Donna Reed

Donna Reed

• Ceremony was on February 8, 1960

Motion Pictures Star for Donna Reed

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Donna Reed

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Donna Reed, who won an Oscar for her role as a prostitute in "From Here to Eternity," but who found her greatest success as the ideal wife and mother on television's "The Donna Reed Show," died at home Tuesday from complications of pancreatic cancer. She was 64.
Reed's husband, retired Army Col. Grover Asmus, was with her when she died at 9:17 p.m. local time, a family spokesman said.
Reed, who won her Oscar in 1953 as best supporting actress in "Eternity," was discharged from Cedars-Sinal Medical Center Sunday suffering from pancreatic cancer, discovered in December while she was undergoing treatment for an ulcer.

A LONGTIME STAR of movies and television, Reed's last acting role was as Miss Ellie Ewing in the prime time TV soap opera "Dallas." She was fired from the show after a single season last year and replaced by actress Barbara Bel Geddes, who originated the role.

BORN Donna Belle Mullenger on Jan. 27, 1921, she carried no presumptions of stardom with her from Denison, Iowa, in 1938 - only a determination to excel as a secretary, studying stenography and office efficiency at Los Angeles City College.
It was only after classmates named her campus queen in December 1940 that she came to the attention of talent scouts. Within 24 hours, three studios called offering screen tests. Reed turned them down. She wanted to graduate from school first.
Holding the talent hunters off until February 1941, Reed did a screen test at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer with Van Heflin. Both were immediately signed to contracts, Two days later, she was cast in "The Get-Away."
During the next five years she played "nice girl" roles in a series of movies that included "The Shadow of the Thin Man," and "The Picture of Dorian Gray."
In 1946, Reed played her first major role opposite Jimmy Stewart in the Frank Capra classic, "It's a Wonderful Life." From 1941 to 1974, she appeared In many films, winning an Oscar in 1953 for her performance as a wartime B-girl in "From Here To Eternity."

REED WAS MARRIED three times. Her first marriage, to makeup man William Tuttle, lasted two years. In 1945, at the age of 24, she wed 38-year-old producer Tony Owen. (Owen once held an ownership interest in the Detroit Lions football team, from 1939 to 1940, before entering show business full-time.) The couple had four children, Tony Jr., Timothy Grant, Mary, and adopted daughter Penny Jane.
Reed and Owens decided to develop their own show, one that would provide suitable entertainment for the whole family.
The result was "The Donna Reed Show."
Set in a "typical" American community, the show cast her as the wife of a successful pediatrician and mother of two children. The series, Reed said, was conceived so "I could play me." It ran from 1958 to 1966.
From 1966 until 1985, when she took on the role of Miss Elle in "Dallas," Reed lived in semi-retirement, devoting most of her time to raising her children. She divorced Owen in 1972.

A LIFELONG REPUBLICAN, Reed surprised many in 1970 when she became co-chairwoman in Beverly Hills of Another Mother for Peace, an organization opposed to American involvement in Vietnam.
"I'd been overwhelmed by hopeless despair over the war, having two sons who might have to go to Vietnam to fight in a war I don't believe in," she said in an interview at the time.
Her 1984 comeback on "Dallas" was spurred by a desire for a sense of fulfillment after raising ber children and her marriage to Asmus, a retired Army colonel who had been Gen. Omar Bradley's last chief of staff.
"Emotionally, I needed work," she said. "Doing nothing eventually makes you feel bad."
But "Dallas" didn't pan out for Reed. She was fired by Lorimar producers and replaced by Bel Geddes, who returned to the role of Miss Ellie following an illness.
Reed, maintaining she had no idea why she was dismissed, was shocked.
"I've never had any problems or arguments with management or the people involved in production," she said.
She filed suit against Lorimar and CBS to be reinstated as the matriarch of TV's Ewing clan, and accepted a $1 million settlement in August.
Free Press television writer Betelou Peterson contributed to this story.