By Nathan Mayberg
One of the more striking images in the career of Bette Davis is the sight of 18-year-old Joan Lorring as Bessie Watty facing off with her in the showdown scene of the 1945 film “The Corn is Green.” Dolled up in a fancy outfit, the raven-haired beauty confronts Davis with her take-charge Welsh accent. The startling coming-of-age moment helped earn Lorring an Academy Award nomination. Her arresting performance was the liftoff for a new Warner Brothers starlet.
Lorring was a can’t-miss star in the making without a doubt it must have seemed at the time.
A review from the time in the leading film trade magazine Variety called Lorring’s performance “intriguing” and “particularly socko in the final reel.”
In two subsequent Warner Bros. films with Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre, she took over the screen dancing in a cabaret outfit in “The Verdict” and as the self-assured, bright-eyed, spirited Icey Crane in “Three Strangers.”
She had the magnetic aura of a young Elizabeth Taylor, the delicate looks, quick-on-her toes agility and spunk of a young Debbie Reynolds.
Yet just as soon as she arrived, Lorring was out of Warner Bros, one year after her Oscar nomination. It seems a mystery never explained.
Her children Andrea and Santha Sonenberg believe it was partly her choice. Still, it seems Hollywood made an error not placing Lorring in bigger and brighter roles. After the Warner Brothers films, Lorring bleached her dark hair blonde for a role in the 1947 film “The Other Love” playing the friend of Barbara Stanwyck, who was twice her age in the story about a sanitarium. The film, which also starred David Niven and Richard Conte, was made by John Garfield’s Enterprise Productions and distributed by United Artists.
From Warner Brothers
Garfield had been a major star under Warner Brothers but had left the studio after being repeatedly suspended by the Warners. Garfield’s last film with Warner Bros. was “Humoresque,” released one year before “The Other Love.” Lorring landed a supporting role in “Good Sam” in 1948, sharing scenes with Gary Cooper and Ann Sheridan in an uneven RKO family melodrama directed by Leo McCarey. Despite being a box office hit, the role did not lead to greater horizons in Hollywood. She made one other minor film three years later and wouldn’t make another feature film in Hollywood until 1974 – her last.
Instead of becoming a major Hollywood star, Lorring found success on the stage in New York and worked in Italy. Lorring is largely forgotten these days. It is confounding how Lorring flamed out so quickly in Hollywood after showing so much promise. As far as timing goes, Lorring couldn’t have picked a better moment to arrive at Warner Brothers. Olivia de Havilland, fresh off winning a landmark lawsuit against the company, left for Paramount. Joan Leslie took the studio to court to get released from her contract. Was it her choice to act in a production with Garfield that led to her departure from Warner Bros? According to her daughters Santha and Andrea, it was their mother’s choice to leave Hollywood. In an interview over Zoom, they spoke about her independent spirit and her background before Hollywood.
Lorring’s real name was Madeline Ellis and she went by “Dellie,” or as her daughters say she would like to tell people “like corned beef and rye”( which happens to be one of the favorite meals of this writer).
Born in 1926 in Hong Kong to an immigrant Russian-Jewish mother and to a Jewish father who worked at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Dellie and her mom fled the country at the time of the Japanese invasion of China. She landed in California sometime between 1935 and 1937 depending on the account. Some published articles state she and her mother stayed in Hawaii for a short time before taking up in San Francisco.
At the age of 16, she landed the title role of Judy Foster on the prominent radio show “A Date with Judy” for its second season. Interestingly, the show tackled some feminist subjects and was ahead of its time. The show would later be turned into a movie starring Jane Powell. Her first movie role was in the 1944 movie “Song of Russia,” playing a small part in a film starring Robert Taylor, the husband of her future co-star Barbara Stanwyck.
For her breakout role opposite Davis in “The Corn is Green,” Lorring stole the screen from Davis who was playing a teacher who was twice the age of Lorring. The role was six years before Davis played her acclaimed role as the aging actress (at the age of 42) in “All About Eve.” Lorring’s subsequent eye-catching roles in “The Verdict” and “Three Strangers” with Warner Bros. stalwarts Greenstreet and Lorre should have set her up for Veronica Lake or Rita Hayworth territory. But Lorring was never known as a pinup girl or screen siren. Andrea recalled being stunned at Lorre and Lorring embracing on the screen as a young child. “I remember as a kid watching that movie (“Three Strangers”) with the whole family and when I saw her kiss, I looked at my father like – look!”
