Norma Shearer was as versatile as she was charismatic

SHEARER. Won her first beauty title at age 5.

When we talk about Hollywood’s golden era, we remember Norma Shearer. The beautiful and well-mannered actress married “boy genius” Irving Thalberg. She started her career in silent pictures but remained famous when sound became popular. She starred in “Romeo and Juliet,” “Marie Antoinette” and “The Women,” among other films.

In the Shakespearean drama, Shearer was almost thrice the age of her teenage character, Juliet, but her clout won her the role opposite a balding Leslie Howard. There was talk that Shearer clinched those coveted roles because she was married to Thalberg, who was well-loved by producers.

She portrayed acclaimed poetess Elizabeth Barrett Browning in “The Barretts of Wimpole Street”—and in 1939’s “Idiot’s Delight,” she teamed up with Clark Gable, who performed the only song-and-dance number of his career, “Puttin’ On The Ritz.”

Shearer won her first beauty title at age 5. As an actress, she was as versatile as she was charismatic. In 1942, she married a ski instructor and, like Garbo, retired as a living legend. She is remembered as one of Tinseltown’s most beautiful movie queens!