---
name: "Barbara Bel Geddes"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/barbara-bel-geddes"
fi1m_id: "barbara-bel-geddes"
imdb_id: "nm0000895"
tmdb_id: 5730
wikidata_id: "Q232421"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "31 October 1922"
died: "8 August 2005"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-17T21:24:22.215101+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Barbara Bel Geddes

## Identity

Barbara Bel Geddes

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/barbara-bel-geddes
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** barbara-bel-geddes
- **IMDb ID:** nm0000895
- **TMDB ID:** 5730
- **Wikidata ID:** Q232421
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Bel_Geddes, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q232421, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000895/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/5730

Actor. Born 31 October 1922 in New York City, New York, USA. Died 8 August 2005.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 31 October 1922, New York City, New York, USA
- **Died:** 8 August 2005
- **Primetime Emmy Awards:** 1 Emmy (1 won)
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Bel_Geddes, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q232421, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000895/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/5730

## Fi1m on Barbara Bel Geddes

> Barbara Bel Geddes makes sensible, supportive women worth watching in their own right. We value her warmth and intelligence, though the repeated casting as the person who looks after everyone else can make her seem less interesting than she is.

In *Vertigo* (1958), Barbara Bel Geddes plays Midge Wood, the detective’s practical ex-fiancée, with a warmth that makes her concern matter. She gives us somebody to care about outside the film’s consuming romance. We were unexpectedly moved by that warmth, because it makes the detective’s fascination seem careless of a person who is already there. The part could easily become a pause between more glamorous encounters. Bel Geddes makes us want to spend time with Midge.

Hitchcock gets particular value from her down-to-earth manner: beside it, obsession looks less inviting. We rate *Vertigo* highly, despite its far-fetched mystery and some overlong journeys, and her presence helps its discomfort take hold. There is a danger in describing this sort of acting only as supportive. It suggests that the achievement belongs to whoever has the more conspicuous part. Bel Geddes supplies a reason to question the romance even while James Stewart and Kim Novak give it painful conviction.

The earlier film work includes Katrin Hanson in *I Remember Mama* (1948) and Nancy Reed opposite Richard Widmark in Elia Kazan’s *Panic in the Streets* (1950). Kazan also directed her as the original Maggie in the Broadway production of *Cat on a Hot Tin Roof* (1955). Those parts should discourage any assumption that Midge was all she could do. Hitchcock brought her into four episodes of *Alfred Hitchcock Presents*, including the lead in *Lamb to the Slaughter*.

Television eventually made that steadiness central, with Miss Ellie Ewing in *Dallas* (1978), a role she played until 1990. The matriarch suited the warmth that had served her in smaller parts, though such casting risks leaving an actor responsible for everybody else’s feelings. We would not mistake the familiarity of those women for a lack of skill. On a return to *Vertigo*, give Midge more of your attention.

## Biography

Barbara Bel Geddes (31 October 1922 – 8 August 2005) was an American stage and screen actress. Born in New York City, she began her career in the theatre, making her Broadway debut in the early 1940s. She appeared in films such as *The Long Night* (1947) and received an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress for *I Remember Mama* (1948). In 1958 she played Marjorie 'Midge' Wood in Alfred Hitchcock's *Vertigo*.

Bel Geddes originated the role of Maggie the Cat in the 1955 Broadway production of *Cat on a Hot Tin Roof*. Her film career was interrupted in the 1950s by the Hollywood blacklist, after which she worked in theatre and on television, including episodes of *Alfred Hitchcock Presents*. She is best known for playing Miss Ellie Ewing in the television series *Dallas* (1978–1990), for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, the.hitchcock.zone.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Vertigo* (1958), Fi1m 92, as Marjorie 'Midge' Wood — [page](https://film.one/film/vertigo.md)

