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The day after a record-breaking 3 female directors are GG-nominated, we celebrate ground-breaking actress-writer-director Ida Lupino, born Feb 4 1918. Daughter of a famous Brit theatrical family, Lupino fought polio in her 20s. It was then she decided to write.
If her body wouldn't work, she figured, her mind would. Amazingly, Ida recovered to continue her acting career. She used a mid-40s suspension by Warner Bros to study directing. In 1949, she took over without credit directing a film she wrote when the director fell ill.
Then she officially began her directing career with Never Fear, loosely based on her own experiences with polio. In '53, she became the first female director of a film noir with The Hitch-Hiker and its all-male cast.
She also became a prolific & popular TV director, guiding many a hit 60s series (She did go back before the camera for a "guest villainess" turn in Batman.) Her final film was The Trouble With Angels. In 1968, she retired from directing, & bid her acting career farewell in 1979.
