
Jean Arthur
Actor · 1900 – 1991 · Plattsburgh, New York, USA
Jean Arthur (born Gladys Georgianna Greene; October 17, 1900 – June 19, 1991) was an American actress celebrated as one of the defining screen personalities of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Known for her quick wit, expressive voice, and understated charm, she became one of the era’s most beloved comedic leading ladies, especially in the screwball comedy genre. Film historian James Harvey noted that “no one was more closely identified with the screwball comedy than Jean Arthur,” and her work remains central to the style’s legacy. Arthur rose to prominence in the mid‑1930s and became best known for her collaborations with director Frank Capra, starring in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), You Can’t Take It with You (1938), and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). These films cemented her image as the relatable, spirited heroine of Depression‑era American cinema. She earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her performance in The More the Merrier (1943). Although she famously disliked the pressures of Hollywood and often retreated from public life, Arthur continued to work selectively after the 1940s. She delivered a memorable dramatic turn as Marian Starrett in George Stevens’ classic Western Shane (1953). She later returned to acting on television, appearing in a 1965 episode of Gunsmoke and starring in the 1966 sitcom The Jean Arthur Show. After leaving acting, Arthur taught drama at Vassar College and the North Carolina School of the Arts, where students remembered her as a passionate and generous instructor. She lived a largely private life in her later years and died in 1991 at the age of 90.
Movies24
Movie7.3DramaWesternA weary gunfighter attempts to settle down with a homestead family, but a smouldering settler and rancher conflict forces him to act.
Shane
1953 · 707 votes
Movie7.8ComedyDramaAfter the death of a United States Senator, the idealistic Jefferson Smith is appointed as his replacement in Washington. The naive and earnest new senator soon finds himself battling political corruption.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
1939 · 1.2K votes
Movie7.5ComedyRomanceAlice, the only relatively normal member of the eccentric Sycamore family, falls in love with Tony Kirby, but his wealthy banker father and snobbish mother strongly disapprove of the match. When the Kirbys are invited to dinner to become better acquainted with their future in-laws, things don't turn out the way Alice had hoped.
You Can't Take It with You
1938 · 465 votes
Movie7.3RomanceAdventureA traveling performer arrives at a remote South American port town where the head of an air freight service must risk his pilots' lives to earn a major contract.
Only Angels Have Wings
1939 · 287 votes
Movie7.5ComedyDramaLongfellow Deeds lives in a small town, leading a small town kind of life. When a relative dies and leaves Deeds a fortune, Longfellow moves to the big city where he becomes an instant target for everyone. Deeds outwits them all until Babe Bennett comes along. When small-town boy meets big-city girl anything can, and does, happen.
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
1936 · 416 votes
Movie7.0ComedyRomanceIt's World War II and there is a severe housing shortage everywhere - especially in Washington, D.C. where Connie Milligan rents an apartment. Believing it to be her patriotic duty, Connie offers to sublet half of her apartment, fully expecting a suitable female tenent. What she gets instead is mischievous, middle-aged Benjamin Dingle. Dingle talks her into subletting to him and then promptly sublets half of his half to young, irreverent Joe Carter - creating a situation tailor-made for comedy and romance.
The More the Merrier
1943 · 99 votes
Movie7.3ComedyDramaHilarity ensues when a falsely accused fugitive from justice hides at the house of his childhood friend, which she has recently rented to a high-principled law teacher.
The Talk of the Town
1942 · 133 votes
Movie6.5WesternWarWild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, and Buffalo Bill go up against Indians and a gunrunner.
The Plainsman
1936 · 42 votes
Movie7.1ComedyDramaIn occupied Berlin, an army captain is torn between an ex-Nazi café singer and the US congresswoman investigating her.
A Foreign Affair
1948 · 164 votes
Movie7.5ComedyRomanceStruggling stockbroker Jimmie Shannon learns that, if he gets married by 7 p.m. on his 27th birthday -- which is today -- he'll inherit $7 million from an eccentric relative.
Seven Chances
1925 · 341 votes
Movie7.2ComedyRomanceJ.B. Ball, a rich financier, gets fed up with his free-spending family. He takes his wife's just-bought (very expensive) sable coat and throws it out the window, it lands on poor hard-working girl Mary Smith. But it isn't so easy to just give away something so valuable, as he soon learns.
