Leading Lady Claudette Colbert Dies -- Actress' Long Career Spanned The Golden Age Of Hollywood

Claudette Colbert, who had been a star for so long that almost no one could remember when - or if - she had ever been anything else, died yesterday. She was 90.

Miss Colbert died in Bridgetown, Barbados, where she had been hospitalized in March 1993 after a stroke.

Miss Colbert was a popular leading lady for three decades, a veteran of 64 films and recipient of countless honors.

The film that brought her an Academy Award was "It Happened One Night," the "sleeper" hit of 1934 in which her shimmering contralto voice was paired opposite Clark Gable's macho form and cynical demeanor.

The picture was a lightweight comedy, a thin tale about a runaway heiress and a newspaperman. Audience reaction, however, was instantaneous.

One scene called for her to raise her skirt briefly, to attract cars, after Gable had failed to do so with his thumb.

The story goes that she really didn't want to do such an indiscreet thing; a stunt double was brought in, but Miss Colbert realized that her legs were more beautiful than the double's and so she grimly consented. Up went the hem, just barely over the knee, exposing a sliver of flesh.

The film swept the Oscars (and because Gable appeared nude from the waist up almost demolished the undershirt business). In both their cases, faltering careers were rescued, and in both cases immortality was achieved.

The three decades of movie history to which Miss Colbert brought a heart-shaped face framed by reddish-brown bangs and highlighted by a bright smile spanned Hollywood's fabled Golden Age - from the intimacy of silent films to the sprawling images of CinemaScope.

Born in Paris, she moved with family to New York

Lily Claudette Chauchoin, according to her passport, was born Sept. 13, 1905, in Paris. In her later years, she gave her birth year as 1903, which would make her 92 at her death.

Her family moved to New York City in 1910.

At her grandmother's suggestion, Lily studied art and design to prepare for a career in the fashion world; she also began taking classes at the Art Students League.

"But plans are one thing, and life is another," the actress said in later years. "Grandmere's hopes, and mine, turned pale the day I met Anne Morrison. . . ."

Playwright Morrison told Lily she should become an actress and wangled the girl a three-line part in a stage play, "The Wild Westcotts."

During the show's tryout in Stamford, Conn., Lily's part was expanded - and she acquired a new name. " `Lily' didn't seem right, somehow," she said, "so I settled on `Claudette.' And `Chauchoin' became `Colbert.' "

In 1927, the part of Lou, the snake charmer in "The Barker," became her real "big break."

The play ran for 172 performances on Broadway - and led to her first movie contract, starring opposite Ben Lyon in the silent film, "For the Love Of Mike."

In 1928, she married actor Norman Foster, her co-star in "The Barker," but the different courses of their two careers imposed severe strains. They divorced.

She became one of the top money-makers

Miss Colbert followed her successes in "It Happened One Night" and "Cleopatra" with "Imitation of Life," in 1934, and with "The Gilded Lily," "Private Worlds" (an Oscar nomination) and "She Married Her Boss" the following year, when she was named one of the 10 top money-making stars.

In 1936, she married Dr. Joel Pressman, a surgeon who died in 1968.

His death was a shattering blow.

"He was my best friend," she said. "I had been hemmed in all my life, thinking that if I wanted to go somewhere, I couldn't. All of a sudden I was completely alone - my mother and my brother died not long after - and I could go anywhere. And it was awful. . . ."

But she endured. "I don't have any patience with people who say `I can't,' " she said. "You can do anything you want to do if you try."

A memorial service was planned for Saturday on Barbados, where her ashes will be buried in a family vault with her mother and husband. Margaret Leacock, a family friend, said she believed Miss Colbert's only surviving relative was a niece, Coco, her brother's daughter.