Barbara Loden (July 8, 1932 – September 5, 1980) was a Broadway Tony award-winning American stage and film actress, model, stage and film director. She was the first woman to write, direct and star in her own feature film, Wanda, which won the International Critics Award at the 1970 Venice Film Festival. Loden also directed several off-Broadway plays. Loden was a life member of the famed The Actors Studio and appeared in several projects directed by second husband, noted film director, Elia Kazan, including Splendor in the Grass. Loden also appeared as a regular sidekick on the irreverent The Ernie Kovacs Television Show, where she would get pies thrown in her face or pretend to be “sawed in half.”
She was cast as Beverly Abbott in The Swimmer (1968), a crucial part in that she has had an affair with the title character, played by Burt Lancaster. According to multiple biographies of Lancaster, Loden's performance overshadowed him in the scene, which was shot in 1966 by Frank Perry, who is credited as the director on the film. Lancaster was dissatisfied and had the role recast with Janice Rule and had the scene reshot by Sydney Pollack. Friction between Lancaster and Perry led to the director leaving the film.
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The character of Gwen in her second husband Elia Kazan's best-selling 1967 novel and later film, The Arrangement (1969) , was based on her. Gwen was played by Faye Dunaway in the 1969 movie, which was a terrible flop. Ironically, Dunaway had been Loden's understudy in the 1964 Broadway production of After the Fall (1974), for which Loden won the 1964 Tony Award for best featured actress in a play. The play, written by Arthur Miller, was directed by Kazan. According to Mark Harris in his 2008 book Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood (one of which was Bonnie and Clyde (1967), which made Dunaway a star), Dunaway as a tyro actress who was part of Kazan's Lincoln Center repertory company, carefully studied Loden's performance.
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Won Broadway's 1964 Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Dramatic) for "After the Fall."
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She had agreed to divorce Elia Kazan in 1979, but her diagnosis of breast cancer, and later, terminal liver cancer, stopped the proceedings.
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Had two sons: Leo, who is a teacher by Elia Kazan, and Marco Joachim, a folk singer / songwriter by Laurence Joachim. Laurence Joachim was Barbara's first husband and was responsible for promoting her before the introduction of Kazan.
Actress
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Frontier Experience
1975
Short
Wanda
1970
Wanda Goronski
Fade-In
1968
TV Movie
Jean
CBS Playhouse: The Glass Menagerie
1966
TV Movie
Her Daughter
Naked City
1962
TV Series
Penny Sonners
Alcoa Premiere
1962
TV Series
Betty Johnson
Splendor in the Grass
1961
Ginny Stamper
Wild River
1960
Betty Jackson
Studio One in Hollywood
1957
TV Series
The Ernie Kovacs Show
1952
TV Series
Regular (1956)
Director
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Boy Who Liked Deer
1975
Short
The Frontier Experience
1975
Short
Wanda
1970
Producer
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Boy Who Liked Deer
1975
Short producer
The Frontier Experience
1975
Short producer
Writer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Wanda
1970
written by
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Mike Douglas Show
1971-1975
TV Series
Herself - Actress / Herself
The Dick Cavett Show
1971
TV Series
Herself
The David Frost Show
1971
TV Series
Herself
Tonight!
1956-1957
TV Series
Comedian-Regular / Herself - Mon.-Tues.
Archive Footage
Title
Year
Status
Character
Cinéma cinémas
1982
TV Series documentary
Won Awards
Year
Award
Ceremony
Nomination
Movie
1970
Pasinetti Award
Venice Film Festival
Best Foreign Film
Wanda (1970)
Known for movies
Wanda (1970) as Wanda Goronski
Splendor in the Grass (1961) as Ginny Stamper
Wild River (1960) as Betty Jackson
CBS Playhouse: The Glass Menagerie (1966) as Her Daughter
$15 Million