Easy Living
1937 · 71 votes
Movie6.9ComedyCrimeOrdinary man-in-the-street Arthur Ferguson Jones leads a very straightforward life. He's never late for work and nothing interesting ever happens to him. One day everything changes: he oversleeps and is fired as an example, he's then mistaken for evil criminal killer Mannion and is arrested. The resemblance is so striking that the police give him a special pass to avoid a similar mistake. The real Mannion sees the opportunity to steal the pass and move around freely and chaos results.
The Whole Town's Talking
1935 · 64 votes
Movie7.6ComedyRomanceThe wealthiest man in the world, John P. Merrick, is a private person who likes to stay anonymous. One of his many assets is Neeley's Department Store. There is labor unrest at the store, and the employees' anger is directed at him, who they hang in effigy outside the store despite not knowing what he looks like. Merrick, not happy at what he sees going on, decides to mete out the rabble-rousers. So he goes undercover as a sales clerk in the shoe department.
The Devil and Miss Jones
1941 · 66 votes
Movie6.6DocumentaryFor the first time one of Hollywood's greatest stars tells his own story, in his own words. From a childhood of poverty to global fame, Cary Grant, the ultimate self-made star, explores his own screen image and what it took to create it.
Becoming Cary Grant
2017 · 45 votes
Movie8.0ComedyRomanceWhen a rich young man marries, he lets the books and letters left him by his dead mother guide his life.
Virtuous Husband
1931 · 1 votes
Movie6.7RomanceDramaAn American woman seeking divorce from her wealthy, controlling husband falls for a romantic Parisian who saves her from his entrapment.
History Is Made at Night
1937 · 55 votes
Movie9.0DocumentaryRobert Preston hosts this documentary that shows what people of the 1930s were watching as they were battling the Depression as well as eventually getting ready for another World War.
Going Hollywood: The '30s
1984 · 2 votes
Movie7.4ComedyRomanceAn auto engineer and a professor's daughter pose as married servants in a mobster's mansion.
If You Could Only Cook
1935 · 22 votes
Movie4.4DocumentaryHenry Fonda hosts this retrospective on the career and films of iconic filmmaker David O. Selznick, who epitomized the era of the auteur producer in the 30s and 40s.
Hollywood: The Selznick Years
1961 · 5 votes
Movie6.8WesternDramaBrandon, a surveyor, dreams of building a railway to the west. He sets off with his son, Davy, to survey a route. They discover a new pass which will shave 200 miles off the expected distance, but they are set upon by a party of Cheyenne. One of them, a white renegade with only two fingers on his right hand, kills Brandon and scalps him. Davy is all alone now.
The Iron Horse
1925 · 81 votes
Movie6.2ComedyMysteryA doctor is driven into an investigation of sinister goings-on at a horse race track by his mystery writer ex-wife.
The Ex-Mrs. Bradford
1936 · 32 votes
Movie8.0DramaComedyOscar, a tough guard at Newberry Prison, gets into an argument with Jerry, a smallish barber. He causes Jerry to be arrested as a fugitive, and gets him sent to Newberry. It's not long before both men fall in love with Mary, the daughter of the warden. Oscar gets Jerry put on the prison football team, where he is the smallest guy there, figuring that he will look like a fool in front of Mary and then she will pick Oscar. However, things don't turn out quite the way Oscar planned.
Brotherly Love
1928 · 1 votes
Movie10.0WesternA timid bank clerk has to toughen up during the search for a gang of bank robbers.
Double Daring
1926 · 1 votes
Movie8.3DocumentaryTV MovieClara Bow: Discovering the 'It' Girl features scenes from 25 of her films, as well as interviews with family members and acquaintances.
Clara Bow: Discovering the "It" Girl
1999 · 4 votes
Series2
TV6.7WesternAction & AdventureGunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West. The central character is lawman Marshal Matt Dillon, played by William Conrad on radio and James Arness on television.
Gunsmoke
1955 · 119 votes
TV7.5ComedyThe Jean Arthur Show is an American situation comedy that aired on CBS from September to December 1966. The series stars Jean Arthur and Ron Harper, and was under the primary sponsorship of General Foods.
The Jean Arthur Show
1966 · 2 votes