Eve Arden (April 30, 1908 – November 12, 1990) was an American actress. Her almost 60-year career crossed most media frontiers with both supporting and leading roles, but she may be best-remembered for playing the sardonic but engaging title character, a high school teacher, on Our Miss Brooks, and as the Rydell High School principal in both Grease 1 and 2.
April 30, 1908, Mill Valley, California, United States
Died
November 12, 1990, Los Angeles, California, United States
Place Of Birth
Mill Valley, California, USA
Height
5' 7½" (1.71 m)
Weight
235.9 kg
Profession
Actress, Soundtrack
Education
Tamalpais High School
Nationality
American
Spouse
Brooks West (m. 1952–1984), Ned Bergen (m. 1939–1947)
Children
Douglas Brooks West
Parents
Lucille Quedens, Charles Peter Quedens
Awards
Primetime Emmy Award for Best Actress Starring In A Regular Series
Nominations
Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, Primetime Emmy Award for Best Actress - Continuing Performance, Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actress In A Daytime Drama Special, Primetime Emmy Award for Best Continuing P...
Movies
Grease, Mildred Pierce, Anatomy of a Murder, Stage Door, Grease 2, At the Circus, Cover Girl, Ziegfeld Girl, We're Not Married!, The Doughgirls, Under the Rainbow, Three Husbands, My Dream Is Yours, The Strongest Man in the World, Night and Day, Tea for Two, That Uncertain Feeling, The Voice of the ...
TV Shows
The Mothers-in-Law, The Eve Arden Show, Our Miss Brooks
I've worked with a lot of great glamorous girls in movies and the theater. And I'll admit, I've often thought it would be wonderful to be a femme fatale. But then I'd always come back to thinking that if they only had what I've had - a family, real love, an anchor - they would have been so much happier during all the hours when the marquees and the floodlights are dark.
#
Fact
1
Eve is survived by two natural granddaughters named Devon Brooks West and Geneva Marie West, the daughters of Douglas Brooks West and his wife Catherine Marie West.
2
Eve's adopted children were named Liza Beatrice West and Constance Lucille West. Her adopted son Duncan Paris West passed away in 2008 and is interred at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
3
Was a longtime friend of Jane Wyman, who attended her funeral in 1990. Arden guest-starred opposite Wyman on Falcon Crest (1981).
Best remembered by the public for her starring role as the title character in Our Miss Brooks (1952).
6
Profiled in book "Funny Ladies" by Stephen Silverman. [1999]
7
She was awarded three Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for Television, Radio and Film.
8
While appearing in a stage play, during one performance she was about to launch into her big speech, as a wife berating her husband, when the prop telephone on the set rang. Correctly deducing that this was a practical joke arranged by the actor playing the husband, she grabbed up the phone, and without missing a beat ad-libbed along the lines of "Well, he's busy ... He really can't ... oh, very well ..." and then turned to her grinning cohort and wiped the smile off his face by snapping "It's for you!" and handing him the phone. She stood there tapping her foot while he ad-libbed a rather unconvincing conversation, and then, after he hung up, went on with the scene as if nothing had happened.
9
Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 26-27. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.
10
Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith. pg. 22-24. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387
Starred in several preview performances of one of Broadway's most notorious flops, "Moose Murders." After an argument with the author over her lines, she was replaced in the role of Hedda Holloway by Holland Taylor. "Moose Murders" opened and closed at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York City on February 22, 1983.
13
Was ill with advanced colorectal cancer at the time of her death.
14
Eve Arden was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1995.
15
One natural child: two girls and one boy were adopted. Her fourth child and second son, Douglas Brooks West, was born in September 1954, weighing 9 lbs., 4 oz.
16
Often disguised her true age, but her tombstone was engraved by her family with the years "1908-1990", so she was 82 at her death.
17
Adopted her stage name while looking over some cosmetics and spotting the names "Evening in Paris" and "Elizabeth Arden".
18
Interred at Westwood Memorial Park, Los Angeles, California, USA, Section D, #81.
Actress
Title
Year
Status
Character
Falcon Crest
1987
TV Series
Lillian Nash
Amazing Stories
1986
TV Series
Jane's Mother
Faerie Tale Theatre
1985
TV Series
The Stepmother
Masquerade
1983
TV Series
Great Performances
1983
TV Series
Queen of Hearts
Grease 2
1982
Miss McGee
Pandemonium
1982
Warden June
Nuts and Bolts
1981
TV Movie
Martha Fenton
Under the Rainbow
1981
The Duchess
Hart to Hart
1980
TV Series
Sophie Green
B.J. and the Bear
1980
TV Series
Mrs. Jarvis
The Love Boat
1980
TV Series
Ms. Brenda Watts
Alice
1980
TV Series
Martha MacIntire
The Dream Merchants
1980
TV Series
Coralee
Vega$
1979
TV Series
Sarah Bancroft
Flying High
1979
TV Series
Clarissa 'Wedgie' Wedge
A Guide for the Married Woman
1978
TV Movie
Employment lady
Grease
1978
Principal McGee
Maude
1977
TV Series
Lola Ashburn
Ellery Queen
1975
TV Series
Vera Bethune / Miss Aggie
Harry and Maggie
1975
TV Short
Maggie Sturdivant
The Strongest Man in the World
1975
Harriet Crumply
Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law
1974
TV Series
Dr. Lucille Barras
The Girl with Something Extra
1974
TV Series
Aunt Fran
The ABC Afternoon Playbreak
1974
TV Series
Mrs. Owens
All My Darling Daughters
1972
TV Movie
Miss Freeling, The Wedding Counselor
A Very Missing Person
1972
TV Movie
Hildegarde Withers
Love, American Style
1971
TV Series segment "Love and the Contact Lens" / Linda's Mom segment "Love and the New Roommate"
- Love and the Contact Lens/Love and the Doctor's Honeymoon/Love and the Motel Mixup 1971 ... segment "Love and the Contact Lens"
In Name Only
1969
TV Movie
Aunt Theda Reeson
The Mothers-In-Law
1967-1969
TV Series
Eve Hubbard
The Danny Thomas Hour
1967
TV Series
Thelda Cunningham
The Red Skelton Hour
1959-1967
TV Series
Clara Appleby / Charm School Teacher
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
1966
TV Series
Professor Lillian Stemmler
Run for Your Life
1966
TV Series
Mame Huston
Bewitched
1966
TV Series
Nurse Kelton
Laredo
1965
TV Series
Emma Bristow
Sergeant Dead Head
1965
Lt. Charlotte Kinsey
Vacation Playhouse
1964
TV Series
Claudia Cooper
My Three Sons
1962
TV Series
Marisa Montaine
Checkmate
1961
TV Series
Georgia Golden
The Dark at the Top of the Stairs
1960
Lottie Lacey
Anatomy of a Murder
1959
Maida Rutledge
The Eve Arden Show
1957-1958
TV Series
Liza Hammond
Our Miss Brooks
1952-1956
TV Series
Connie Brooks
Our Miss Brooks
1956
Connie Brooks
The Lady Wants Mink
1953
Gladys Jones
We're Not Married!
