actress, writer and journalist.
Born Patricia Crum, Patricia Bosworth, who gave up acting for the writing life, turning her knowledge of the theater into a series of biographies and mining her own extraordinary life for a pair of powerful memoirs, died on Thursday in Manhattan. She was 86.
Her stepdaughter, Fia Hatsav, said the cause was complications of pneumonia brought on by the coronavirus.
Ms. Bosworth had some success as an actress. She was admitted to the Actors Studio in its glory days, learning method acting alongside Marlon Brando and Marilyn Monroe. She won some important roles onstage and appeared alongside Audrey Hepburn on film.
Suicide haunted her. Her father, who had long abused barbiturates and alcohol, killed himself, on his second try, in 1959. And her beloved younger brother shot himself in his dorm room at Reed College in Oregon in 1953, tormented by depression and conflicted over his homosexuality.
The subjects of Ms. Bosworth's biographies were either suicides (Arbus), survivors of a relative's suicide (Jane Fonda) or flamboyantly self-destructive (Clift, Brando). She explained that writing these books was "one of the ways I coped with and tried to understand why the two men I loved most in the world had decided to kill themselves."
But as challenging as it may have been, Ms. Bosworth's life was hardly grim.
Patricia Crum was born into privilege on April 24, 1933, in San Francisco, the daughter of Bartley Cavanaugh Crum and Anna Bosworth Crum, who was known as Cutsie. Her mother was a former crime reporter who wrote several novels, among them "Strumpet Wind" (1938).
Her father, who was known as Bart, encouraged Patricia's acting aspirations, and it was he who advised her to take her mother's maiden name — depriving future critics of the chance, as she put it, to castigate a "crummy performance by Patricia Crum."
As a film actress Ms. Bosworth played a young nun, the best friend of Audrey Hepburn's title character, in "A Nun's Story" (1959).
In addition to her stepdaughter, Ms. Bosworth is survived by her partner, Douglas Schwalbe; a stepson, Léo Palumbo; and five step-grandchildren.
Spouses:
Mel Arrighi
(m. 1966; his death 1986)
Tom Palumbo
(m. 2002; his death 2008)
[An American journalist and biographer, memoirist, and actress. She was a faculty member of Columbia University's school of journalism as well as Barnard College, and was a winner of the Front Page Award for her journalistic achievement in writing about the Hollywood Blacklist.
She died during the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic due to complications brought on by COVID-19.]
Born Patricia Crum, Patricia Bosworth, who gave up acting for the writing life, turning her knowledge of the theater into a series of biographies and mining her own extraordinary life for a pair of powerful memoirs, died on Thursday in Manhattan. She was 86.
Her stepdaughter, Fia Hatsav, said the cause was complications of pneumonia brought on by the coronavirus.
Ms. Bosworth had some success as an actress. She was admitted to the Actors Studio in its glory days, learning method acting alongside Marlon Brando and Marilyn Monroe. She won some important roles onstage and appeared alongside Audrey Hepburn on film.
Suicide haunted her. Her father, who had long abused barbiturates and alcohol, killed himself, on his second try, in 1959. And her beloved younger brother shot himself in his dorm room at Reed College in Oregon in 1953, tormented by depression and conflicted over his homosexuality.
The subjects of Ms. Bosworth's biographies were either suicides (Arbus), survivors of a relative's suicide (Jane Fonda) or flamboyantly self-destructive (Clift, Brando). She explained that writing these books was "one of the ways I coped with and tried to understand why the two men I loved most in the world had decided to kill themselves."
But as challenging as it may have been, Ms. Bosworth's life was hardly grim.
Patricia Crum was born into privilege on April 24, 1933, in San Francisco, the daughter of Bartley Cavanaugh Crum and Anna Bosworth Crum, who was known as Cutsie. Her mother was a former crime reporter who wrote several novels, among them "Strumpet Wind" (1938).
Her father, who was known as Bart, encouraged Patricia's acting aspirations, and it was he who advised her to take her mother's maiden name — depriving future critics of the chance, as she put it, to castigate a "crummy performance by Patricia Crum."
As a film actress Ms. Bosworth played a young nun, the best friend of Audrey Hepburn's title character, in "A Nun's Story" (1959).
In addition to her stepdaughter, Ms. Bosworth is survived by her partner, Douglas Schwalbe; a stepson, Léo Palumbo; and five step-grandchildren.
Spouses:
Mel Arrighi
(m. 1966; his death 1986)
Tom Palumbo
(m. 2002; his death 2008)
[An American journalist and biographer, memoirist, and actress. She was a faculty member of Columbia University's school of journalism as well as Barnard College, and was a winner of the Front Page Award for her journalistic achievement in writing about the Hollywood Blacklist.
She died during the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic due to complications brought on by COVID-19.]
actress, writer and journalist.
