Constance Bennett: Hollywood Renegade

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J.A. Aberdeen Research Services

Photos: Aberdeen Collection

Constance Bennett.

Constance Bennett

SIMPP Member (1944-1948)

Excerpt from Hollywood Renegades by J. A. Aberdeen

Constance Bennett was another independent producer who made films at the General Service Studio, released through United Artists, and maintained a SIMPP membership. Bennett was an industry veteran with experience as an actor that went back to the days of Lewis J. Selznick, the father of Myron and David O. Selznick. She entered films through her father, matinee idol Richard Bennett, who starred in Samuel Goldwyn's first independent production The Eternal City (1923). A chance meeting between Sam Goldwyn and Constance lead to her emergence as a Hollywood performer in 1924.

Joan (sister), Richard (father), and Constance Bennett in 1947.

She attained stardom in the early talkies period at RKO as the sultry blonde in movies like David O. Selznick's What Price Hollywood? (1932). Outspoken and dissident, Bennett had a canny business sense that lead to her desire to become her own producer. She also earned a permanent place at the card table of high-stakes gamblers Goldwyn, Selznick, and Joe Schenck. Later in life she operated her own clothing and cosmetics enterprise with extraordinary success.

Joan Bennett, wife of Walter Wanger.

Her younger sister Joan Bennett married Walter Wanger in 1940, making Constance the sister-in-law of the SIMPP founder.

SOURCES:

Constance Bennett: see Bennett and Kibbee, The Bennett Playbill.

See Bibliography.