Buy new:
$35.00
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$35.00
FREE Returns
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14. Order within 5 hrs 55 mins
Only 11 left in stock (more on the way).
$$35.00 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$35.00
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$18.05
Book may contain some writing, highlighting, and or cover damage. Shipped fast and reliably! Book may contain some writing, highlighting, and or cover damage. Shipped fast and reliably! See less
FREE delivery May 20 - 23. Details
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$35.00 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$35.00
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Ships from and sold by -OnTimeBooks-.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Donald Spoto
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

A Girl's Got To Breathe: The Life of Teresa Wright (Hollywood Legends Series) Hardcover – February 19, 2016

by Donald Spoto (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 89 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$35.00","priceAmount":35.00,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"35","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"00","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"dz1RGNnn3uNxsuJvfNYiek0yCNyPko%2BupJhArBbFtxOlMo87piSo1wJwYmdt78kjON94FoZW7G6uyXmdXsaqiFy6s%2FEWXJTzHPTh4u9cAJMPrZOxemsMC5Xy3eTVfLhueXo31Lw%2BeMUf6lt7%2F9f5Kg%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$18.05","priceAmount":18.05,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"18","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"05","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"dz1RGNnn3uNxsuJvfNYiek0yCNyPko%2Bu0rRA6ToTPzp4nuP9Om5yvDBwxehLD%2B4NF9bGHWwKJTlAPgw94849zGgUtyR%2F%2BPo8vcDkJb7Ef8KsHICdw%2FXWODHrYEgNJlT2bFExY35zV5KANJ1zhFR7Qop%2BCiO08VKc4A8Lnnwn7eDZYCx5848Iy79pAeBx9e4W","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

The actress Teresa Wright (1918–2005) lived a rich, complex, magnificent life against the backdrop of Golden Age Hollywood, Broadway and television. There was no indication, from her astonishingly difficult―indeed, horrifying―childhood, of the success that would follow, nor of the universal acclaim and admiration that accompanied her everywhere. Her two marriages―to the writers Niven Busch (The Postman Always Rings Twice; Duel in the Sun) and Robert Anderson (Tea and Sympathy; I Never Sang for My Father)―provide a good deal of the drama, warmth, poignancy and heartbreak of her life story.

“I never wanted to be a star,” she told the noted biographer Donald Spoto at dinner in 1978. “I wanted only to be an actress.” She began acting on the stage in summer stock and repertory at the age of eighteen. When Thornton Wilder and Jed Harris saw her in an ingénue role, she was chosen to understudy the part of Emily in the original production of Our Town (1938), which she then played in touring productions. Samuel Goldwyn saw her first starring role on Broadway―in the historic production of Life with Father―and at once he offered her a long contract.

She was the only actress to be nominated for an Academy Award for her first three pictures (The Little Foxes; The Pride of the Yankees; and Mrs. Miniver), and she won for the third film. Movie fans and scholars to this day admire her performance in the classics Shadow of a Doubt and The Best Years of Our Lives. The circumstances of her tenure at Goldwyn, and the drama of her breaking that contract, forever changed the treatment of stars.

Wright's family and heirs appointed Spoto as her authorized biographer and offered him exclusive access to her letters and papers. Major supporting players in this story include Robert Anderson, Alfred Hitchcock, William Wyler, Karl Malden, Elia Kazan, Jean Simmons, Dorothy McGuire, Bette Davis, George Cukor, Marlon Brando, George C. Scott, the artist Al Hirschfeld, Stella Adler, and more.

Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Part of series
    Hollywood Legends
  2. Print length
    284 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    University Press of Mississippi
  5. Publication date
    February 19, 2016
  6. Dimensions
    5.9 x 1.2 x 9.1 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    1628460458
  8. ISBN-13
    978-1628460452
  9. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Frequently bought together

