MenuFLIXANO
Start Your Free Trial
Search
Fay Bainter

Fay Bainter

Fay Okell Bainter (December 7, 1893 – April 16, 1968) was an American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Jezebel (1938) and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. MGM persuaded her to try films and her movie debut was in This Side of Heaven (February 1934), the same year she appeared in Dodsworth on Broadway and in the film It Happened One Day (July 1934). Bainter quickly achieved success, and in 1938 she became the first performer nominated in the same year for both the Academy Award for Best Actress, for White Banners (1938), and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for Jezebel (1938), winning for the latter. Since then, only nine other actors have won dual nominations in a single year. In 1940 she played Mrs. Gibbs in the film production of the Thornton Wilder play Our Town. In 1945 she played Melissa Frake in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical State Fair. She was again nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Children's Hour (1961). Finally, in 1962, Fay appeared as a guest star on The Donna Reed Show.

She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.

Sign up to watch Free Fay Bainter Movies

Movies Starring Fay Bainter (46)

And the Oscar Goes To... (2014)

The story of the gold-plated statuette that became the film industry's most coveted prize, AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... traces the history of the Academy itself, which began in 1927 when Louis B. Mayer, then head of MGM, led other prominent members of the indu ...

Watch Now

The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind (1988)

This documentary revisits the making of Gone with the Wind via archival footage, screen tests, insightful interviews and rare film footage. ...

Watch Now

Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage (1983)

Out-takes (mostly from Warner Bros.), promotional shorts, movie premieres, public service pleas, wardrobe tests, documentary material, and archival footage make up this star-studded voyeuristic look at the Golden age of Hollywood during the 30s, 40, and 50 ...

Watch Now

The Children's Hour (1961)

An unruly student at a private all-girls boarding school scandalously accuses the two women who run it of having a romantic relationship. ...

Watch Now

The President's Lady (1953)

The story of president Andrew Jackson from his early years, through his meeting with and subsequent marriage to Rachel Donelson Robards. The plot concentrates on the later scandal concerning the legality of their marriage and how they overcame the difficul ...

Watch Now

Close to My Heart (1951)

A journalist's wife insists on adopting an abandoned child. ...

Watch Now

June Bride (1948)

A magazine's staff, including bickering ex-lovers Linda and Carey, cover an Indiana wedding, which goes slightly wrong. ...

Watch Now

Give My Regards to Broadway (1948)

A family vaudeville act is threatened when the eldest son is offered a contract to play baseball. Musical. ...

Watch Now

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)

Walter Mitty, a daydreaming writer with an overprotective mother, likes to imagine that he is a hero who experiences fantastic adventures. His dream becomes reality when he accidentally meets a mysterious woman who hands him a little black book. According ...

Watch Now

Deep Valley (1947)

A shy California farm girl falls head-over-heels in love with Barry Burnett, a fugitive from a chain gang building a road through the wilderness. ...

Watch Now

The Virginian (1946)

Arriving at Medicine Bow, eastern schoolteacher Molly Woods meets two cowboys, irresponsible Steve and the "Virginian," who gets off on the wrong foot with her. To add to his troubles, the Virginian finds that his old pal Steve is mixed up with black-hatte ...

Watch Now

The Kid from Brooklyn (1946)

Shy milkman Burleigh Sullivan accidentally knocks out drunken Speed McFarlane, a champion boxer who was flirting with Burleigh's sister. The newspapers get hold of the story and photographers even catch Burleigh knock out Speed again. Speed's crooked manag ...

Watch Now

State Fair (1945)

During their annual visit to the Iowa State Fair, the Frake family enjoy many adventures. Proud patriarch Abel has high hopes for his champion swine Blueboy; and his wife Melissa enters the mincemeat and pickles contest...with hilarious results. ...

Watch Now

3 Is a Family (1944)

Based on a play by Phoebe and Henry Ephron, "3 Is a Family" is a 1940s farce. Charlie Ruggles plays a hubby whose bungled business schemes force his wife, Fay Bainter, to enter the workplace. The couple's daughter, Marjorie Reynolds, shows up with her twin ...

Watch Now

Dark Waters (1944)

Leslie Calvin, the sole survivor of a submarine accident, goes to her relatives in order to recover emotionally. Unfortunately, she encounters various scam artists led by Mr. Sydney who intend to kill her and steal the family assets. Dr. George Grover help ...

Watch Now

The Heavenly Body (1944)

The beautiful wife of a tweedy astronomer becomes convinced that her astrologer's prediction of a new dream man in her life will come true. ...

Watch Now

Cry 'Havoc' (1943)

The Army nurses on Bataan need help badly, but when it arrives, it sure isn't what they expected. A motley crew, including a Southern belle, a waitress, and a stripper, show up. Many conflicts arise among these women who are thrown together in what is a de ...

Watch Now

Salute to the Marines (1943)

It is a comic book propaganda film which has Beery as a retired USMC NCO who, when the Japanese invade the Philippines, leads a heroic defense, first by strangling a Nazi agent, and then dying in his dress blues uniform while blowing up a bridge. ...

Watch Now

Presenting Lily Mars (1943)

Starstruck Indiana small-town girl Lily is pestering theatrical producer John Thornway for a role but he is reluctant. ...

