Fay Bainter

Bainter was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Charles F. Bainter and Mary Okell.

Bainter made her first appearance on stage in 1908 in The County Chairman at Morosco's Burbank Theater, which was at 548-550 South Main Street, in Los Angeles, California. In 1910, she was a traveling stage actress. Her Broadway debut was in the role of Celine Marinter in The Rose of Panama (1912). P. G. Wodehouse, reviewing Turn to the Right in Vanity Fair in 1916, wrote, "Miss Bainter's advent from nowhere and her instant success form the season's biggest sensation." She appeared in a number of successful plays in New York, such as East Is West, The Willow Tree, and Dodsworth.

In 1926, she appeared with Walter Abel in a Broadway production of Channing Pollock's The Enemy. MGM persuaded her to try films and her movie debut was in This Side of Heaven (February 1934). Also in 1934, she appeared in Dodsworth on Broadway and in the film It Happened One Day. Bainter quickly achieved success in the movies, and in 1939, she became the first performer to receive two Oscar nominations in the same year, contending for both Best Actress for White Banners (1938) and Best Supporting Actress for Jezebel (1938), winning for the latter.

In 1940, she played Mrs. Gibbs in the film production of the Thornton Wilder play Our Town. In 1945, she played Melissa Frake in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical State Fair. She was again nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Children's Hour (1961).

Bainter has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, California.

Fay Bainter and Reginald Venable were married on June 8, 1921, in Riverside, California. Cmdr. Reginald Venable was a United States Navy officer who graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1913. He resigned from the Navy in 1925 as a lieutenant commander to manage his wife's business affairs. He had been a real-estate operator. The couple had one son, Reginald Venable Jr., who became an actor.

Bainter was the aunt of actress Dorothy Burgess.

Bainter and Venable are interred at Arlington National Cemetery.