A Girl's Got To Breathe: The Life of Teresa Wright (Hollywood Legends Series)
$35.00
Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14
Only 11 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Being and Becoming: A Memoir
$15.69
Get it as soon as Wednesday, May 15
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
One of these items ships sooner than the other.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Prolific celebrity biographer Spoto (The Redgraves: A Family Epic) paints an engaging and intimate portrait of Oscar-winning actor Teresa Wright. Her notable film roles included Shadow of a Doubt, The Best Years of Our Lives, and The Pride of the Yankees, in which she improvised her famous line, 'A girl's gotta breathe!', after receiving a lengthy on-screen kiss from costar Gary Cooper. . . . [Spoto] depicts Wright as a unique and hardworking talent who shied away from the spotlight. As he describes her, she embodied the buoyant and determined spirit of mid-twentieth-century America, and her fresh-faced beauty was warmly embraced by contemporary audiences. ― Publishers Weekly

This affectionate tribute to a shamefully neglected talent benefits greatly from the insights of Wright's children and friends. With the performer's views on Marlon Brando, Sterling Hayden, and notable American directors and playwrights, it is recommended for students of American film and theater. -- Stephen Rees ― Library Journal

In between the standard celebrity-bio synopsis of every one of Wright's roles, prolific entertainment biographer Spoto (The Redgraves, 2012) creates a respectable study of a woman who may not have realized the happiness she desired in her personal life, but whose professional accomplishments cannot be denied. A worthwhile read for fans of Hollywood's Golden Age. -- Carol Haggas ― Booklist

A Girl's Got To Breathe is as much memoir as biography, but the intimacy works. Wright's talent and yearnings come alive on the page. -- Scott Eyman ― Wall Street Journal

Anyone at all interested in Wright will likely be delighted by this compactly written volume. But it also tells well the story of the private woman, and that story also turns out to be of considerable interest. -- Paul C. Peterson, Coastal Carolina University ― The Journal of American Culture, Volume 41, Issue 1

Teresa Wright's long career is lovingly recreated in this warm and revealing biography that is a tribute to her art and a record of her longtime friendship with the author. A Girl's Got To Breathe is one of Donald Spoto's most insightful and personal biographies and a portrait of an artist who can truly be called a 'working actress.' -- Bernard F. Dick, author of The Screen Is Red: Hollywood, Communism, and the Cold War

Teresa Wright projected a kind of gentle incandescence and, simultaneously, a tacit, unyielding strength. She was a real actor who could conjure both a glowing sympathy and a winning toughness--qualities that are unforgettable in the great Hitchcock classic Shadow of a Doubt, to name but one of her many enduring achievements. Donald Spoto's revelations about the woman's stunning and tragic family history make it all the more apparent that she was an artist with an extraordinary gift for transcendence. -- Mart Crowley, playwright, The Boys in the Band

Teresa Wright was one of the great American actresses. She's finally received her due in Donald Spoto's charming and incisive biography. -- Stephan Talty, New York Times bestselling author of Agent Garbo

Review

"Teresa Wright was one of the great American actresses. She's finally received her due in Donald Spoto's charming and incisive biography." -- Stephan Talty, New York Times bestselling author of Agent Garbo

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University Press of Mississippi; First Edition (February 19, 2016)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 284 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1628460458
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1628460452
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.3 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.9 x 1.2 x 9.1 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 89 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Donald Spoto

Donald Spoto

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Donald Spoto is the author of Blue Angel: The Life of Marlene Dietrich, Rebel: The Life and Legend of James Dean, The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock, Diana: The Last Year, The Hidden Jesus: A New Life, and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: A Life.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
89 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Gianni D
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best
Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2016
Verified Purchase
One of the best movie biographies I've ever read. I was very familiar with the movies of Teresa Wright but not about her stage and television performances. I knew nothing about her personal life. I learned a lot about her life in this book and a lot about life in the theater.

Teresa Wright's story was an unusual and interesting one from her early childhood to her relationships with Niven Busch and Robert Anderson. Learning about her career in acting was enlightening. It was refreshing to read about an actor who was enamored with her craft and concerned about the execution of her art rather than with frivolous glamour and celebrity self-absorption—and one who was sincerely caring about others, whether they were famous directors and actors or everyday people.