Her children say the energetic Lorring who appeared on screen was the same mother they knew. “She had a lot of energy” and a “colorful personality,” say her children. Her scenes in those first pictures were head-turning in a way that stands out for early post-WW2 Hollywood, where much of the screen was sanitized. The edginess of her roles and confident delivery of her Welsh and cockney accents showed she was a serious actress. Her energy jumped off the screen. She had a mix of Jean Arthur, Audrey Hepburn and her own distinctive quality.
From movies
After leaving the movies, she acted on the New York stage in “Come Back Little Sheba,” for which she won the Donaldson Award for best stage debut. Her children still have the award. She would return to the stage and act in “The Autumn Garden,” a play written by Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett. The cast included actor Fredric March. Lorring left the United States for Italy in 1952 and acted with Paul Muni in ”Stranger on the Prowl.” In her return to the U.S., Lorring worked in television on “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Norby,” “Robert Montgomery Presents” and “Goodyear Playhouse” which starred Walter Mathau. Nothing stuck. She re-enacted the role of Watty for a T.V. movie version of “The Corn is Green.”
At age 30, Lorring married Martin Sonenberg, who became a world renowned physician and researcher who made significant contributions to the treatment of thyroid cancer and growth disorders. She largely stopped acting to raise a family for a decade and returned in 1966 to the small screen at the age of 40 for the T.V. movie “Star Wagon,” acting with a young Dustin Hoffman, who was one year away from “The Graduate.” Lorring played an actress who is both young and old in a story featuring a time machine. The makeup director was the legendary Dick Smith, who worked on “The Godfather,” “Amadeus,” and “Taxi Driver.” Lorring didn’t make a Hollywood studio film from 1951 until the 1974 drama “The Midnight Man,” directed by and starring Burt Lancaster, and distributed by Universal Pictures. Lorring’s independent path through Hollywood may have something to do with her background.
An only child, she danced with the Russian Ballet beginning when she was three-years-old. She had a sensitive spot for animals being taken to the local slaughterhouse, and once asked her dad to buy a billygoat to save it. Her dad complied but when the billygoat saw his reflection in the mirror in their home and smashed the family’s prized mirror, “that billygoat was not saved anymore,” Santha said. Lorring would tell stories recalling people collapsing pulling rickshaws. “She thought It was horrific,” her daughter Santha said. “She always had a soft heart for people who were more vulnerable, less privileged,” Andrea said. “She was extraordinarily sensitive and empathetic and she could put herself in other people’s shoes. She had to grow up fast.”
Lorring talked to her children about long Passover seders with her maternal grandfather, who kept kosher. Lorring’s parents weren’t very religious Jews though they observed. Her mother’s family emigrated to Hong Kong during the Russian Revolution. Her father was already living in Hong Kong at the time – he was the eldest of 13 children who had been orphaned. He was their provider, starting out as a messenger on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and rising to a seat on the board, the Sonenberg sisters said. Lorring’s father’s family was originally from Baghdad – where there was a large Jewish population for centuries.
From Hong Kong
Lorring and her mother traveled to the U.S. as stowaways on a ship during the Japanese invasion of China. Dellie didn’t know her father wasn’t coming and the ship pulled away from the harbor “and she was absolutely devastated and that’s when she learned that she was only going with her mother and her father wasn’t coming,” Andrea said. Her father Fred Ellis was in a Japanese prisoner of war camp during World War 2. Some of his family ended up in Australia.
Part of the Ellis family stayed in Hong Kong. Dellie’s daughters said she knew Chinese food words and curse words. They say she grew up with a British accent which she would massage into a cockney accent, or Welsh accent “or whatever it was,” Andrea said. She became known for her ability to do accents. Her daughters grew up in New York City and in Croton-on-Hudson in Westchester County, a suburb of New York City. “We were brought up to enunciate and say things very properly,” Andrea said.
They heard stories from their mom about growing up on the Warner Bros lot where she went to school. They have photos of her with child star Terry Kilburn. Kilburn was known for “A Christmas Carol,” “Goodbye, Mr. Chips,” “Swiss Family Robinson” and “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.” She was a friend of the actor Lloyd Bridges, a successful actor and father of actors Beau and Jeff Bridges. She babysat for Beau, her daughters said. Some actors she spoke fondly of included John Dall, her co-star in “The Corn is Green” who was also nominated for an Oscar.