Born Patricia Crum, Patricia Bosworth, who gave up acting for the writing life, turning her knowledge of the theater into a series of biographies and mining her own extraordinary life for a pair of powerful memoirs, died on Thursday in Manhattan. She was 86.
Her stepdaughter, Fia Hatsav, said the cause was complications of pneumonia brought on by the coronavirus.
Ms. Bosworth had some success as an actress. She was admitted to the Actors Studio in its glory days, learning method acting alongside Marlon Brando and Marilyn Monroe. She won some important roles onstage and appeared alongside Audrey Hepburn on film.
Suicide haunted her. Her father, who had long abused barbiturates and alcohol, killed himself, on his second try, in 1959. And her beloved younger brother shot himself in his dorm room at Reed College in Oregon in 1953, tormented by depression and conflicted over his homosexuality.
The subjects of Ms. Bosworth's biographies were either suicides (Arbus), survivors of a relative's suicide (Jane Fonda) or flamboyantly self-destructive (Clift, Brando). She explained that writing these books was "one of the ways I coped with and tried to understand why the two men I loved most in the world had decided to kill themselves."
But as challenging as it may have been, Ms. Bosworth's life was hardly grim.
Patricia Crum was born into privilege on April 24, 1933, in San Francisco, the daughter of Bartley Cavanaugh Crum and Anna Bosworth Crum, who was known as Cutsie. Her mother was a former crime reporter who wrote several novels, among them "Strumpet Wind" (1938).
Her father, who was known as Bart, encouraged Patricia's acting aspirations, and it was he who advised her to take her mother's maiden name — depriving future critics of the chance, as she put it, to castigate a "crummy performance by Patricia Crum."
As a film actress Ms. Bosworth played a young nun, the best friend of Audrey Hepburn's title character, in "A Nun's Story" (1959).
In addition to her stepdaughter, Ms. Bosworth is survived by her partner, Douglas Schwalbe; a stepson, Léo Palumbo; and five step-grandchildren.
Spouses:
Mel Arrighi
(m. 1966; his death 1986)
Tom Palumbo
(m. 2002; his death 2008)
[An American journalist and biographer, memoirist, and actress. She was a faculty member of Columbia University's school of journalism as well as Barnard College, and was a winner of the Front Page Award for her journalistic achievement in writing about the Hollywood Blacklist.
She died during the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic due to complications brought on by COVID-19.]
Born Patricia Crum, Patricia Bosworth, who gave up acting for the writing life, turning her knowledge of the theater into a series of biographies and mining her own extraordinary life for a pair of powerful memoirs, died on Thursday in Manhattan. She was 86.
Her stepdaughter, Fia Hatsav, said the cause was complications of pneumonia brought on by the coronavirus.
Ms. Bosworth had some success as an actress. She was admitted to the Actors Studio in its glory days, learning method acting alongside Marlon Brando and Marilyn Monroe. She won some important roles onstage and appeared alongside Audrey Hepburn on film.
Suicide haunted her. Her father, who had long abused barbiturates and alcohol, killed himself, on his second try, in 1959. And her beloved younger brother shot himself in his dorm room at Reed College in Oregon in 1953, tormented by depression and conflicted over his homosexuality.
The subjects of Ms. Bosworth's biographies were either suicides (Arbus), survivors of a relative's suicide (Jane Fonda) or flamboyantly self-destructive (Clift, Brando). She explained that writing these books was "one of the ways I coped with and tried to understand why the two men I loved most in the world had decided to kill themselves."
But as challenging as it may have been, Ms. Bosworth's life was hardly grim.
Patricia Crum was born into privilege on April 24, 1933, in San Francisco, the daughter of Bartley Cavanaugh Crum and Anna Bosworth Crum, who was known as Cutsie. Her mother was a former crime reporter who wrote several novels, among them "Strumpet Wind" (1938).
Her father, who was known as Bart, encouraged Patricia's acting aspirations, and it was he who advised her to take her mother's maiden name — depriving future critics of the chance, as she put it, to castigate a "crummy performance by Patricia Crum."
As a film actress Ms. Bosworth played a young nun, the best friend of Audrey Hepburn's title character, in "A Nun's Story" (1959).
In addition to her stepdaughter, Ms. Bosworth is survived by her partner, Douglas Schwalbe; a stepson, Léo Palumbo; and five step-grandchildren.
Spouses:
Mel Arrighi
(m. 1966; his death 1986)
Tom Palumbo
(m. 2002; his death 2008)
[An American journalist and biographer, memoirist, and actress. She was a faculty member of Columbia University's school of journalism as well as Barnard College, and was a winner of the Front Page Award for her journalistic achievement in writing about the Hollywood Blacklist.
She died during the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic due to complications brought on by COVID-19.]
Family Members
Siblings
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Advertisement