What makes this biography come alive is the author's admiration for and friendship with the subject. It's a very readable and probing account into the life and work of a bright star of the stage and screen.
17 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Victor Thomas
4.0 out of 5 stars Fine biography of Teresa Wright by celebrated author who knew her well
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2017
Verified Purchase
There are a slew of performers who have yet to have biographies written about them, and Wright was way overdue. Few actresses started at the top as Teresa Wright did, and she had the luck of appearing in motion pictures that are still revered today, especially The Little Foxes, Shadow of a Doubt and The Best Years of Our Lives. She was unlike others in her generation as she spurned glamour, but had a warm, open face that the camera loved. She was Broadway-trained, but had a naturalness on the screen and acting chops behind the pleasant demeanor. William Wyler, known as a stern task master, employed her three times, and Hitchcock, never generous to actors, laid much of the success of Shadow of a Doubt to her.

And yet, she sort of disappeared after WW II. What happened? Spoto, who knew her personally, explains much, tracing her story and filling in many gaps. This is the best kind of biography, as he informs the reader about the circles she traveled in, her two husbands, her children, and, especially her post WW II career on the stage, which likely gave her more satisfaction as an actor than her film work, as she performed stellar work all over the country playing the great female parts. TV also kept her in the public eye, and she garnered the constant respect of her peers along the way. As her films began to get revived, she made herself available to scholars to give unique views of them. She also allowed herself to age naturally, and became even more charming as she got older.

I don't always like Mr. Spoto's work, but as he knew Wright and her second husband for so many years, he adds a warmth to his telling that makes this work far more personal and winning. It was likely a labor of love, and he captures his subject admirably.
17 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Marilyn Crady
5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful person & actress
Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2017
Verified Purchase
Teresa Wright was one of my favorite actresses. The author captured her life so beautifully, warts and all she had experienced through her life. When I read this account of her life, It made me realize how fragile so much of all our lives are. To know how down to earth and kind she was and so scatter brained, made me like her even more. This is truly a complete biography, i believe, because the writer loved her dearly. I very much enjoyed reading about Teresa's life through his words.
7 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Evan Torch, M. D.
3.0 out of 5 stars A one dimensional portrait of a fascinating actress who deserved better.
Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2016
Verified Purchase
No one could have been a bigger fan and admirer of Teresa Wright than I am; nevertheless, I had hoped for a well researched biography that was able to help me gain an insight into this actress's complicated history, both in her acting career and personal life.

What I did not want, but this book delivers, is a an endless paean to her at every juncture, every conflictual decision, indeed almost an incessant series of adulatory restatements of how well liked and respected and admired Ms. Wright was by coworkers and colleagues--a sort of apologetica where none is needed and a needless distraction.