## Complete filmography (25)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Dallas* (1978), series, as Miss Ellie
- *Our Town* (1977), as Mrs. Webb
- *Spencer's Pilots* (1976), series, Actor
- *The Todd Killings* (1971), as Mrs. Todd
- *Summertree* (1971), as Ruth
- *Journey to the Unknown* (1968), series, as Inga Madison
- *CBS Playhouse* (1966), series, as Doris Gray
- *Daniel Boone* (1964), series, as Molly Malone
- *Dr. Kildare* (1961), series, as Dr. Ruth Halliman
- *By Love Possessed* (1961), as Clarissa Winner
- *The Dow Hour of Great Mysteries* (1960), series, Actor
- *Five Branded Women* (1960), as Marja
- *Riverboat* (1959), series, as Missy
- *The Five Pennies* (1959), as Wila Stutsman
- *Vertigo* (1958), as Marjorie 'Midge' Wood — Fi1m 92, [page](https://film.one/film/vertigo.md)
- *Alfred Hitchcock Presents* (1955), series, as Lucia Clay, Mary Maloney, Helen Brewster, Sybilla Meade
- *Schlitz Playhouse of Stars* (1951), series, as Marcia, Mary Andrews
- *Fourteen Hours* (1951), as Virginia Foster
- *Panic in the Streets* (1950), as Nancy Reed
- *Robert Montgomery Presents* (1950), series, as The Second Mrs. de Winter, Tracy Samantha Lord
- *Caught* (1949), as Leonora Eames
- *Blood on the Moon* (1948), as Amy Lufton
- *Studio One* (1948), series, as Charlotte Lamb, Letty Grey
- *I Remember Mama* (1948), as Katrin
- *The Long Night* (1947), as Jo Ann

## Gallery

- ![Barbara Bel Geddes](https://film.one/media/person/59155/gallery-c21fdf64888b.jpg) Barbara Bel Geddes — Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/BarbaraBelGeddes.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Publicity photo of Barbara Bel Geddes in 1952](https://film.one/media/person/59155/gallery-144f8002fed7.jpg) Publicity photo of Barbara Bel Geddes in 1952 — Joe Wolhandler, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/1952_Barbara_Bel_Geddes.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Articolo per la rivista "Cinema", n.1, ottobre 1948. Panorama del cinema USA durante la Seconda Guerra Mondiale](https://film.one/media/person/59155/gallery-92ac3c3431d5.jpg) Articolo per la rivista "Cinema", n.1, ottobre 1948. Panorama del cinema USA durante la Seconda Guerra Mondiale — Francesco Pasinetti, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/CinemaNordAmericano1939-46_%28page_4-2_crop%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Publicity photo of American actors, (seated at table; L–R) Barbara Bel Geddes, Gary Epp, Robert Lansing and (front) Johnny Doran promoting the 1974 touring thea](https://film.one/media/person/59155/gallery-d06c59f92538.jpg) Publicity photo of American actors, (seated at table; L–R) Barbara Bel Geddes, Gary Epp, Robert Lansing and (front) Johnny Doran promoting the 1974 touring thea — The press-materials are presumed to have been distributed by the producers of the production and/or by publicity representatives employed to publicize said production., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/92/Finshing_Touches_Cast_1974.jpg/1280px-Finshing_Touches_Cast_1974.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Barbara Bel Geddes](https://film.one/media/person/59155/gallery-03cddce2ae70.jpg) Barbara Bel Geddes — Image via TMDB
- ![Photo of George Stevens joking with Barbara Bel Geddes on the set of I Remember Mama. (1948)](https://film.one/media/person/59155/gallery-cdd2cc66ff92.jpg) Photo of George Stevens joking with Barbara Bel Geddes on the set of I Remember Mama. (1948) — Copyright 1948 Dell Publishing, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/50/George_Stevens_and_Barbara_Bel_Geddes_I_Remember_Mama.jpg/1280px-George_Stevens_and_Barbara_Bel_Geddes_I_Remember_Mama.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![English: Harbor Drive-In theater advertisement for the psychological thriller film, Vertigo. 24 July 1958.](https://film.one/media/person/59155/gallery-068f89384a9e.jpg) English: Harbor Drive-In theater advertisement for the psychological thriller film, Vertigo. 24 July 1958. — Paramount Pictures, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/68/Harbor_Drive-In_Ad_-_24_July_1958%2C_National_City%2C_CA.jpg/1280px-Harbor_Drive-In_Ad_-_24_July_1958%2C_National_City%2C_CA.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

## Awards

### Academy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated

- 1949: Best Supporting Actress (nominated), for *I Remember Mama*

### Primetime Emmy Awards — 1 won

- 1980: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (won), for *Dallas*

### Other awards — 2 won, 2 nominated

- Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play 1961: Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play (nominated)
- Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play 1956: Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play (nominated)
- Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year 1952: Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year (won)
- Theatre World Award 1946: Theatre World Award (won)

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/barbara-bel-geddes