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Jeanne Eagels (born June 26, 1890; died October 3,
1929) was an actor|actress on Broadway and in
several motion pictures.  
      
Born Amelia Jeannine Eagles in Kansas City,
Missouri. It was there that she began her acting
career, appearing in a variety of small venues at
a very young age. Her ambitions were such that she
left Kansas City around the age of 12 and toured
the Midwest with the Dubinsky Brothers' traveling
theater show. At first she was a dancer, but in
time she went on to play the leading lady in
several popular comedies and dramas put on by the
Dubinskys. Around 1911, she came to New York City
to advance her acting career.  Because of the
stiff competition for parts, once again she had to
work her way up from the chorus. Even in the
chorus line she excelled and she eventually became
a Ziegfeld Girl. During this period, one of her
acting coaches was Beverly Sitgreaves, who had 
shared the stage with the great French actress 
Sarah Bernhardt. 

She changed the spelling of her surname to
"Eagels", allegedly because this spelling looked
better in lights.  Although she struggled for
recognition as a dramatic actress, her beauty,
talent and luck led to her getting bigger parts in
better shows.  Her stage career blossomed, and in
1915 she appeared in her first motion picture. In
1916 and 1917 she made three films for Thanhouser
Film Corporation.  

Eagels eventually won recognition and kudos
playing opposite the stage actor George Arliss in
three successive plays.  In 1918 she appeared in
Daddies, a David Belasco production, and won even
more notice.  She quit this show due to illness
(probably sinusitis) and she subsequently
travelled to Europe. She appeared in several other
Broadway shows between 1919 and 1921, but in 1922
she made her first appearance as a star in a bone
fide hit-  Rain.  She played the character of
Sadie Thompson, a free-wheeling and free-loving
spirit who confronts a fire-and-brimstone preacher
on a South Pacific island.  Critics raved about
her tense, smoldering, and vivid performance. The
house was packed nearly every night for two years.
She went on tour with Rain for two more seasons,
and returned to Broadway to give a farewell
performance in 1926. 

During this period she married 'Ted' Edward Harris
Coy (1925), a former Yale University football
star. Their marriage was rocky and they divorced
in 1928.  They had no children together. 

In 1926 Eagels was offered the part of Roxie Hart
in the play Chicago, but walked out of this role
during rehearsals, possibly due to conflicts with
the director. After much speculation about her
next play, she chose a comedy Her Cardboard Lover
(1927) in which she appeared on stage with Leslie
Howard. This play was a modest success, and after
a season on Broadway, she took a break to make a
movie. She appeared opposite John Gilbert in the
MGM film Man, Woman and Sin, which was directed by
Monta Bell.  She then went on tour with Her
Cardboard Lover for several months.  In 1928,
after failing to appear for a performance in
Milwaukee, Eagels was banned by Actors Equity from
appearing on stage for 18 months. 

The ban did not stop Eagels from working in film,
and she made two "talkies" for Paramount Pictures,
including The Letter and Jealousy (both released
in 1929).  Her performance in The Letter garnered
high praise from critics.  

Just before she was to return to the Broadway
stage in a new play, Eagels died suddenly at a
private hospital in New York City on October 3,
1929.  Medical examiners disagreed on the exact
cause of death, but the evidence pointed to the
effects of alcohol or heroin.  After services in
New York, Eagels received a second funeral service
when her body was returned to Kansas City, where
she was buried in Calvary Cemetery.  She was
survived by her mother, Julia Eagles, and several
brothers and sisters. 

Eagels was posthumously nominated for the Academy
Award for Best Actress for her role in The Letter
(1929 movie)|The Letter. The Oscar went to Mary
Pickford for the film Coquette. Eagels'
performance in The Letter inspired many actors new
to the medium of talking pictures, including Bette
Davis who repeated the role in a 1940 remake of
the film.   

==External Links==
*http://www.jeanneeagels.com Jeanne Eagels page 
*imdb name|id=0247074|name=Jeanne Eagels