Faye Dunaway's Birthday

On January 14, 1941, in Bascom, Florida, USA, a daughter, Dorothy Faye, was born into the family of a career army officer John McDowell Dunaway and his wife Grace April, a housewife. Soon after the landing of American troops in Europe, the girl's dad was killed in battles against Nazi Germany.

After graduating from high school in 1958, Dorothy Faye Dunaway attended the University of Florida at Gainesville to pursue a career in education, but later moved on to Boston University's School of Fine and Applied Arts.

After receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1962, Dorothy Faye Dunaway was faced with a choice that many would envy: a Fulbright scholarship to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art or a role in the Broadway production of "A Man for All Time" as an actress at the American National Theater and Academy. She chose the latter and for three years shone on the Broadway stage.

Success on the theater stage led Faye Dunaway to television, where she starred in several TV series in 1965. In 1966, after learning that Arthur Penn was making the film "The Chase", Faye Dunaway tried to get into the casting for this film, but the casting director felt that Dunaway's face was not cinematic, and did not allow the aspiring actress to audition and interview with Penn.

Nevertheless, in 1967, Faye Dunaway played minor roles in two films: "The Happening", in which the main role was played by Anthony Quinn, and "Hurry Sundown", where the main roles were played by Michael Caine and Jane Fonda, and the role in the second of these films brought the actress a nomination for a Golden Globe Award - in the category "Most Promising Newcomer - Female".

And the role of Faye Dunaway in the film "The Happening" attracted the attention of the same Arthur Penn (you can not escape from fate!). He himself invited the actress and gave her to read the role of Bonnie Parker for his upcoming film "Bonnie and Clyde". Arthur Penn liked Faye Dunaway's audition, and he began to convince the film's producer, Warren Beatty, who was also the performer of the second title role, that she was best suited for this role. And it was quite difficult to convince Beatty of this, since the role of Bonnie Parker was claimed by a huge number of then-American film stars, among whom were, for example, Jane Fonda and Natalie Wood.

Beatty liked the face of the actress Penn proposed, but it seemed to him that she was too fat for the role of a girl from a poor family during the Great Depression. And then Faye Dunaway, since there was very little time left before the filming began, went on a starvation diet and lost 30 pounds in a few weeks.

A role in Bonnie and Clyde earned Faye Dunaway Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, as well as the reputation as the most beautiful actress in American cinema, at least in 1967. In addition, this role served as the starting point for the actress's ascent to the cinematic Olympus.

Faye Dunaway's cinematic activity has been marked by 25 film awards, including an Oscar, Golden Globe, British BAFTA, two Italian David di Donatello awards and even the Russian Golden Eagle. However, the Russian award for her contribution to world cinema is quite understandable, since the Soviet cinema audience saw this actress back in 1973 in the film "Oklahoma Crude" by Stanley Kramer and later, in the second half of 70-s, in the film "Three Days of the Condor" by Sydney Pollack. Saw and liked.

By the 80th anniversary of Faye Dunaway, her filmography includes 73 roles in full-length feature films, not counting numerous roles in television and short films. 3 films out of 73 entered the Golden Thousand. Thanks to this indicator and her beauty and, as some film critics note, "aggressive sexuality", Faye Dunaway is included in the list of the 100 most beautiful and sexy Actresses of world cinema compiled by FilmGourmand.

Her love was sought by many celebrities, including famous heartthrobs Roman Polanski and Jack Nicholson. However, they failed in their quest. But in 1968, the Actress during the filming of the film "A Place for Lovers", directed by Vittorio De Sica, began an affair with Marcello Mastroianni. This affair lasted more than two years, but...Mastroianni, a staunch Catholic, did not dare to leave his wife. Although by that time, they had already, due to the numerous love affairs of the Italian film star, lived separately with his wife. Dunaway got tired of waiting and left Mastroianni. Despite the fact that Federico Fellini and even Mastroianni's 20-year-old daughter Barbara urged her not to do it.

Subsequently, in her 1995 memoir, Faye Dunaway recalled: "There are days when I look back on those years with Marcello and have moments of real regret. There is that one piece of me that thinks that had we married, we might be married still. It was one of our fantasies, that we would grow old together. He thought we would be like Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, a love kept secret for a lifetime." - Looking for Gatsby: my life. Simon and Schuster, 1997

And Mastroianni in 1987 in an interview with a reporter for People magazine, admitted: «She (Faye Dunaway - FG) was the woman I loved the most. I'll always be sorry to have lost her. I was whole with her for the first time in my life".

According to our tradition, in honor of the anniversary of the Actress, we want to remind fans of her work shots from the best films with her participation.