Lorring was also friendly with actors Richard York, Zero Mostel and Julie Christie. She was acquainted with playwrights Arthur Miller and Arthur Laurents.
“She knew the Broadway crowd,” Santha said.
She had warm feelings for Bette Davis, who was supportive of Lorring. Andrea said Lorring got along well with Davis, who sometimes had a reputation as being tough on set. “I don’t think she bristled at high expectations or that type of thing,” Santha said.
Though nominated for the Academy Award for best supporting actress for her breakout role in “The Corn is Green,” the Oscar went to Anne Revere for “National Velvet.”
Letter of introduction and breadmaking
The family lore is that she had a letter of introduction to Douglas Fairbanks which landed her in American showbusiness. It is not clear if it was the elder Fairbanks or his son Douglas Fairbanks Jr. The elder Fairbanks was in declining health in the late 1930’s and had retired from acting while the younger Fairbanks was in the prime of his career. They both were world travelers. Her father ultimately came to the U.S. after World War 2 and worked as as a Western Union messenger in New York City. Lorring moved to New York in the late 1940’s and was very close to her father. Her mother’s first job in California was as a store gift wrapper. Lorring also worked as a gift wrapper and “was so meticulous that customers often tipped her for her excellent wrapping skills,” Santha said.
Lorring’s first love was cooking which she learned growing up in Hong Kong from her maternal Russian grandmother and from Chinese cooks the family had in the house. Lorring’s specialty was breadmaking and cookies. She would make special orders from Eastern recipes.
Her daughters said Lorring had a lifelong passion for breadmaking and wrote articles on the subject for Vogue magazine, at least one of which can be located online in a 1974 issue. She also wrote about cooking for The New York Times. One way in which Lorring’s independent spirit shined through was when she and her family would dine out in a restaurant and she would ask to visit the kitchen to see how the bread was made. In exchange, she would bring her own home-baked bread and trade recipes with the staff, her daughters said. The family only ate home-baked bread. “She baked every single day,” Andrea said. French bread and sourdough were her favorites. She watched Julie Child religiously and made Yorkshire pudding. She loved Chinese food and the family visited Chinatown almost every week. “We had Chinese food all the time,” Andrea said.
In 1980, Lorring made a brief return to television – appearing on several episodes of “Ryan’s Hope.”
“As we were growing up, she was certainly a strong and colorful personality, but not at all like Bessie Watty. What you saw on the screen was her superb acting and ability to ‘become her character,’ assuming all her mannerisms and personality,” Andrea said. “She was sensitive and empathetic to others, especially those less fortunate and those striving to achieve. She was our cheerleader in all we strived to accomplish and become–a very proud and effusively expressive mother, never standing in our way to reach our dreams.”
Despite bleaching her hair for “The Other Love,” Lorring stayed a brunette for most of her life. She had an awareness that John Dall, her co-star in “The Corn is Green” was gay but in the closet. Lorring told her children that for many actors, “their public persona was not who they really were.” Still, Lorring described a Hollywood that she enjoyed growing up in, even if it was her job. “She had fun stories growing up in Hollywood going to the studio on her rollerskates,” Santha said.
During her time making movies in Italy, she bought a sports car and drove around and it had it shipped back to the U.S.. She spent months in Italy, traveled all over Europe by herself as a single, young woman, her children said.
She learned Italian and French. Her children still have the plaque for her Oscar nomination and the telegram inviting her to the Academy Awards. Lorring didn’t want to act much when when raising her children though she made exceptions. She acted in the theater in “Awake and Sing!” in 1970. Lorring dabbled in some radio work and taught acting. Her husband was chief of endocrinology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and professor at Cornell University Medical College. He had served as a medical officer in the U.S. Navy. They met at a party she was throwing in New York City in 1955. The story goes that Dr. Sonenberg was “immediately infatuated” and wanted to take her out right after the party and she refused. They eventually did go on a date though, and she had “the worst headache of her life,” according to her daughters. Ultimately, the relationship blossomed. They lived together for a year before getting married. Lorring was married in her grandmother’s wedding dress.
Dr. Sonenberg died in 2011 at the age of 90. Dellie died in 2014 at the age of 88 after a bout with Parkinson’s Disease and after surviving bone marrow cancer, pancreatic cancer and breast cancer. She died after choking on something, her daughters said.
It’s a mystery as to why Lorring didn’t become a star – she had the looks, acting chops and charisma.
“It was partly her choice,” Andrea said. | | |
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