Hedda Hopper

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Birthday:

2 May 1885, Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, USA

Birth Name:

Elda Furry

Height:

170 cm

Her father was a butcher. In 1913 she met and married matinée idol DeWolf Hopper Sr. and in 1915 they moved to Hollywood, where both began active film careers. He became a star with Triangle Company, she began in vamp parts and turned to supporting roles. After her divorce she appeared in dozens of films, becoming known as "Queen of the Quickies". In 1936 she started a gossipy radio show and two years later commenced a 28-year stint as a newspaper gossip columnist, rival of Louella Parsons. In her last films she mostly played herself, a tribute to her influence in Hollywood. Her son became famous as investigator Paul Drake in the Perry Mason (1957) series. Show less «

[on her acerbic writing style] Nobody's interested in sweetness and light.

[on Hollywood] Our town worships success, the bitch goddess whose smile hides a taste for blood.

[on Hollywood] Two of the cruelest, most primitive punishments our town deals out to those who fall from favor are the empty mailbox and the...Show more »

[on Hollywood] Two of the cruelest, most primitive punishments our town deals out to those who fall from favor are the empty mailbox and the silent telephone. Show less «

I can wear a hat or take it off, but either way it's a conversation piece.

In Hollywood gratitude is Public Enemy Number One.

[on Claudette Colbert] The smartest, canniest, smoothest eighteen-carat lady I've ever seen cross the Hollywood pike. She knows her own mind...Show more »

[on Claudette Colbert] The smartest, canniest, smoothest eighteen-carat lady I've ever seen cross the Hollywood pike. She knows her own mind, knows what's right for her, has a marvelous self-discipline and a deep-rooted Gallic desire to be in shape, efficient and under control. Her career comes before anything, save possibly her marriage. Show less «

Joan Crawford wouldn't venture out of her Fifth Avenue apartment to buy an egg unless she is dressed to the teeth.

[on Joan Crawford] Whenever she came to the realization that the men she loved simply didn't come back, she compensated by adopting children...Show more »

[on Joan Crawford] Whenever she came to the realization that the men she loved simply didn't come back, she compensated by adopting children. Show less «

[on Elvis Presley] Hmmph! I'll get rid of him before he contaminates all the clean-cut youth in our country.

To me, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) is as great as [Abraham Lincoln's] Gettysburg speech.

[on three blacklisted writers winning the 1958 screenplay award for The Defiant Ones (1958)] Since our Academy now makes it legal for Commie...Show more »

[on three blacklisted writers winning the 1958 screenplay award for The Defiant Ones (1958)] Since our Academy now makes it legal for Commie writers to receive Oscars, some past winners--who are as bitter about this as I am--tell me they'll return theirs. Show less «

[on Lew Ayres' refusal, as a conscientious objector, to fight in World War II] I'm not defending Lew Ayres' convictions. But I am defending ...Show more »

[on Lew Ayres' refusal, as a conscientious objector, to fight in World War II] I'm not defending Lew Ayres' convictions. But I am defending his right to his own conscience. It's no part of a brave and free people to brand as a coward a man who dares to disagree with them. Show less «

I can remember a day when Hollywood didn't think much about serious things - the time of the mammoth Christmas party, the five-dollar Christ...Show more »

I can remember a day when Hollywood didn't think much about serious things - the time of the mammoth Christmas party, the five-dollar Christmas card, and the exchange of valuables which meant Yuletide in the movie colony. I remember too the first Christmas when someone reminded us what we owed the rest of the world. The time was 1943 and, you guessed it, the someone was Bob Hope. Show less «