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Hedda Hopper: Columnist Hedda Hopper
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From All Movie Guide: American actress and gossip columnist Hedda Hopper was born Elda Furry, but used the last name of her then-husband, Broadway star DeWolf Hopper, when she launched her movie career in 1915. Never a major star in silent films, Hedda was a competent character actress specializing in "best friend" and "other woman" roles. When she divorced DeWolf Hopper, Hedda found that she had to take any roles that came her way in order to support herself and her son DeWolf Jr. (who later became a film and TV actor under the name William Hopper). Her career running smoothly if not remarkably by 1932, Ms. Hopper decided to branch out into politics, running for the Los Angeles city council; she lost and returned to movies, where good roles were becoming scarce. Practically unemployed in 1936, Hedda took a job on a Hollywood radio station, dispensing news and gossip about the film capital. Impressed by Hedda's chatty manner and seemingly bottomless reserve of "dirt" on her fellow actors (sometimes gleaned from her own on-set experiences, sometimes mere wild-card speculations), the Esquire news syndicate offered Ms. Hopper her own column, one that would potentially rival the Hearst syndicate columnist Louella Parsons.
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Hedda Hopper was a prominent Hollywood Motion Picture columnist who corresponded directly with J. Edgar Hoover. Her writings not only included letters to Mr. Hoover, she ... penned complimentary articles about the FBI. Mr. Hoover would in turn write her letters of appreciation. Mrs. Hopper was the victim of two extortion attempts. The first attempt threatened to kill her, and the second attempt was a letter warning her not to talk about the president and his wife. In August 1959, she had the opportunity to tour a Strategic Air Command (SAC) base in Nebraska.
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Gossip columnists and arch-rivals Louella Parsons (Elizabeth Taylor) and Hedda Hopper (Jane Alexander) reigned over Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s, and were among the world's most widely read columnists. Movie studio executives, nervous about Louella's rumor mill control over the images of their stars, helped along Hedda's career--but ended up creating even more of problem! This made for television program covers the years of their rivalry from 1928-1944, showing in flashback Louella's arrival in Hollywood and her relationship with Hedda. Notably, star Tim Robbins has a small part as actor Joseph Cotten from CITIZEN KANE.
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Columnist Hedda Hopper guests as herself---someone Lucy and Ricky both want very much to impress. The plan: Lucy will fall into the hotel pool just as Hopper walks by, and Ricky will jump in and save her. The problem: distinguishing Hopper's hat from a bowl of fruit. Mrs. McGillicuddy: Kathryn Card. Charlie Pomerantz: Hy Averback. Bobby: Robert Jellison.
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American actress and gossip columnist "Hedda Hopper" was born Elda Furry, but used the last name of her then-husband, Broadway star DeWolf Hopper, when she launched her movie career in 1915. Never a major star in silent films, Hedda was a competent character actress specializing in "best friend" and "other woman" roles. When she divorced DeWolf Hopper, Hedda found that she had to take any roles that came her way in order to support herself and her son DeWolf Jr. (who later became a film and TV actor under the name "William Hopper"). Her career running smoothly if not remarkably by 1932, Ms. Hopper decided to branch out into politics, running for the Los Angeles city council; she lost and returned to movies, where good roles were becoming scarce. Practically unemployed in 1936, Hedda took a job on a Hollywood radio station, dispensing news and gossip about the film capital.
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Born William DeWolf Hopper Jr. in New York in January 1915, William Hopper's parents were famed stage actor DeWolf Hopper and actress-turned-gossip-columnist Hedda Hopper. Hopper's parents entered films at around the time of his birth, but as his father was nearly 60 years old at the time, his mother had more success on the silver screen. Following her divorce from DeWolf Hopper in 1922, Hedda Hopper acted in many films until the late 1930s, when her now infamous newspaper column took off. As her son matured into a handsome young man, Hedda Hopper pushed him to become an actor. After doing summer stock and appearing in a few Broadway plays, at the age of 20 William Hopper signed a contract with Paramount. At about this time his estranged father died, so Hopper initially used the stage name DeWolf Hopper Jr.
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Columnist Hedda Hopper