Gloria Stuart, who is probably best known – at least by our generation – as the older Rose in Titanic, has died at the grand old age of 100.
While James Cameron’s boat-buster gave her a healthy recognition bump among younger audiences, she launched her career back in the 1930s, after acting in college at UC Berkeley and performing in small productions. Universal saw her potential and signed her to a contract, where she made movies with the likes of James Whale and Shirley Temple, before moving on to work for 20th Century Fox. After her time on the screen, she returned to the stage, before giving up acting in her mid ‘40s to pursue painting.
The 1970s saw her drawn back into the world of acting, with TV movies and a role in 1982’s Peter O’Toole film M****y Favourite Year. She admitted to fostering a big crush on the actor.
When James Cameron cast her in Titanic, she scored two notable achievements, becoming both the oldest Oscar nominee at 88 and the first person (alongside Kate Winslet) to be nominated for playing the same person. She joked that Cameron hired her because he needed an actress who was, quote, “still viable, not alcoholic, rheumatic or falling down,” though age make-up was applied to make her look older than her then-87 years.
Following the film, she would appear in several more TV shows and her final film performance is in Wim Wenders’ Land of Plenty.
"Not everyone receives the recognition they fully deserve in their lifetime, but the Guild was among those fortunate to know what we had before she was gone," SAG national president Ken Howard tells The Hollywood Reporter. "Gloria was an exceptional personality in every aspect, a delightful human being, and we take this loss as hard as we would that of any close family member, which she was. In every way, she exemplified the professional artist. She was a lover of life and a fighter."
Stuart, whose motto in life was “Everything in moderation. Even moderation,” had been suffering from lung cancer for several years, and died in her sleep on Sunday in Los Angeles.