Norma Shearer: A Biography

Drawing on the reminiscences of friends and colleagues, as well as on private archives, this evocative portrait of the great Hollywood star captures the triumphant film career and tragic private life of Norma Shearer

One of the few stars of the silent era to seque successfully into sound films, Norma Shearer (1902-1983) immersed herself in the art of cinematic illusion, emerging as one of MGM's most talented and glittering early stars. The centerpiece of such classic films as Marie Antoinette , Private Lives and The Women , Shearer was equally well-known for her marriage to boy-mogul cum Hollywood myth Irving Thalberg. Lambert's opening chapter, in which he meets the long-retired, septuagenarian film legend in a Hollywood restaurant, holds the promise of a guided tour to the outer reaches of ambition and vanity. But Shearer's mask is opaque, and Lambert ( On Cukor ) is unable to peel it away. Preposterously vain and steel-willed even from the grave, the actress ultimately triumphs over her biographer as the keeper of her own flame. Photos. (May) .
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Norma Shearer was queen of the MGM lot in the 1930s. Married to the studio's head of production, Irving Thalberg, Shearer starred in such movies as The Divorcee , The Women , and Idiot's Delight . She was nominated for five Academy Awards, and won one. Her last film was released in 1942, but Shearer lived until 1983. In comparison to Lawrence J. Quirk's Norma: The Story of Norma Shearer (St. Martin's, 1988), Lambert's book is more detached, although both authors interviewed Shearer. Quirk comes across as more of a fan and features more quotes from Shearer's coworkers. Lambert's book has more insight. Each book has information not included in the other; both are worthwhile.
- John Smothers, Monmouth Cty. Lib., Manalapan, N.J.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.