This exotically beautiful, gifted and somewhat tempestuous actress has been a star in the style of old Hollywood since she blazed across the screen as the distaff half of the bank robbing couple "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967) in Arthur Penn's screen classic.
Born prematurely, Faye Dunaway has claimed that her will and discipline helped her survive and she has utilized those same qualities in achieving the career longevity she has enjoyed. Originally intending to become a teacher, she chose to pursue a career in acting and transferred from a college in her native Florida to Boston University. Following her 1962 graduation, Dunaway faced a choice most young actresses could only dream about: a Fulbright scholarship to study at LAMDA or a guaranteed acting job as a member of the American National Theatre and Academy (ANTA) in its production of "A Man for All Seasons". She chose the latter has never looked back.
For two years, Dunaway honed her craft onstage in various ANTA productions before earning attention as the doomed Kathleen Stanton in William Alfred's "Hogan's Goat" in 1965. (Each performance required her to fall down a flight of stairs to her death which enthralled audiences.) It was only a matter of time before the big screen beckoned.
Dunaway made her screen debut in a thankless role in "The Happening". Otto Preminger had signed the actress to a six-year contract and cast her as a poor Southerner married to a farmer (John Philip Law) in the turgid melodrama "Hurry Sundown". Neither film tapped into her capabilities and it seemed she would be relegated to roles that merely required her to look pretty. Off-screen, Dunaway also had clashed with the difficult Preminger and wisely bought out her contract. Despite these inauspicious beginnings, she achieved stardom later that year opposite Warren Beatty in the landmark "Bonnie and Clyde". With her high cheekbones, honey blonde hair and sophisticated airs, Dunaway seemed on the surface an odd choice for the pistol-packing gun moll. But her droll performance ably combined the character's innocence and lustiness. That coupled with and the fact she looked spectacular in the period clothing toting a machine gun helped propel her to the front ranks of leading ladies and earned her a Best Actress Oscar nomination.
Dunaway solidified her coolly elegant screen persona as an insurance investigator romanced by a millionaire thief (Steve McQueen) in "The Thomas Crown Affair" (1968). As Kirk Douglas' mistress in Elia Kazan's muddled examination of marital strife, "The Arrangement" (1969), she emerged intact, earning some of that film's best notices. Dunaway delivered a strong central performance as a high-strung fashion model in then-boyfriend Jerry Schatzberg's directing debut, "Puzzle of a Downfall Child" (1970). In the early 70s, the actress began to display her versatility in highly dramatic roles, such as her frontierswoman in Frank Perry's 1971 revisionist Western "Doc", and comic turns, like her nymphomaniacal preacher's wife in Arthur Penn's "Little Big Man" (1970) and particularly as Milady de Winter in Richard Lester's remake of "The Three Musketeers" (1973) and its sequel "The Four Musketeers" (1975).
Roman Polanski's "Chinatown" (1974), however, found Dunaway at the height of her abilities. Despite well-documented off-screen battles with the director, she offered what is arguably her finest screen performance as the complex, mendacious Evelyn Mulwray. Employing a slightly European accent and arched eyebrows, she was a combination of Garbo and Sylvia Sydney. Her character was the heart of the film, straddling the worlds of privilege and mystery, as much a trophy as a victim. Dunaway garnered her second Oscar nomination but lost to Ellen Burstyn.
The astringent satire "Network" (1976), superbly directed by Sidney Lumet from Paddy Chayefsky's blistering script, finally earned her the Best Actress statuette. Cast in the central role of a driven, neurotic career woman (reportedly based on a real-life model), Dunaway carefully tread the fine line between exaggeration and believability. She crafted a fine comic performance; her Diana Christensen was a monster of unfeeling, pure ambition, yet Dunaway also displayed her wit and made her a touching figure, particularly in the scene where her lover (William Holden) ends their relationship. Despite (or perhaps because of) her Oscar win, Dunaway's subsequent roles failed to exploit her prowess. She was the centerpiece of the star vehicle "Eyes of Laura Mars" (1978) but was wasted in the ill-advised remake of "The Champ" (1979) and as Frank Sinatra's dying wife in "The First Deadly Sin" (1980).
