The daughter of acclaimed theatrical set designer-architect Norman Bel Geddes, she....
The daughter of acclaimed theatrical set designer-architect Norman Bel Geddes, she began her stage career as a teenager. Bel Geddes made her New York debut in "Out of the Frying Pan" (1941) and went on to earn awards for "Deep Are the Roots" (1945). She later co-starred in "The Moon Is Blue" (1951), originated the role of Maggie in Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1955) and played the title role in Jean Kerr's "Mary, Mary" (1961). Her last stage appearance to date was in a tour of Eugene O'Neill's "Ah, Wilderness!"
Bel Geddes made her feature debut in "The Long Night" (1947) as an ingenue romanced by both Henry Fonda and Vincent Price. The following year, she earned an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress as the narrator/eldest daughter in "I Remember Mama". Bel Geddes delivered a skillful portrayal as the young bride of a millionaire in Max Ophuls' "Caught" (1949) and won praise as Jimmy Stewart's ex-fiancee in Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" (1958).
As her film output slowed, Bel Geddes turned to TV where she was memorable as a housewife who murders her husband the investigating officer in an episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". A bout with cancer in the early 1970s slowed her briefly, but she went on to gain her greatest fame as Miss Ellie, the benign matriarch of a dysfunctional Texas family in the long-running primetime soap "Dallas" (CBS). Bel Geddes, who won a 1980 Emmy for the role, left the series in 1984 to undergo heart surgery (and was replaced by Donna Reed) but returned in 1985 and remained with the show until 1990.