It occurred to us that the photo we ran yesterday (see below) of Spring Byington may not square with how YOU remember this solid character actress, who became in her later years a big tv star. Today we thought we’d make amends.
This photo, with Hedy Lamarr, is from 1944’s The Heavenly Body, a movie Byington made when she was still a fairly young-looking woman in early middle age. At first glance, you might even think that the woman to the right is Doris Day from the pre-Pillow Talk era.
Far more representative visually is an image of Byington from her hit CBS tv series, December Bride, in which she played a still handsome widow living with her daughter and son-in-law. The Fifties series demonstrated that in addition to skillfully playing countless maternal roles in films, Byington made a great mother-in-law on tv.
In any case, here’s how she looked when she, in her Sixties, animated December Bride. Now that’s how we remember Spring Byington.
She is an interesting lady alright.
No mistaking Spring Byington for Doris Day or anyone else. Same with Hedy Lamarr, for that matter.
Spring looked remarkably unchanged over the 25 years of work I have seen her in. Never seemed young, but certainly never seemed old. And whatever the type of role, she never sank into (or gave into) flightiness, a la Billie Burke, and occasionally Lee Patrick (see Doris Upson in Auntie Mame). I know that flightiness was a tool perfected by those gifted actresses, but it seems to me Spring Byington avoided it. Rock solid.