Barbara Loden: Biography, Facts and Career

Barbara Ann Loden (July 8, 1932 – September 5, 1980) was an American actress and director of film and theater. Richard Brody of The New Yorker described Loden as the "female counterpart to John Cassavetes". Born and raised in North Carolina, Loden began her career at an early age in New York City as a commercial model and chorus-line dancer. She moved to New York after high school, using money she had received from being in a car accident to buy her railroad ticket. Loden earned a living through cheesecake modeling and posing for romance and detective magazines for a handful of years. Loden became a regular sidekick on the irreverent Ernie Kovacs Television Show in the mid-1950s and was a lifetime member of the famed Actors Studio. She appeared in several projects directed by her second husband, Elia Kazan, including Splendor in the Grass (1961). Her subsequent performance in the 1964 Broadway premiere of After the Fall earned her a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress. In 1970, Loden wrote, directed, and starred in Wanda, a groundbreaking independent film that won the International Critics Award at the 1970 Venice Film Festival. Throughout the 1970s, she continued to work directing Off-Broadway and regional theater productions, and directed two short films. In 1978, Loden was diagnosed with breast cancer, of which she died two years later, aged 48.

Quick facts about Barbara Loden

• Full name: Barbara Loden
• Born: 1932-07-08
• Nationality: United States
• Known as: Fashion figure
• Wikidata ID: Q442111

Profile compiled from public Wikipedia and Wikidata data. Details can change over time.