ‘They're always making me play well-bred ladies. I'm not very well bred, and I'm not much of a lady." But given today’s standard of behaviour in Hollywood, her statement could well be argued. Barbara Bel Geddes was born New York City on October 31st 1922 the daughter of Helen Belle Sneider and the theatrical set designer Norman Bel Geddes. Barbara had a private school education. Barbara’s career began at the age of eighteen when she appeared in fifteen major Broadway shows including playing the part of Maggie in Tennessee William’s ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ which was later made into a Hollywood movie starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman. Her early days had her starring along side many of the Hollywood greats such as Henry Fonda when she played the part of Katherine Johnson in ‘Silent Night, Lonely Night’ in 1959.
Barbara’s days in front of the camera came when Alfred Hitchcock cast Barbara in his famous "Lamb to the Slaughter" episode in his weekly TV anthology as well as three additional installments, and in a strong supporting role in his feature film ‘Vertigo’ which also starred James Stewart and Kim Novak in 1959. It was her quality of warmth and grounded likability that Barbara was able to bring to the part of Miss Ellie, the "Dallas" role she originated in 1978. For all the years she played the part, she was probably the most famous and long- suffering public mother on screen at that time. As the mother of both Larry Hagman’s character J.R. Ewing and Patrick Duffy’s Bobby Ewing she portrayed the perfect matriarchal figure with whom audiences could relate. With her enigmatic smile and level-headed advice about all things family, her ‘Miss Ellie’ was the Ewing family's moral compass, the glue that held the family together through endless tragedies and traumas. For her part as Miss Ellie she won an Emmy Award in 1980. In 1984 Barbara took time off from her role as Miss Ellie when she had to undergo quadruple by-pass heart surgery at which time she was replaced for one season in ‘Dallas’ by Donna Reed, who was never as accepted by the viewing public, in the role as Bel Geddes. 1990 brought Barbara’s retirement from acting and she retreated to her home in Northeast Harbour, Maine, where she pursed her passion for fine art and writing. She penned two children’s books, ‘I Like Being Me’ and ‘So Do I’ and she also designed a popular line of greeting cards.
Barbara was married twice, firstly to Carl Sawyer in 1944 until 1951, with whom she had a daughter, Susan and again after her divorce in that same year she was married to stage director Windsor Lewis with whom once again she gave birth to a daughter, Betsy. Barbara’s second husband died in 1972 and Barbara died at her home in Maine in August 2005. ABB | 
