Academy Award-winning actress Teresa Wright, who died of a heart
attack last week at 86, was a Hollister resident for several years
in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
She and husband Niven Busch, a screenwriter and novelist, moved
to San Benito County from the San Fernando Valley in the late
1940s.
Hollister – Academy Award-winning actress Teresa Wright, who died of a heart attack last week at 86, was a Hollister resident for several years in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
She and husband Niven Busch, a screenwriter and novelist, moved to San Benito County from the San Fernando Valley in the late 1940s.
Wright was a stage actress before going to Hollywood in 1941 to play Bette Davis’ daughter in “The Little Foxes.” She was nominated Best Supporting Actress for her first film.
In 1942, she received a Best Actress nomination opposite Gary Cooper in “Pride of the Yankees,” a film biography of baseball great Lou Gehrig. That same year she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in “Mrs. Miniver” with Walter Pidgeon and Greer Garson. No other actress has been nominated for her first three pictures.
Many notable films followed, including “The Best Years of Our Lives” and “The Men,” in which Marlon Brando made his movie debut.
She and Busch were divorced in 1952 after a decade of marriage that produced a son, Niven Terence Busch, and a daughter, Mary Kelly Busch. She later married playwright Robert Anderson, divorced him, then remarried him.
Busch was the author of “Duel in the Sun,” which was made into a film in 1947. He wanted Wright to play the female lead, Pearl Chavez, opposite Gregory Peck, but she was expecting a child and the role went to Jennifer Jones.
Busch himself was nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay, “In Old Chicago,” in 1937. He later wrote the screenplay for “Pursued,” which featured Wright and Robert Mitchum.
The late Bob Henry, who owned and managed Henry’s Book Store, said of Wright during an interview in the late 1960s, “She came into the store from time to time to buy a book. She was a little reserved but always pleasant, a real lady.”
