A Very Brief Review of the Life and Career of Gloria Stuart

In my last post, while in the midst of deconstructing the horrors of modern society (aka Facebook), I briefly mentioned a woman by the name of Gloria Stuart. When I was writing the last post I threw in a link to her Wikipedia page just because I figured most denizens of the Internet would have no idea who Stuart actually was. Well, for those of you too lazy to check Wikipedia, let me clue you in: Gloria played the old lady in the Titanic. This is how most of you are going to recognize her. She was the oldest person ever nominated for an Oscar and, though she didn't win, she set an age record and got a good story out of it. Her experiences with Titanic led to her writing and publishing a memoir of her experiences in 1999.

Gloria's memoir, entitled I Just Kept Hoping, is a breezy, slightly random read that covers topics as diverse as Kate Winslet's fashion choices ("I know this is the way the young women of her generation dress, simple, easy, inelegant.") to Stuart's, uh, hobbies ("I am devoted to masturbation. I think it's probably one of the most pleasurable things in my life.") While it's as fluffy as fluff can be, Stuart's bio is worth reading for those who think that 336 pages of an obscure actress rambling about random crap is the most awesome thing ever (in other words, this book was written for people like moi).

What really makes Gloria Stuart conversation fodder for this site, though, is not her outspoken love of masturbation, but rather her roles in the 1930's James Whale films The Old Dark House and The Invisible Man. The Old Dark House is an eccentric horror comedy about some normals who seek shelter in a run down mansion owned by a bizarre family. Gloria plays one of the aforementioned normals. Those really interested in Stuart should track down the DVD (available via Netflix) to listen to her audio commentary, where she discusses her inconsistent accent which was criticized by the press!

The Old Dark House is an entertaining, if very strange, romp. The Invisible Man, though, is much more accessible and entertaining to a modern audience. In The Invisible Man Gloria plays the title character's gf. It is a bit of a shocker for the modern audience to see old Rose from Titanic as the young, pretty love interest. I mean no offense to Gloria, as we all gotta get old (or just die before our time, which doubly sucks), and Gloria did age with grace and sass. It's still just kind of strange and cool to see just how long Gloria has been in the game.

On a final note, I feel as though I cannot write a post about Gloria without mentioning the fact that she died a little less than a year ago. She was 100 years old. Which, you have to admit, is pretty impressive. It also means that she got thirteen years to bask in the afterglow of her Oscar nom. Not bad indeed.