Fay Bainter

Fay Okell Bainter (December 7, 1893 – April 16, 1968) was an American actress whose career spanned stage and film over several decades. Born in Los Angeles, California, to Charles F. Bainter and Mary Okell, she began performing at a young age and went on to earn distinction in both mediums. She holds a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles.

Bainter's stage work began in 1908 with a performance in The County Chairman at Morosco's Burbank Theater, located at 548–550 South Main Street in Los Angeles. By 1910 she was working as a traveling stage actress, and in 1912 she made her Broadway debut playing Celine Marinter in The Rose of Panama, a credit that also appears among her verified Broadway appearances spanning 1912 to 1949. Reviewing Turn to the Right in Vanity Fair in 1916, P. G. Wodehouse noted that her arrival and immediate success constituted the season's biggest sensation. Her Broadway work included productions such as East Is West, The Willow Tree, and Dodsworth, the latter of which she appeared in during 1934. In 1926 she appeared alongside Walter Abel in Channing Pollock's The Enemy. Additional Broadway credits include The Next Half Hour, The Other Room, and Gayden.

MGM brought Bainter to film, and she made her movie debut in This Side of Heaven in February 1934, the same year she also appeared in It Happened One Day. Her film career advanced quickly, and in 1939 she became the first performer to receive two Academy Award nominations in the same year, contending for Best Actress for White Banners (1938) and Best Supporting Actress for Jezebel (1938), ultimately winning the latter award. She received a further nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her work in The Children's Hour (1961). In 1940 she portrayed Mrs. Gibbs in the film adaptation of Thornton Wilder's Our Town, and in 1945 she played Melissa Frake in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical State Fair.

On June 8, 1921, Bainter married Reginald Venable in Riverside, California. Venable, a graduate of the United States Naval Academy class of 1913, served as a Navy officer before resigning in 1925 at the rank of lieutenant commander to manage his wife's professional affairs; he had also worked previously as a real-estate operator. The couple had one son, Reginald Venable Jr., who became an actor. Bainter was also the aunt of actress Dorothy Burgess. Bainter and her husband are interred at Arlington National Cemetery.