Although she was well into her 80’s when she appeared in Titanic, Gloria Stuart had to be aged through make-up in order to make her look believable as a survivor of the tragic sinking. Stuart had in fact long since retired from acting in feature films, having last appeared on the big screen in 1946’s She Wrote The Book. After that, she took a several decade long break, before continuing to keep herself busy through a string of TV appearances in the seventies and eighties, but it was not until Cameron decided to make Titanic that she was able to be coaxed back onto the silver screen.
Stuart’s acting career goes all the way back to the dawn of talkies and encompasses some very well regarded and well known work (The Invisible Man, It Could Happen To You, Poor Little Rich Girl). In fact after Titanic she continued to work both in television and film, racking up appearances in The Million Dollar Hotel, Murder She Wrote and General Hospital, her last on screen appearance being in 2004 at the age of 94.
To say that Stuart showed exceptional longevity is a gross understatement, given a career that spanned over seventy years. She was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for her role in Titanic and shared a Screen Actors Guild Best Supporting Actress award with Kim Basinger (for LA Confidential). She was in fact (at 87) the oldest ever Oscar nominee as well as being a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild.
Five years ago, Gloria Stuart was diagnosed with cancer and she finally passed away on 26th September, having celebrated her 100th birthday earlier this year on Independence Day. She is survived by her daughter from her marriage to her second husband, who passed away in 1978.
