Hedda Hopper - Career

Career

Hopper began acting in silent movies in 1915. Her motion picture debut was in The Battle of Hearts (1916) with William Farnum. She appeared in more than 120 movies over the following twenty-three years, usually portraying distinguished-looking society women.

As her movie career waned in the mid-1930s, Hopper looked for other sources of income. In 1937, she was offered the chance of a lifetime and embarked on a career doing something she was quite adept at: gossip. Her gossip column called "Hedda Hopper's Hollywood" debuted in the Los Angeles Times on February 14, 1938. After years of struggling as an actress, she had finally found her niche. She christened the home she purchased in Beverly Hills "The House That Fear Built". She maintained a notorious feud with the long-established Louella Parsons, who had been friendly to her in print and to whom she had sometimes passed information. Hopper and Parsons became archrivals competing fiercely, and often nastily, for the title "Queen of Hollywood", although those who knew both declared that Hopper, a former actress, was more sadistic. She was noted for her hats, considered her trademark, mostly because of her taste for large, flamboyant ones; and her hats were so famous that, in the 1946 movie, Breakfast in Hollywood, Del Porter, backed by Spike Jones and his City Slickers, sang a novelty song, "A Hat for Hedda Hopper" while Hopper was sitting in the audience wearing an extraordinary milliner's creation.

She was known for hobnobbing with the biggest names in the industry, for getting a "scoop" before almost anyone else most of the time, and for being vicious in dealing with those who displeased her, whether intentionally or not. Fictional columnist J.J. Hunsecker, played by Burt Lancaster in the film Sweet Smell of Success, is said to have been inspired at least in part by Hedda Hopper. Hopper courted controversy as well for "naming names" of suspected or alleged Communists during the Hollywood Blacklist. Her frequent attacks against Charlie Chaplin in the 1940s for his leftist politics and love life contributed to his departure from America in 1952. After publishing a blind item on Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy's relationship, Tracy confronted her at Ciro's and kicked her in the bottom. Similarly, after she had printed a story about an extramarital affair between Joseph Cotten and Deanna Durbin, Cotten ran into Hopper at a social event and pulled out her chair, only to continue pulling it out from under her when she sat down.

She reportedly tried to "out" Cary Grant and Randolph Scott as gay lovers, but Grant was too big a star even for her to touch. She also spread rumors that Michael Wilding and Stewart Granger had been intimate (Wilding later sued Hopper for libel and won). ZaSu Pitts compared Hopper unfavourably with "a ferret". Joan Bennett sent Hopper a skunk one Valentine's Day.

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Hopper has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6313½ Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.