Screen legend Joan Crawford had once proclaimed Dunaway as one of the best young actresses around so it was of some note that producers tapped Dunaway to portray Crawford in the feature version of "Mommie Dearest" (1981). Based on the memoirs of Crawford's adopted daughter, it depicted Crawford as a child abusing monster, more concerned with her screen career and fame than with her children. Dunaway's central performance wildly divided audiences and critics; some felt it was on the mark while other claimed the actress chewed the scenery. An instant camp classic (with lines such as "No more wire hangars!"), the film, an unmitigated box office failure, found limited success as a midnight movie (replete with drag queens done up as Dunaway as Crawford). For a brief period in the early 80s, Dunaway seemingly offered one campy, self-parodying performance after another (e.g., "The Wicked Lady" 1983; "Supergirl" 1985). It took 1987's independent "Barfly", in which she essayed a drunk, to remind critics and audiences of her thespian skills. Into the 90s, Dunaway tried to revive her flagging screen career, accepting secondary roles as in "The Handmaid's Tale" (1990) and "Arizona Dream" (1992). She and Marlon Brando made a lovely screen couple rekindling their love in the underrated "Don Juan DeMarco" (1995). She was Gene Hackman's alcoholic daughter in "The Chamber" (1996) and a bartender held hostage in Kevin Spacey's "Albino Alligator" (1997).
The actress has also found some success on the small screen. In the 70s, she reprised her stage role in the PBS adaptation of "Hogan's Goat" (1972) and offered a searing turn as Maggie, a character inspired by Marilyn Monroe, in the NBC version of Arthur Miller's "After the Fall" (1974). Dunaway has played a number of real-life figures in TV biopics, including Wallis Warfield Simpson in "The Woman I Love" (ABC, 1972), evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson in "The Disappearance of Aimee" (NBC, 1976), the Argentine First Lady "Evita Peron" (NBC, 1981) and Queen Isabella in "Christopher Columbus" (CBS, 1985). In 1989, she produced and starred in "Cold Sassy Tree" (TNT), cast as a Southerner who enters into a marriage of convenience. Dunaway was terribly miscast as the series lead in the short-lived "It Had to Be You" (CBS, 1993) but bounced back with an Emmy-winning turn as a sparring partner for Peter Falk's Columbo in the ABC TV-movie "Columbo: It's All in the Game" (1993). More recently, the actress had an effective turn as a member of Alcoholics Anonymous in "Drunks" (Showtime, 1996; released theatrically in limited venues in 1997) and as a wealthy American who hired the second Mrs. deWinter as a companion in the British miniseries "Rebecca" (PBS, 1997).
After establishing herself as a film and TV star, Dunaway continued to periodically return to the stage. She co-starred in the Los Angeles premiere of Harold Pinter's "Old Times" and was personally selected by Tennessee Williams to play Blanche in the 25th anniversary production of "A Streetcar Named Desire" in 1973. In 1986, Dunaway made her London stage debut in "Circe and Bravo". The actress was hired to replace Glenn Close in the role of Norma Desmond in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musicalization of "Sunset Boulevard" in 1994. But just before performances were to begin in L.A., the composer nixed the deal, closed the show and made statements claiming his decision was based in part because Dunaway could not meet the vocal demands of the show. She later sued and the matter was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. Dunaway did find a worthy stage vehicle, however, headlining as Maria Callas in the national tour of Terrence McNally's Tony-winning "Master Class", a role she was expected to recreate on film.
In 2002 Dunaway was introduced to a new generation of filmgoers, playing Ian Somerhalder's mother in writer-director Roger Avary's edgy film adaptation of Brett Easton Ellis' "The Rules of Attraction" starring TV-teen-friendly faces such as James Van Der Beek and Jessica Biel. Dunaway continued to work steadily in underwhelming features, but she proved a camp delight as herself on The WB reality "The Starlet" (2005 - ), in which she served as a judge choosing the winner among a competing group of unknown actresses and dramatically intoned her howl-inducing tag line to cut contestents: "Don't call us, we'll call you."
The twice divorced actress has had a number of high profile romantic liaisons (e.g., Lenny Bruce, Harris Yulin, Marcello Mastroianni) which she discussed in her memoirs "Looking for Gatsby" (Simon & Schuster, 1995).