1952
Katie Woodruff
Two Tickets to Broadway
1951
Showgirl (uncredited)
Goodbye, My Fancy
1951
Miss 'Woody' Woods
Starlight Theatre
1951
TV Series
Julie Todd
Three Husbands
1950
Lucille McCabe
Tea for Two
1950
Pauline Hastings
Curtain Call at Cactus Creek
1950
Lily Martin
Paid in Full
1950
Tommy Thompson
The Lady Takes a Sailor
1949
Susan Wayne
My Dream Is Yours
1949
Vivian Martin
Whiplash
1948
Chris Sherwood
One Touch of Venus
1948
Molly Stewart
The Voice of the Turtle
1947
Olive Lashbrooke
Song of Scheherazade
1947
Madame de Talavera
The Arnelo Affair
1947
Vivian Delwyn
The Unfaithful
1947
Paula
Night and Day
1946
Gabrielle
The Kid from Brooklyn
1946
Ann Westley
My Reputation
1946
Ginna Abbott
Mildred Pierce
1945
Ida Corwin
Patrick the Great
1945
Jean Mathews
Earl Carroll Vanities
1945
'Tex' Donnelly
Pan-Americana
1945
Helen 'Hoppy' Hopkins
The Doughgirls
1944
Sgt. Natalia Moskoroff
Cover Girl
1944
Cornelia Jackson
Let's Face It
1943
Maggie Watson
Hit Parade of 1943
1943
Belinda Wright
Obliging Young Lady
1942
'Space' OShea, aka Suwanee Rivers
Bedtime Story
1941
Virginia Cole
Sing for Your Supper
1941
Barbara Stevens
Last of the Duanes
1941
Kate
Manpower
1941
Dolly
Whistling in the Dark
1941
'Buzz' Baker
San Antonio Rose
1941
Gabby Trent
She Knew All the Answers
1941
Sally Long
Ziegfeld Girl
1941
Patsy Dixon
That Uncertain Feeling
1941
Sally Aikens
Comrade X
1940
Jane Wilson
No, No, Nanette
1940
Kitty
She Couldn't Say No
1940/II
Alice Hinsdale
Slightly Honorable
1939
Miss Ater
A Child Is Born
1939
Miss Pinty
At the Circus
1939
Peerless Pauline
Eternally Yours
1939
Gloria
The Forgotten Woman
1939
Carrie Ashburn
Big Town Czar
1939
Susan Warren
Women in the Wind
1939
Kit Campbell
Letter of Introduction
1938
Cora Phelps
Having Wonderful Time
1938
Henrietta
Cocoanut Grove
1938
Sophie De Lemma
Stage Door
1937
Eve
Oh, Doctor
1937
Shirley Truman
Dancing Lady
1933
Marcia - the Southern Actress (uncredited)
The Song of Love
1929
Maisie LeRoy (as Eunice Quedens)
Soundtrack
Title
Year
Status
Character
Bobby Vinton's Rock 'n Rollers
1978
TV Special performer: "Sh-Boom Life Could Be a Dream", "Hot Diggity Dog Ziggity Boom"
Sergeant Dead Head
1965
performer: "You Should've Seen the One That Got Away"
The Dinah Shore Chevy Show
1959
TV Series performer - 1 episode
Our Miss Brooks
1952-1955
TV Series performer - 13 episodes
One Touch of Venus
1948
performer: "That's Him" - uncredited
Song of Scheherazade
1947
performer: "FANDANGO"
Night and Day
1946
performer: "I'm Unlucky at Gambling" 1929 - uncredited
The Kid from Brooklyn
1946
"An der schönen blauen Donau Walzer The Blue Danube Waltz Op. 314" 1867, uncredited
Earl Carroll Vanities
1945
performer: "The Last Man in Town"
The Doughgirls
1944
performer: "The Song of the Volga Boatman" - uncredited
San Antonio Rose
1941
performer: "You're Everything Wonderful", "Gee But It's Tough to Be a Glamour Girl"
No, No, Nanette
1940
performer: "I Want To Be Happy" continued
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Ed Wynn Show
1949
TV Series
Herself
Texaco Star Theatre
1948
TV Series
Herself - Comic Actress
Screen Snapshots: Off the Air
1947
Short
Herself
AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Barbara Stanwyck
$9 Million
