Ida Lupino

Ida Lupino

Richard Boone told columnist Erskine Johnson in 1961 about her skills as a director, "Ida stimulates me as an actor because she knows acting. In a weekly show, you get into acting patterns. Ida gets you out of them".

Arrived from England aboard the Berengaria at New York on August 25, 1933, age 15.

As rigid and tough-minded as Bette Davis, Ida would often refuse to play a Davis hand-me-down role and was often suspended by Warner Bros. for doing so. It was during those breaks that she would go on movie sets, chum around with the male directors and learned the craft of directing. Blazing new trails, she became the only notable and respected female filmmaker of her era in Hollywood.

At age ten Lupino asked her father to construct a theater for her and her sister. The project resulted in an elaborate structure with electrical equipment, a pit, and seating for a hundred.

Became a lifelong friend of Mala Powers (whom she directed in Outrage (1950/I)). When Ida died in 1995, Mala was the executor of her estate.



Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945- 1985". Pages 617-621. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.

Cousin of actor Richard Lupino and Lauri Lupino Lane.

Daughter Bridget Duff with ex-husband Howard Duff.

Daughter of British revue star and film comedian Stanley Lupino and Connie Emerald.

Her daughter was born on April 23, 1952. She only weighed 4 pounds and almost died.

In Italy, most of her films were dubbed by either Lidia Simoneschi, Renata Marini or Rosetta Calavetta. She was occasionally dubbed by Clelia Bernacchi, most notably in Hollywood Canteen (1944).

Lupino is an Italian surname. Her ancestors came from Bologna, Italy.

Lupino was originally scheduled to play "Cassie" in Kings Row (1942), but when Warners decided to loan her to Fox for two films, she was replaced by Betty Field.

Not only is she the only woman to direct an episode of "Twilight Zone" (1959) ("The Masks"), she is also the only person to star in an episode ("The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine") and direct one.

Profiled in "Killer Tomatoes: Fifteen Tough Film Dames" bu Ray Hagen and Laura Wagner (McFarland, 2004).

Second cousin of actor Wallace Lupino and Lupino Lane.

Sister of Rita Lupino.

The second woman to be admitted to the Director's Guild.

Widely respected as a pioneer for women filmmakers.


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