Originally named “Ruby Stevens”, Barbara Stanwyck began her life attending Erasmus Hall in Brooklyn, New York. She was orphaned at the age of 4 after her mother died suddenly and her father abandoned her. By the age of 14, she dropped out. Eventually to work as a chorus girl at the age of 15. She danced in nightclubs and had made $40 a week in the Ziegfeld Follies. By the 20’s she became a model, and gained her stage name from a theatrical poster that read: “Jane Stanwyck in Barbara Frietchie”. At her beginning stages, she once quoted, “I just wanted to survive and eat and have a nice coat.”
- Birthday:
July 16, 1907 - Died:
January 20, 1990, Santa Monica, CA. - Birth Place:
Brooklyn, New York - Education:
Erasmus Hall High School
Barbara Stanwyck 