Ironically, Teresa Wright was brutally realistic in her own self assessments and would have wanted her long awaited biography to unwind that way!
Donald Spoto should write fan club bulletins, not biographies.
20 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars ... to finally get to know one of my most favorite actresses of the golden age on a more personal ...
Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2016
Verified Purchase
Cheers to Donald Spoto for helping me to finally get to know one of my most favorite actresses of the golden age on a more personal level. I never though it would come. I though she was going to be passed over. Seen as unworthy of a proper biography. But Spoto fixed that. I have long wondered what kind of a woman Miss Wright really was under the glamour of Hollywood ever since I laid eyes on her soft, warm beauty and talent some fifty years ago after my first viewing of "Pride of the Yankees". Though it's sad to find out that she was ultimately a bad judge when it came to picking husbands (wasting her love on two men who couldn't have possibly comprehended the depths of her sensitive soul), I was thrilled to discover that she remained (through all lifes ups and downs) a woman of impeccable strength and character. Kudos, Mr. Spoto.
5 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
R. L Wright
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best actresses ever
Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2018
Verified Purchase
Finally, a biography of one of my favorite actresses, one who had just about been shamefully forgotten. I had admired her work in The Pride of the Yankees, Mrs Miniver, and her best film, The Best Years of Our Lives. She was a class act as well as a thorough professional. I knew very little of her private life. Mr Spoto became a close personal friend of hers so we have an invaluable portrait of Miss Wright. She was admired throughout the entertainment industry and I am glad a biography has finally been released about this remarkable lady.
5 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Wingate
3.0 out of 5 stars So many wrong decisions
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 1, 2018
Verified Purchase
I bought that as some of Wrights Goldwyn films were shown on tv.I didn't realise that her career as a major film actress ended with her sacking by Goldwyn .So I found the rest of her acting career of little interest.I found it a great source of irritation that the author brought himself and his private life into the book.I couldn't wait to finish this book.This book is best for her fans.
Report
TR7V
3.0 out of 5 stars More Homage than Real Biography
Reviewed in Canada on April 22, 2016
Verified Purchase
For years I wondered whether a biography of Teresa Wright would ever be forthcoming. As a fan I sincerely hoped for one but, realistically, was there enough of a market for an actress who’s most accessible work occurred chiefly in the 1940s? Furthermore, would there be enough good primary material available to give real insight, not only of that crucial decade’s films but also to fill out the subject’s personal life and later career? Consider that much of her post 1950 work was either in the moment (live performance) or otherwise unavailable. The author himself allows that he was only able to view about half of Wright’s TV work. It was therefore going to take a special writer’s touch to succeed. As both a veteran biographer of celebrities and friend of Ms. Wright for several decades, Donald Spoto appeared to have the credentials. Certainly the Wright family felt confident enough to grant him unlimited access to the family archives. Unfortunately, as badly as I wanted this book to succeed, it fell well short of expectations.
In his introduction Spoto states that previously he adhered to the belief that an author should “disappear” from his work, but that he wouldn’t be doing so here. His rationale has to do with false humility and weakening the narrative. Where a writer can inject real substance into a work I’m all for it. Here for the most part it is annoying, serves little purpose and is repetitive. How many times must we read what great friends Wright, Robert Anderson and Spoto were? Is this meant to impress the reader, to distract them from the fact that he really has nothing of value to offer on a topic or is it merely filler? A case might be made for any of the above. With only 228 pages to tell the tale, I only need to know Teresa served Spoto and his husband wine and cheese if it provides context for something greater. Here it’s only fluff.
Should the subject’s best known work be pared down to 60 pages or so? There’s little new, or even old, in regards to her 1940s films. The odd nugget drawn from her papers but little else. Could someone who wrote so well really have had nothing interesting to say about co-stars such as Loy, Tracy or Niven? Often we’re told only that lifelong friendships resulted but, almost as often, that’s the last that’s ever heard of them. Once in a while Wright’s critique of the styles of directors such as Wyler and Hitchcock are presented but these examples are both brief and scarce. In regards to the film Shadow of a Doubt the author actually directs the reader to seek out his earlier volumes about Hitchcock for further detail. Nor is this a one off. The tactic is repeated in regards to Anderson’s link to Audrey Hepburn. As that relationship was to have a major impact on the Wright-Anderson marriage, the writer should provide further details as is necessary. It is a disservice to plug his previous works instead.

On the matter of Wright’s infamous professional split from Samuel Goldwyn there’s little new here either. Mostly the same old he said, she said. There is one wistful hint that Wright eventually realized that this career altering event need never have gotten out of hand. There are two sides to every story but, the biographer prefers to waste his efforts rehashing Wright’s actions defending of her position rather than tackling an unbiased analysis of what may ultimately have been no more than the wills of two stubborn people. And there’s precious little of Wright’s first husband’s role in this matter either. While Spoto does discuss the dominant personality of Niven Busch in regards to his young wife elsewhere, little is provided or even speculated on as to his impact on career decisions such as this one.

In discussing Anderson’s 1968 production of his I Never Sang for My Father in which Wright appeared, Spoto writes “... critics did not approve of the play, the playwright or the playwright’s wife.” A New York Times review in particular apparently disturbed Wright. Fair enough. However the author then seemingly contradicts himself in the footnote by saying that those same criticisms were not widely shared reactions to the play or the actress.

However, not all is flawed. Access to the family material provides a nice selection of photographs; many previously unpublished. Spoto does a very good job tracing her early life and delicately handles what at best can be termed a disturbing childhood. He makes sure that the reader understands that she rose above this horror and never became bitter or dark because of it. Did Donald Spoto’s devotion to Wright and friendship with Anderson prevent him from being critical or even impartial as her biographer? I already knew what a remarkable actress she was and thus found his somewhat gushing, PR style is almost defensive where there was never a need. Less of that and more comment and detail would have improved this book immensely. Teresa Wright deserved better.
2 people found this helpful
 Report