Barbara Stanwyck
Sexy

Classy lassie Barbara Stanwyck was a sort of Susan Lucci of her day — although she was nominated four times, she was known as “The Best Actress who Never Won an Oscar.” Of course, Barbara finally got an “honorary award” in 1982 and she definitely deserved it. Born “Ruby Catherine Stevens” on July 16, 1907, in Brooklyn, New York, Barbara was placed in foster care after her mother passed away. She never graduated high school and worked as a telephone operator and dress pattern cutter before becoming a showgirl. After a brief but critically lauded stage career, not-so-buxom Barb made the jump to the silver screen at the dawn of the talkies in flicks like Mexicali Rose (1929) and Illicit (1931), thus beginning one of the longest and most respected careers in cinematic history. She brought the controversial film Baby Face to life in 1933. “Illicit” might best describe her appearance in Lady of Burlesque (1943), based on a novel by skinfamous stripper Gypsy Rose Lee — Babs flashed flesh in the face of the stringent Hays Code. Her personal life was similarly salacious, with a stormy marriage to actor Frank Fay (said to have inspired the movie A Star is Born [1954]) and an affair with Robert Wagner, who was twenty-three years her junior. Ms. Stanwyck is one bright flame who’ll ignite your wick! Barbara died in 1990 at the age of 82. Her ashes were scattered from a helicopter over Lone Pine, California, where she made some Western films during her career. This skinfamous show girl will be missed.