Evelyn Keyes
The veteran actress who played Scarlett O’Hara’s sister
The veteran actress who played Scarlett O’Hara’s sister
Evelyn Keyes
1916–2008
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
In her long career, Evelyn Keyes made dozens of movies, among them Union Pacific, The Buccaneer, and The Jolson Story. She was also married to and romantically involved with some of the entertainment industry’s most famous men. But Keyes was best known for what she called her “bit part” as Scarlett O’Hara’s sister Suellen in the 1939 epic Gone With the Wind. In her most memorable line, she pouted that Vivien Leigh’s vixenish Scarlett had stolen her fiancé: “She’ll have had three husbands and I’ll be an old maid!”
Born in Port Arthur, Texas, Keyes “danced professionally as Goldie Keyes before moving to Hollywood,” said the London Independent. Though she never broke through to the front ranks of stardom, she could handle a wide variety of roles. She won praise for her sensitive portrayal of a blind girl who befriends a disfigured Peter Lorre in The Face Behind the Mask (1941). That same year, in Here Comes Mr. Jordan, “she gave a beguiling performance as the girl who falls in love with a boxer who has been reincarnated as a businessman.” Other notable performances were as “a young bride facing tragedy in the frozen north” in Mrs. Mike (1950) and as Tom Ewell’s wife in The Seven Year Itch (1955).
Keyes was just as well known for her off-screen life, said The Washington Post. She was married four times—to businessman Barton Bainbridge, directors Charles Vidor and John Huston, and finally to bandleader Artie Shaw. “Those weren’t marriages,” she reflected. “They were legalized love affairs so we wouldn’t have the big stink: ‘Oh my God, they’re living together!’ So what do you do? You get married.” All her unions ended with varying degrees of bitterness; after she upbraided Huston for buying a chimpanzee and told him, “One of us has to go—it’s the monkey or me,” Huston replied, “Honey, it’s you.” During and between marriages, Keyes reportedly had affairs with a variety of leading men, including Anthony Quinn and Kirk Douglas, as well as with billionaire Howard Hughes. “I always took up with the man of the moment,” she said, “and there were many such moments.”
Keyes, who died of uterine cancer, is survived by the son she adopted with John Huston.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Today's political cartoons - April 27, 2024
Cartoons Saturday's cartoons - natural gas, fundraising with Ted Cruz, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Aid to Ukraine: too little, too late?
Talking Point House of Representatives finally 'met the moment' but some say it came too late
By The Week UK Published
-
5 generously funny cartoons on the $60 billion foreign aid package
Cartoons Artists take on Republican opposition, aid to Ukraine, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Benjamin Zephaniah: trailblazing writer who 'took poetry everywhere'
Why Everyone's Talking About Remembering the 'radical' wordsmith's 'wit and sense of mischief'
By The Week UK Published
-
Shane MacGowan: the unruly former punk with a literary soul
Why Everyone's Talking About The Pogues frontman died aged 65
By The Week UK Published
-
'Euphoria' star Angus Cloud dies at 25
Speed Read
By Catherine Garcia Published
-
Legendary jazz and pop singer Tony Bennett dies at 96
Speed Read
By Devika Rao Published
-
Martin Amis: literary wunderkind who ‘blazed like a rocket’
feature Famed author, essayist and screenwriter died this week aged 73
By The Week Staff Published
-
Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian folk legend, is dead at 84
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Barry Humphries obituary: cerebral satirist who created Dame Edna Everage
feature Actor and comedian was best known as the monstrous Melbourne housewife and Sir Les Patterson
By The Week Staff Published
-
Mary Quant obituary: pioneering designer who created the 1960s look
feature One of the most influential fashion designers of the 20th century remembered as the mother of the miniskirt
By The Week Staff Published