Obituary: Evelyn Keyes
Obituary by Jack Foley
HOLLYWOOD actress Evelyn Keyes, who played Scarlett O’Hara’s sister Suellen in Gone With The Wind, has died at the age of 91.
The popular star died of uterine cancer at her home in Montecito, near Santa Barbara, on July 4, 2008, but the news has been withheld until a death certificate could be issued.
In a career spanning almost six decades, Keyes appeared in countless films, including Here Comes Mr Jordan, The Desperadoes and The Jolson Story, as well as various TV shows, including Murder She Wrote.
She was also famous for her love life, marrying four times in total and often in high profile. Her husbands included director John Huston and band leader Artie Shaw.
Born in Port Arthur, Texas, in 1916, Keyes grew up fatherless and poor in Atlanta but quickly determined on a career in entertainment.
Blessed with glowing blonde hair and an alluring figure, she danced in nightclubs and at 17 set out for Hollywood where she was soon discovered by producer Cecil B DeMille, who cast her in his 1938 pirate picture The Buccaneer.
She then enjoyed a prolific period of six movies in a year, before landing the career-defining role of Suellen O’Hara in Gone With The Wind.
In fact, her name was so synonymous with Suellen that a tell-all autobiography was provocatively entitled Scarlett O’Hara’s Younger Sister. It earned notoriety for lifting the lid on her marriages and other turbulent relationships with the likes of classic stars Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn.
Of her relationships, four ended in marriage. The first was to English businessman Barton Bainbridge but it ended in headlines when Keyes left him for film director Charles Vidor and Bainbridge committed suicide.
She subsequently wed Vidor in 1944 but divorced the next year amid allegations that he had been unfaithful to her.
John Huston, director of The Maltese Falcon and The African Queen, became husband number three after the pair met at a Hollywood dinner party – but they split in 1950 reportedly following a row over a chimpanzee given to the director by actress Jennifer Jones.
After a brief liaison with producer Mike Todd (who left her for Elizabeth Taylor in 1956), Keyes married Artie Shaw in 1957, another serial wedder whose former spouses included Ava Gardner and Lana Turner.
The couple lived in Spain and Connecticut and despite announcing their separation in the ’70s, remained married until 1985.
When Shaw died in 2004, aged 94, Keyes battled in court for a share of his estate and was awarded $1.42m (£714,000).
Although she never made the step up to leading lady during her long career in film, she appeared in many classic films and was fondly remembered by colleagues.
She also became a respected writer and was well-known for her society column in the Los Angeles Times, as well as three well-received books.
She left no immediate survivors.