Martha Stewart Dead: 'In a Lonely Place' and 'Daisy Kenyon' Star Was 98

Martha Stewart, an actress who starred alongside Humphrey Bogart in the noir classic In a Lonely [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

Martha Stewart, an actress who starred alongside Humphrey Bogart in the noir classic In a Lonely Place and with Joan Crawford in Daisy Kenyon, died on Wednesday, her daughter, Colleen Shelley, revealed on Twitter Thursday. Stewart, who was born Martha Ruth Stewart Haworth, was 98. Stewart appeared in only a handful of movies between 1945 and 1964 and was married to singer-comedian Joe E. Lewis in the 1940s.

"The original Martha Stewart left us yesterday. She had a new part to play in a movie with all her heavenly friends. She went off peacefully surrounded by her family and cat," Shelley tweeted. "Martha Ruth Haworth aka Martha Stewart. 10-07-1922 - 02-17-2021 she had a good run. Fare thee well Mommy." Shelley included a lobby card from In a Lonely Place, showing her mother with Bogart in the Nicolas Ray-directed classic.

Stewart was born on Oct. 7, 1922, in Bardwell, Kentucky. Her family moved to Brooklyn, New York during her childhood and she graduated from New Utrecht High School in 1939, notes The Hollywood Reporter. She got her start in show business by singing on the radio with Glenn Miller, Harry James, and Claude Thornhill. During an engagement at the Stork Club in Manhattan, a Hollywood talent scout spotted her. She soon made her film debut in 1945's Doll Face, 20th Century Fox musical featuring future Guys and Dolls star Vivian Blaine. In the following year, she starred in Johnny Comes Flying Home, an adventure movie about pilots starting an aviation company after World War II.

In 1947, she starred in the musical I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now and Otto Preminger's classic Daisy Kenyon, starring Crawford, Dana Andrews, and Henry Fonda. Stewart's other movies include Convicted (1950), Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick (1952), and Surf Party (1964). In 1950, she starred as Mildred Atkinson in In a Lonely Place, which is now considered one of Bogart's best movies.

Stewart also starred in one Broadway production, 1946's Park Avenue. She made appearances on television as well, appearing in an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and The Red Skelton Show. Her first husband was Lewis, a singer and comedian who was later played by Frank Sinatra in the biopic The Joker Is Wild (1957), which co-starred Mitzi Gaynor as Stewart. Stewart's second husband was actor George O'Hanlon. In 1955, she married her third husband, David Shelley, who died in 1982. Stewart and Shelley's son, guitarist David Shelley Jr., died in 2015 after a battle with cancer.

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