--- name: "Grace Moore" canonical: "https://film.one/person/grace-moore" roles: ["Actor"] born: "4 December 1898" died: "26 January 1947" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "actor" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-19T22:41:24.104429+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." --- # Grace Moore Actor. Born 4 December 1898 in Slabtown, Tennessee, USA. Died 26 January 1947. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 4 December 1898, Slabtown, Tennessee, USA - **Died:** 26 January 1947 - **Also known as:** Mary Willie Grace Moore - **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar nomination - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Moore, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q253757, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0601254/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/591344 ## Fi1m on Grace Moore > Grace Moore was a Metropolitan Opera soprano who made films so that people who would never buy an opera ticket could hear one. The acting is brisk and limited; the singing is the real thing, when the microphones of the day could hold it. Halfway through *One Night of Love* (1934), Tullio Carminati's Giulio Monteverdi makes Mary Barrett run scales while he butters his toast. Grace Moore, as Mary, looks properly annoyed. Then she opens her mouth and the picture changes shape around her. That is her habit and, for most of her screen career, her whole method: the plot marks time until she sings, and when she sings she is not pretending. Other actors of the period mimed to a dubbed soprano or held a note for the length of a shot. Moore had sung Mimì at the Metropolitan Opera in 1928 and stayed there for sixteen seasons, and the camera simply records what she could do. The films came second and she never quite disguised it. She had started in Broadway musicals in the early 1920s before training in Europe for opera, and MGM signed her in 1930 for *A Lady's Morals*, in which she played the historical soprano Jenny Lind, and *New Moon*. Neither made her a film star. Columbia did, four years later, when Harry Cohn put her in Victor Schertzinger's *One Night of Love*, a backstage romance built to carry her voice and not much else. Five more Columbia pictures followed through 1939, among them *The King Steps Out* (1936), directed of all people by Josef von Sternberg, and *Louise* (1939), a film of the Charpentier opera in the part widely counted as her greatest on stage. What works is the voice, and what she does when she is not using it is kept sensibly small. As an actress she is brisk and unfussy and does not do much beyond stubborn and hopeful, which is what the parts ask. Carminati gets the best out of her by playing the tyrant teacher half as a joke on himself, so that she has something to push against. What does not work, in 1934 at least, is the recording. In the café, singing at conversational volume, she sounds like a person and we found ourselves leaning towards the screen. On the opera stage her top notes pinch into a whistle through tin and the orchestra flattens behind her, and we winced on her behalf, because it fails her at exactly the moments the film has been saving up for. The later Columbia films, *When You're in Love* (1937) and *I'll Take Romance* (1937) among them, had a more mixed reception than the breakthrough. We have not reviewed them and will not judge what we have not sat through. The studio's plan, to put opera excerpts in front of a cinema audience that would not otherwise hear them, does not appear to have changed. Start with *One Night of Love* and do not expect an actress. Expect a soprano with a plot round her, and listen hardest in the quiet scenes, where the microphones could keep up. ## Biography Grace Moore was an American operatic soprano and actress. Born Mary Willie Grace Moore on 5 December 1898 in Slabtown, Tennessee, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1928 as Mimi in La Bohème and appeared in several films, including A Lady's Morals (1930) and New Moon (1930). She played the role of Mary Barrett in the 1934 musical film One Night of Love, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Her films helped bring opera to wider audiences. Moore was married to the Spanish actor Valentin Parera and published an autobiography in 1944. She died in a plane crash near Copenhagen on 26 January 1947. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, tennesseeencyclopedia.net.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *One Night of Love* (1934), Fi1m 73, as Mary Barrett — [page](https://film.one/film/one-night-of-love.md) ## Complete filmography (10) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Louise* (1939), as Louise - *I'll Take Romance* (1937), as Elsa Terry - *When You're in Love* (1937), as Louise Fuller - *The King Steps Out* (1936), as Princess Elizabeth / Cissy - *Love Me Forever* (1935), as Margaret Howard - *One Night of Love* (1934), as Mary Barrett — Fi1m 73, [page](https://film.one/film/one-night-of-love.md) - *Strange Case of Hennessy* (1933), as The Maid - *Jenny Lind* (1931), as Jenny Lind - *New Moon* (1930), as Princess Tanya Strogoff - *A Lady's Morals* (1930), as Jenny Lind ## Gallery - ![Grace Moore](https://film.one/media/person/1227427/gallery-b3ecca86c102.jpg) Grace Moore — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Grace_Moore.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Grace Moore](https://film.one/media/person/1227427/gallery-820df8330ace.jpg) Grace Moore — Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Grace_Moore_%281930s%29_%2853274446640%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![La cantante ed attrice Grace Moore in una immagine pubblicata in Italia nel 1936 (2017)](https://film.one/media/person/1227427/gallery-7b0d39772df4.jpg) La cantante ed attrice Grace Moore in una immagine pubblicata in Italia nel 1936 (2017) — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Moore_grace_1936.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![A Lady's Morals Subjects (LCTGM): motion pictures, actresses, actors (1930)](https://film.one/media/person/1227427/gallery-fe13b112f1ed.jpg) A Lady's Morals Subjects (LCTGM): motion pictures, actresses, actors (1930) — Unknown photographerUnknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1a/A_Lady%27s_Morals_%28SAYRE_15122%29.jpg/1280px-A_Lady%27s_Morals_%28SAYRE_15122%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Grace Moore](https://film.one/media/person/1227427/gallery-3641c8398881.jpg) Grace Moore — Image via TMDB - ![Grace Moore & Andre Pernet in Louise (1939)](https://film.one/media/person/1227427/gallery-b22627ed80d4.jpg) Grace Moore & Andre Pernet in Louise (1939) — Unknown authorUnknown author, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Grace_Moore_%26_Andre_Pernet_in_Louise.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Sujet : Marafioti, Pasqual Mario (1878-1951) -- Portraits Moore, Grace (1898-1947) -- Portraits Portraits collectifs -- 1914-1945 Référence bibliographique : Ro (1928)](https://film.one/media/person/1227427/gallery-9a17fbf70f64.jpg) Sujet : Marafioti, Pasqual Mario (1878-1951) -- Portraits Moore, Grace (1898-1947) -- Portraits Portraits collectifs -- 1914-1945 Référence bibliographique : Ro (1928) — Pacific and Atlantic (Agence photographique). Agence photographique pour le document reproduit (commanditaire) Agence Rol. Agence photographique (commanditaire), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/28/Mario_Marafioti%2C_Grace_Moore_%28Pacific%29_-_btv1b531956544.jpg/1280px-Mario_Marafioti%2C_Grace_Moore_%28Pacific%29_-_btv1b531956544.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated - 1935: Best Actress (nominated), for *One Night of Love* *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/grace-moore