Geraldine Mary Wilma FitzgeraldWhite, Lawrence William (2011) "Fitzgerald, Geraldine Mary Wilma". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 11 October 2025. (November 24, 1913 – July 17, 2005) was an Irish American actress. She received the Daytime Emmy Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award. She was a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2020 she was listed at number 30 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.
She made her film debut in the British thriller Blind Justice (1934). She went on to receive a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Isabella Linton in the William Wyler-directed romantic drama Wuthering Heights (1939). She acted in classic Hollywood films such as Dark Victory (1939), Watch on the Rhine (1943), and Wilson (1944). Her later films included The Pawnbroker (1964), Rachel, Rachel (1968), Harry and Tonto (1974), Arthur (1981), Easy Money (1983), and Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986).
Early life Fitzgerald was born at 85 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin,White, Trevor (2 July 2023). "A tale of three female stars who cleared the path from Ireland’s past to the present". Irish Independent. Retrieved 11 October 2025. the daughter of Edith Catherine (née Richards) and Edward Martin FitzGerald, who was a lawyer. The family would later live in Greystones, County Wicklow. Her father was Roman Catholic, and her mother was a Protestant who converted to Catholicism.
She studied painting at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art (which became the National College of Art in 1936 and, later again in 1971, the National College of Art and Design). Inspired by her aunt, actress Shelah Richards, Fitzgerald began her acting career in 1932 at Dublin's Gate Theatre. After two seasons in Dublin she moved to London, where she found success in British films including The Mill on the Floss, Turn of the Tide, and Cafe Mascot.
Career
Fitzgerald's success led her to New York and the Broadway stage in 1938. She made her American debut opposite Orson Welles in the Mercury Theatre production of Heartbreak House. Hollywood producer Hal B. Wallis saw this production and subsequently signed her to a contract with Warner Bros. She had two significant successes in 1939: a role in the Bette Davis film Dark Victory and an Academy Award nomination for her supporting performance as Isabella Linton in William Wyler's Wuthering Heights.
She then appeared in Shining Victory (1941), The Gay Sisters (1942), and Watch on the Rhine (1943) for Warner Bros. and in Wilson (1944) for 20th Century Fox, but her career was hampered by her frequent clashes with studio management. She lost the role of Brigid O'Shaughnessy, villainess in The Maltese Falcon (1941), after such a clash with executive Jack L. Warner. Although she continued to work throughout the 1940s, co-starring with John Garfield in the Warner Bros. crime drama Nobody Lives Forever (1946), the quality of her roles began to diminish and her career lost momentum.
In 1946, shortly after completing work on Three Strangers, she left Hollywood to return to New York City, where she married her second husband, Stuart Scheftel, a grandson of Isidor Straus. She returned to Britain to film So Evil My Love (1948), receiving strong reviews for her performance as an alcoholic adultress, and The Late Edwina Black (1951) before returning to the United States. She became a naturalized United States citizen on April 18, 1955.
The 1950s provided her with few opportunities in film. However, during the 1960s she asserted herself as a character actor, and her career enjoyed a revival. Among her successful films during this period were Ten North Frederick (1958), The Pawnbroker (1964), and Rachel, Rachel (1968). Her later films included The Mango Tree (1977), for which she received an Australian Film Institute Best Actress nomination, and Harry and Tonto (1974), in a scene opposite Art Carney. In the comedy Arthur (1981) she portrayed Dudley Moore's wealthy and eccentric grandmother, even though she was only 22 years older than Moore. In 1983 she portrayed Rose Kennedy in the miniseries Kennedy, with Martin Sheen, and co-starred as Joanne Woodward's mother in the 1985 drama Do You Remember Love. Fitzgerald appeared in the 1983 Rodney Dangerfield comedy Easy Money, the horror film Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986), and the comedy Arthur 2: On the Rocks (1988). In 1986 she starred alongside Tuesday Weld and River Phoenix in Circle of Violence, a television film about elder abuse.
Fitzgerald returned to stage acting and won acclaim for her performance in the 1971 revival of Long Day's Journey Into Night. In 1976 she performed as a cabaret singer with the show Streetsongs, which played three successful runs on Broadway and was the subject of a PBS television special. She recorded an album of the show for Harbinger Records, produced by Bill Rudman and Ken Bloom and distributed by Ben Bagley's Painted Smiles Records. She also achieved success as a theatre director; in 1982, she became one of the first women to receive a Tony Award nomination for Best Direction of a Play for a production of Mass Appeal. While in New York, Fitzgerald collaborated with playwright and Franciscan brother Jonathan Ringkamp to found the Everyman Theater of Brooklyn, a street theater company. The company performed throughout the city, including at Ethical Culture and La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. Their first performance took place at La MaMa in September 1972 with a production called Everyman at La MaMa.La MaMa Archives Digital Collections. "Production: Everyman at La MaMa (1972)". Accessed May 14, 2018. They then performed The Francis-Day, a musical about Francis of Assisi, at La MaMa in July 1973.La MaMa Archives Digital Collections. "Production: Francis-Day, The (1973)". Accessed May 14, 2018.
She appeared on television in such series as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Robert Montgomery Presents, Naked City, St. Elsewhere, The Golden Girls, and Cagney and Lacey. She had a regular role in the short-lived 1965 CBS serial Our Private World. In 1987 she played a title role in the television pilot Mabel and Max, produced by Barbra Streisand. She received an Emmy Award nomination for a guest role playing Anna in The Golden Girls Mother's Day episode in 1988 and played a different character in the episode "Not Another Monday". She won a Daytime Emmy Award as best actress for her appearance in the NBC Special Treat episode "Rodeo Red and the Runaways". On February 8, 1960, Fitzgerald was recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6353 Hollywood Boulevard for her contributions to motion pictures.