Watch Now

The Human Comedy (1943)

Teenager Homer Macauley stays at home in the small town of Ithaca, California to support his family while his older brother Marcus prepares to go to war. ...

Watch Now

Journey for Margaret (1942)

An American newspaperman and his wife, end up in London after several retreats in the opening days of WWII. After a shrapnel wound and loss of her baby she returns to America. War weary, he is forced to do a story about war orphans, where he meets Margare ...

Watch Now

Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1942)

In the shanty town called the Cabbage Patch, Mrs. Wiggs scrabbles for survival with her brood of children and hopes for the return of her husband, who left many years before. ...

Watch Now

The War Against Mrs. Hadley (1942)

Wealthy American society matron, Stella Hadley refuses to sacrifice her material comforts to aid the war effort until she realizes that her selfishness is cheating the boys overseas who are fighting for her freedom. ...

Watch Now

Mr. Gardenia Jones (1942)

Documentary short film depicting the work of the United Service Organizations (USO) in providing recreational and morale-boosting services for American troops. ...

Watch Now

Woman of the Year (1942)

Rival reporters Sam Craig and Tess Harding fall in love and get married, only to find their relationship strained when Sam comes to resent Tess' hectic lifestyle. ...

Watch Now

Babes on Broadway (1941)

Penny Morris and Tommy Williams are both starstruck young teens but nobody seems to give them any chance to perform. Instead, they decide to put up their own show to collect money for a summer camp for the kids. ...

Watch Now

Cavalcade of the Academy Awards (1940)

This 1940 presentation features highlights of earlier (1928 onward) Oscar ceremonies including Shirley Temple and Walt Disney, plus acceptance speeches for films released in 1939 with recipients and presenters including Vivien Leigh, Judy Garland, Hattie M ...

Watch Now

Maryland (1940)

A woman tormented by the hunting death of her husband forbids her son to have anything to do with horses. But when he falls for the daughter of his father's trainer, he defies his mother by entering the Maryland Hunt. ...

Watch Now

A Bill of Divorcement (1940)

Father's return from the insane asylum spells calamity for the Fairfield family. ...

Watch Now

Our Town (1940)

Change comes slowly to a small New Hampshire town in the early 20th century. We see birth, life and death in this small community. ...

Watch Now

Young Tom Edison (1940)

Inventor Thomas Edison's boyhood is chronicled and shows him as a lad whose early inventions and scientific experiments usually end up causing disastrous results. As a result, the towns folk all think Tom is crazy, and creating a strained relationship betw ...

Watch Now

Our Neighbors - The Carters (1939)

A small town drugstore owner considers selling one of his children for money. ...

Watch Now

Screen Snapshots Series 19, No. 1 (1939)

The four Westmore brothers work their make-up magic on a variety of Hollywood stars. ...

Watch Now

Daughters Courageous (1939)

Nan Masters, a single mother living with her four marriageable daughters, plans to marry Sam Sloane, businessman. Out of the blue her first husband Jim returns after deserting the family 20 years earlier. The worldly wanderer Jim gets a cool family recepti ...

Watch Now

The Lady and the Mob (1939)

Hattie Leonard sets out to break a criminal gang controlling the dry cleaning business. ...

Watch Now

Yes, My Darling Daughter (1939)

Ellen is a free spirited young woman in love with Doug. Sadly he must leave America for a two year job in Belgium. Ellen and Doug decide to spend their last weekend together in a tourist cabin at a rural lake. Her family is shocked that a young unmarried w ...

Watch Now

Breakdowns of 1938 (1938)

Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1938. ...

Watch Now

The Shining Hour (1938)

A nightclub dancer shakes the foundations of a wealthy farming family after she marries into it. ...

Watch Now

The Arkansas Traveler (1938)

The Arkansas Traveler, an itinerant printer, returns to a small town to help save The Daily Record, a newspaper started by Mr. Allen, an old friend who is now deceased. ...

Watch Now

Mother Carey's Chickens (1938)

A financially-strapped mother and her children relocate from the city to a small rural town. ...

Watch Now

White Banners (1938)

A homeless woman named Hannah drifts into the lives of the kindly Ward family, in a small Indiana town in 1919. Hannah makes herself useful as a cook and housekeeper and stays with the Wards... but her real interest is in meeting their neighbor, teenager P ...

Watch Now

Jezebel (1938)

In 1850s Louisiana, the willfulness of a tempestuous Southern belle threatens to destroy all who care for her. ...

Watch Now

Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)

At a family reunion, the Cooper clan find that their parents' home is being foreclosed. "Temporarily," Ma moves in with son George's family, Pa with daughter Cora. But the parents are like sand in the gears of their middle-aged children's well regulated ho ...

Watch Now

The Soldier and the Lady (1937)

In the face of rebellion in Russia, Czar Alexander II sends soldier Michael Strogoff 2,000 miles away, with a critical message for Grand Duke Vladimir. On the train journey, Michael befriends a traveler and comes into contact with a mysterious spy, who bot ...

Watch Now

Quality Street (1937)

In the 1810s, an old maid poses as her own niece in order to teach her onetime beau a lesson. ...

Watch Now

This Side of Heaven (1934)

A family man becomes innocently involved in an embezzlement. ...

Watch Now