Women We Love: Judy Holliday

Object of our affection: Judy Holliday, actress/scene stealer extraordinaire.
- Why we love her: A comedienne unparalleled, she made her many "dumb blonde" roles smart.
- Awards on her mantel: Famously beat out All About Eve's Bette Davis and Sunset Boulevard's Gloria Swanson for the Oscar for her star-making role as Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday, which also won her a Golden Globe.
- Other choice roles: A woman scorned in Adam's Rib; a spunky stockholder in The Solid Gold Cadillac; a lovesick telephone answering service operator in Bells Are Ringing, recreating her Tony Award-winning Broadway performance as Ella Peterson.
- First big break: In the cabaret group The Revuers with future Bells writers Betty Comden and Adolph Green.
- Bet you didn't know: Predicting her later life, her mother went into labor with her while attending a play; predicting her Bells role, her first job was as an assistant switchboard operator at Orson Welles' Mercury Theater;
- Yes, it's true: Was rejected by the Yale Drama School; during the infamous Hollywood "witch hunts", was unsuccessfully investigated for involvement in the Communist Party.
- What's in a name: Her given name was Judith Tuvim -- "Tuvim" is Hebrew for "Holiday".
- So much for "dumb blonde": Her IQ was 172, well above the genius level.
- Can we quote you on that: "You have to be smart to play a dumb blonde over and over and keep the audience's attention without extraordinary physical equipment."
- Gone too soon: She died of breast cancer in 1965, a few weeks shy of her 44th birthday.
- Family ties: Her son, Jonathan Oppenheim, is a film editor whose work includes Paris is Burning.
- Idol worship: Madonna names her as one of her biggest influences.

Link via Imdb.com.