Personal life
Fitzgerald married Sir Edward Lindsay-Hogg, 4th Bt., in London on November 18, 1936. She was granted a divorce in Reno on August 30, 1946, after three years of separation. She had one son, director Sir Michael Lindsay-Hogg, with Edward and a daughter, Susan Scheftel, during her second marriage to American businessman Stuart Straus Scheftel, grandson of Ida and Isidor Straus who perished in the sinking of the Titanic.
Her son's resemblance to Orson Welles, with whom she worked and was linked romantically in the late 1930s, led to rumors that Welles was his biological father. Fitzgerald never confirmed this to her son, but in his 2011 autobiography Lindsay-Hogg wrote that this question was resolved by his mother's close friend Gloria Vanderbilt, who had written that Fitzgerald told her that Welles was his father.
A 2015 biography of Welles by Patrick McGilligan argues that Welles' paternity is unlikely. Fitzgerald left the United States for Ireland in late May 1939, and her son was born in early May 1940, meaning that he was conceived before her return to the U.S. in late October. Welles did not travel overseas during that period.
English actress Tara Fitzgerald is Fitzgerald's great-niece.
Death Fitzgerald died at age 91 in New York City, following a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. She is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, in The Bronx, next to her husband, Stuart Straus Scheftel.
Acting credits Film Year Title Role Notes1934 Blind Justice Peggy Summers Open All Night Jill 1935 The Lad Joan Fandon Three Witnesses Diana Morton Department Store Jane Grey The Ace of Spades Evelyn Daventry Turn of the Tide Ruth Fosdyck Lieutenant Daring R.N. Joan Fayre 1936 Debt of Honour Peggy Mayhew Cafe Mascot Moira O'Flynn The Mill on the Floss Maggie Tulliver 1939 Wuthering Heights Isabella Dark Victory Ann King A Child Is Born Grace Sutton 1940 'Til We Meet Again Bonny Coburn 1941 Flight from Destiny Betty Farroway Shining Victory Dr. Mary Murray 1942 The Gay Sisters Evelyn Gaylord 1943 Watch on the Rhine Marthe de Brancovis 1944 Ladies Courageous Virgie Alford Wilson Edith Bolling Galt 1945 The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry Lettie Quincey 1946 Three Strangers Crystal Shackleford O.S.S. Ellen Rogers / Elaine Duprez Nobody Lives Forever Gladys Halvorsen 1948 So Evil My Love Susan Courtney 1951 The Late Edwina Black Elizabeth 1958 Ten North Frederick Edith Chapin 1961 The Fiercest Heart Tante Maria 1964 The Pawnbroker Marilyn Birchfield 1968 Rachel, Rachel Reverend Wood 1973 The Last American Hero Mrs. Jackson 1974 Harry and Tonto Jessie 1976 Echoes of a Summer Sara Diary of the Dead Maud Kennaway 1977 The Mango Tree Grandma Carr 1978 Bye Bye Monkey Mrs. Toland 1981 Arthur Martha Bach Lovespell Bronwyn 1982 Blood Link Mrs. Thomason 1983 Easy Money Mrs. Monahan 1986 Poltergeist II: The Other Side Gramma-Jess 1988 Arthur 2: On the Rocks Martha Bach
Television Year Title Role Notes1951–1955 Robert Montgomery Presents Elizabeth 6 episodes1960 Shirley Temple's Storybook Aunt Rosa Season 2 Episode 13: "The Black Sheep"1961 Alfred Hitchcock Presents Elizabeth Burton Season 6 Episode 24: "A Woman's Help"1964 The Nurses Nurse Carrie Bruno Season 2 Episode 23: "For the Mice and the Rabbits"1965 The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Agatha Tomlin Season 3 Episode 24: "Power of Attorney"1970 The Best of Everything Violet Jordan 114 episodes1973 Me Ma TV movie (aka Untold Damage)1975 NBC Special Treat Ella McCune 1977 The Quinns Peggy Quinn TV movieYesterday's Child Emma Talbot TV movie1983 Kennedy Rose Kennedy TV Miniseries1985 Do You Remember Love Lorraine Wyatt TV movie1986 Circle of Violence: A Family Drama Charlotte Kessling TV movie1988–1989 The Golden Girls Anna / Martha 2 episodes: "Mothers' Day" (1988) / "Not Another Monday" (1989) 1991 Bump in the Night Mrs. Beauchamps TV movie, (final film role)
Radio Year Program Episode Ref. 1941 Philip Morris Playhouse Stage Door
Awards and nominations Year Award Category Work Result Ref. 1939 Academy Award Best Supporting Actress Wuthering Heights 1939 National Board of Review Best Acting Dark Victory / Wuthering Heights 1960 Hollywood Walk of Fame Motion Picture Star 1975 Daytime Emmy Awards Outstanding Individual Achievement in Children's Programming NBC Special Treat 1982 Tony Award Best Direction of a Play Mass Appeal (1982) 1988 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series The Golden Girls (episode "Mother's Day")
References
External links
Portrait of Geraldine Fitzgerald c. 1936 by George Hurrell Portrait of Geraldine Fitzgerald c. 1939 by Hurrell
Fitzgerald's page on La MaMa Archives Digital Collections Geraldine Fitzgerald papers, 1944-1990s (bulk 1970s-1980s), held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.