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Barbara Stanwyck is almost unrecognizable in these rare photos from her earliest films
She made her screen debut all the way back in the 1920s!
After losing both her parents before the age of five, Ruby Stevens and her siblings had to fend for themselves in early 1900s Brooklyn. She worked a series of odd jobs as a teenager but always had dreams of entering showbusiness.
At 19, Ruby won a small part in the Broadway show The Noose, which premiered in 1926. A year later she earned her first lead role in the play Burlesque and ditched her boring given name, changing it to something more sophisticated and glamorous — Barbara Stanwyck.
It was an appropriate change for an actor who was about to become one of the most famous faces of Hollywood’s noir era. Of course, Stanwyck’s career didn’t end after the 1940s. She became a favorite TV guest star before landing her iconic role as matriarch and ranch owner Victoria Barkley on The Big Valley. She also almost had her own version of Charlie’s Angels called Toni’s Boys.
While classic TV fans know her later work and cinema buffs recognize Stanwyck from her noir roles of the 1940s, the very beginnings of her career are rarely seen. She looks quite different in her earliest roles from the 1920s.
We’ve dug up publicity photos from her very first gigs on stage and on-set shots from her early films. Though not quite the scheming femme fatale she would later become famous for, it’s easy to see in these photos that stardom is not far away.
Everett Collection Stanwyck in her first role onstage in 1926.
Everett CollectionStanwyck around the time she won a lead role on Broadway in 1927
Everett CollectionStanwyck in her first credited film role in the 1929 movie 'The Locked Door.'
Everett CollectionStanwyck and William Janney in her second movie from 1929, 'Mexicali Rose.'
Everett Collection Stanwyck in the 1931 film 'Illicit.'
Everett Collection Stanwyck in the 1933 crime drama 'Ladies They Talk About.'
Everett Collection Another shot of Stanwyck in 'Ladies They Talk About.'
Everett CollectionStanwyck in another 1933 film 'Baby Face.'
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24 Comments
I always thought her beauty and class were under appreciated!
Ditto.
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Oh, sorry. Wrong valley.
Because of the show I also became a Barbara Stanwyck fan. Luckily the Internet makes it easier to hunt down and watch your films now. I have seen photos of her from early in her career but not all of these posted here. Thank you for that and this article MeTV staff! And I always love it when she shows up on MeTV in different things. I will say it completely blows my mind that some of these photos in a few years will be 100 years old. 100 years seems forever ago and not too awful long ago all at the same time.
She may have got an early start, but she was 38 in Christmas in Connecticut. Not "old" but not young either. She was 58 when Big Valley started, oddly she doesn't look any older.
