Donna Reed

The Iowa Girl Who Didn't Want to Be a Farmer

Donna Belle Mullenger was born on a farm in Denison in 1921. Her future seemed tied to cows and corn, but she had other plans. She won a beauty contest in high school, which opened the doors to Los Angeles for her.

She arrived in California with just sixty dollars in her pocket.

In 1941, she signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer after changing her last name to Reed. The studios were looking for friendly faces for the postwar era, and she fit the mold of the perfect girl next door. She made minor films until her real break came.

But the studio system was a gilded cage. She signed a one-sided contract that obliged her to accept any supporting role put in front of her. So she spent her early years playing long-suffering brides and efficient secretaries in B-movie productions.

The Stigma of Kindness and the Risk of 1953

Frank Capra called her for It's a Wonderful Life in 1946. The film is now considered a pillar of cinema, but on its release it was a financial black hole for the production company. Reed played Mary Hatch, and that image of extreme sweetness nearly buried her dramatic ambitions.

She needed to break the glass.

In 1953, she accepted the role of Alma in From Here to Eternity. She played a nightclub hostess, and the critics were stunned. That same year, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. It was the moment studio executives realized that her angelic face could hide a great deal of darkness.

And the gamble paid off. The film raked in millions and freed her from the typecast of the devoted mother for a while. Still, the industry kept preferring her warmer side for mass-market products.

Behind-the-Scenes Power and a Courtroom Finale

In the late fifties, she decided she didn't want to depend on the whims of male directors. She founded her own production company with her husband, Tony Owen. That's how The Donna Reed Show was born in 1958.

She controlled the scripts and the editing.

The show ran for eight seasons and made her one of the wealthiest women in the industry. But her activism against the Vietnam War in the seventies pushed her away from the spotlight. Hollywood didn't forgive open political activism at the time, least of all from a woman.

Her last major contract was to replace Barbara Bel Geddes on Dallas during 1984. The producers fired her abruptly when the original actress decided to return to the series. Reed didn't stay quiet and took them to court for breach of contract.

She won a $1 million settlement after an exhausting legal battle. She died in January 1986 of a fast-moving pancreatic cancer that took her in just three months.