Norma Shearer was born Edith Norma Shearer on August 11, 1902 in Montreal, Canada. Norma's father Andrew Shearer, the son of a Scottish immigrant, ran a very successful construction company. Her mother Edith Shearer was the descendant of many English clergymen. Norma had two older siblings, Douglas and sister Athole. In young Norma's early years she was often quite sick, but at times could be extremely active as well. She was athletic and spent a lot of time with her male friends. Norma's family was very well-off in her younger years, although her father was mentally unstable. The young girl's mother encouraged her to go for her dream in show business. In 1915 Norma won a beauty contest.
In 1920 Norma Shearer's family began to have financial problems. Her family was forced to sell their home and live in a worse neighborhood. Norma quit school at the age of sixteen when the whole family had to find work to support themselves. In the latter part of 1920 the Shearer family split up after her parents seperated. Edith moved the children with her to California, leaving Andrew in Motreal. There she hoped that her daughters and herself could find work in the picture business. However, Norma was told that she was too short and that her legs were overly fat. She also had a cast in one eye (this was later concealed by careful camera work until it could be fixed through therapy). Soon Norma and her sister were offered roles as extras. Her first major role was in "The Stealers"(Robertson-Cole Pictures, 1920). Soon it became hard to find work and the Shearers had to go back to Montreal. After a short while Edith Shearer once again moved her children, this time to New York. Norma modeled there until she was offered a deal the Mayer company. She soon was back in California.
In 1923 Norma Shearer was offered a contract by MGM's "boy wonder", executive Irving Thalberg. She accepted the contract and made her first movie under MGM, He Who Gets Slapped(1924) with Lon Chaney and John Gilbert. After going to parties, and other such public events, Irving and Norma became engaged in 1927. Norma Shearer became Mrs. Thalberg in 1928. It was a joyous day for both of them. Norma continued her acting career with M-G-M. In all she made about 32 silent movies, the last one being A Lady of Chance(M-G-M, 1928). Nearly all of her last silent movies were made with MGM. In 1929 Norma Shearer made her first "talkie" movie, The Trial of Mary Dugan. Before the movie was filmed, Norma's voice had to be tested to see how well she could speak on film. Her voice proved to be excellent for movies.
Norma continued to make many more movies under MGM with the help of Louis B. Mayer himself and her husband.In 1930 Norma gave birth to the couples's first child, Irving Thalberg Jr. That same year Norma won an Oscar for her wonderful performance in The Divorcee. Here she portrays a young wife who, after tiring her her husbands cheating ways, has an affair with her husbands best friend. In 1935 their second and last child Katherine was born. Slowly, however, Irving began to decline from the social life and spend more time at home. He became very sick and Norma worried terribly about his health. Sadly, in 1935 Irving Sr. died of a heart attack. Norma Shearer was devistated at losing her beloved husband.
Before his death Irving had been preparing a new historical movie about the life of the French queen Marie Antoinette. Norma wanted to retire from the screen but decided to renew her contract. Marie Antoinette(M-G-M, 1938) turned out to be the most costly movie MGM made. However, it was said to be her best preformance. She made five more movies after Marie Antoinette, Idiot's Delight(M-G-M, 1939), The Women(M-G-M, 1939), Escape(M-G-M, 1940), We Were Dancing(M-G-M, 1942), and Her Cardboard Lover(M-G-M, 1942). Norma Shearer married Marti Arrouge on August 23, 1942. Marti was twelve years younger than Norma, but it did not matter. They loved each other deeply until their deaths. Norma retired from the screen and instead spent time with her husband and children.
When Norma reached the age that she no longer felt beautiful, she became increasingly worried about her appearance. She would always wear a full face of makeup and usually dark sunglasses covered her eyes. After being with Marti for more than thirty years, she developed the early stage of alzheimers disease, had gone virtually blind, and constantly mistakingly refered to her husband as "Irving". By the time she died she had been in the Motion Picture Country Home for three years. There she was with people "of her own kind". Her physical and mental health was steadily getting worse. She had made at least one suicide attempt, trying to jump out of a dentist office window on a high floor of a sky scraper. She had wanted for a long time to get her life over with, but didn't want to leave Marti or the rest of her family. After three years at the home, she caught a pnuemonia and died on June 12, 1983.
