Donna Reed Net Worth

Donna Reed's Quotes

• Forty pictures I was in, and all I remember is 'What kind of bra will you be wearing today, honey?' That was always the area of big decision - from the neck to the navel.
• I've been involved with blood donation since the 1980s because there is a critical need.
• If nuclear power plants are safe, let the commercial insurance industry insure them. Until these most expert judges of risk are willing to gamble with their money, I'm not willing to gamble with the health and safety of my family.
• What we look for in the school is unrealized potential.
• I hope more people decide to become organ donors.

Interesting Facts about Donna Reed

1. Despite her association with the squeaky-clean and conservative 1950s, Reed became an anti-nuclear activist and anti-Vietnam protester. She also founded the group Another Mother for Peace.
2. Her last husband Grover Asmus started a program called the Donna Reed Foundation that led to the Donna Reed festival held yearly in Denison, IA. It's a celebration of Donna, and includes classes, performances. Many stars attend such as Shelley Fabares, Debbie Reynolds, and Loren Janes.
3. In the scene from It's a Wonderful Life (1946) where she and James Stewart throw rocks at the old Granville house, director Frank Capra had originally planned to use a double in Donna's place to throw the rock. Miss Reed, however, was an accomplished baseball player in high school and threw very well, as evidenced by her toss in the movie.
4. Four children with husband/producer Tony Owen : Penny Owen, Tony Owen Jr., Timothy Owen and Mary Owen. Two were adopted. Mary, their last child, was born to them in 1957, a year before the start of Donna's classic TV show, which Tony executive produced.
5. Learned of her firing from Dallas (1978) from a reporter while on a vacation to Paris. She was in the process of suing the show's producers before her death in January, 1986.
6. The woman on the cover of Rush's Permanent Waves album is modeled after her.
7. In Italy, a great deal of her films were dubbed by Renata Marini and Dhia Cristiani (most notably From Here to Eternity (1953)). Occasionally she was also dubbed by Miranda Bonansea (in Green Dolphin Street (1947)), Rosetta Calavetta and Micaela Giustiniani. The great Lydia Simoneschi also lent her voice to Reed in Frank Capra's much celebrated It's a Wonderful Life (1946).
8. Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 725-727. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.
9. Although her image was generally associated that of the the squeaky-clean, conservative 1950s housewife and mother, she won her Oscar for From Here to Eternity (1953) for playing a prostitute.
10. Had a close relationship with her TV daughter, Shelley Fabares. Was considered by Fabares as her second mother until Reed's death in 1986.
11. Ex-sister-in-law of Thomas Tuttle.
12. She was a lifelong Republican.
13. Was the 39th actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for From Here to Eternity (1953) at The 26th Annual Academy Awards (1954) on March 25, 1954.
14. She was of English, as well as some German and Irish, ancestry. Some of her forebears were Canadian-born.
15. Maternal granddaughter of Charles (1860-1936) and Mary Etta Petty (1866-1947). Both were born and raised in Illinois.
16. Daughter of William Richard Mullenger (1893-1981) and Hazel Jane Shives (1899-1975). Both were born and raised in Iowa.
17. Paternal granddaughter of William G. Mullenger (1857-1934), born in Wisconsin, and Mary Ann Johnston (1864-1955), born in Illinois.
18. Paternal great granddaughter of Richard Bartley Johnston (1833-1913), born in Illinois, and Elizabeth Herner (1841-1917), born in Canada.
19. Is one of 13 actresses who won their Best Supporting Actress Oscars in a movie that also won the Best Picture Oscar (she won for From Here to Eternity (1953)). The others are Hattie McDaniel for Gone with the Wind (1939), Teresa Wright for Mrs. Miniver (1942), Celeste Holm for Gentleman's Agreement (1947), Mercedes McCambridge for All the King's Men (1949), Eva Marie Saint for On the Waterfront (1954), Rita Moreno for West Side Story (1961), Meryl Streep for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), Juliette Binoche for The English Patient (1996), Judi Dench for Shakespeare in Love (1998), Jennifer Connelly for A Beautiful Mind (2001), Catherine Zeta-Jones for Chicago (2002) and Lupita Nyong'o for 12 Years a Slave (2013).
20. Attended the LACC Theater Academy. Other alumni include Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Mark Hamill, Cindy Williams, and Rene Aranda.