Constance Campbell Bennett (October 22, 1904 – July 24, 1965) was an American actress. Known as much for her elegant persona as for her acting career, Bennett was one of Hollywood's most luminous stars, delivering amusing, madcap, and occasionally arch performances that belie her ornamental reputation.
She was born in New York City, the daughter of actor Richard Bennett and actress Adrienne Morrison, whose Afro-Caribbean descendant father was the stage actor Morris W. Morris. Her younger sisters were actress/dancer Barbara Bennett and actress Joan Bennett.
Independent, cultured, ironic and outspoken, Constance, the first Bennett sister to enter motion pictures, appeared in New York-produced silent movies before a chance meeting with Samuel Goldwyn led to her Hollywood debut in Cytherea (1924).
She abandoned a burgeoning career in silents for marriage to Philip Plant in 1925; She resumed her film career after divorce, with the advent of talking pictures (1929), and with her delicate blonde features and glamorous fashion style, quickly became a popular film star.
A 1931 contract with Warner Brothers Studios earned her $300,000 for two movies which included The Easiest Way and made her one of the highest paid stars in Hollywood. The next year she moved to RKO, where she acted in What Price Hollywood? (1932), directed by George Cukor, an ironic and at the same time tragic behind-the-scenes looks at the old Hollywood studio system, in which she gave her finest performance. In this movie she is a star-struck waitress, named Mary Evans, who manages to make a good impression on a prominent film director (played by Lowell Sherman); with his patronage she became a movie star. While the director has some serious alcoholic problems, she marries a wealthy playboy (played by Neil Hamilton), who genuinely loves his wife but is jealous of the demands made on her by her career. He leaves her, but not before Mary has been impregnated. She begins to turn her attentions to her mentor, but it is too late: he kills himself in her bedroom. Hoping to heal her emotional wounds, Mary flees to Paris with her child, where she is reunited with her contrite husband.
Bennett next showed her versatility in the likes of Our Betters (1933), Bed of Roses (1933) with Pert Kelton, The Affairs of Cellini (1934), After Office Hours (1935) with Clark Gable, Topper (1937, in a career standout as ghostess-with-the-mostest Marian Kerby opposite Cary Grant, a role she repeated in the 1939 sequel, Topper Takes a Trip), the ultimate madcap family comedy Merrily We Live (1938) and Two-Faced Woman (1941, supporting Greta Garbo).
By the 1940s, Bennett was working less frequently in film but was in demand in both radio and theatre. Shrewd investments had made her a wealthy woman, and she founded a cosmetics and clothing company.
She made no films from the early 1950s until 1965 when she made a comeback in the film Madame X (released posthumously in 1966) playing Lana Turner's mother-in-law. Shortly after filming was completed, Bennett collapsed and died from a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 60.
In recognition of her military contributions, and as the wife of Theron John Coulter, who had achieved the rank of Brigadier General, she was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Coulter died in 1995 and was buried with her.
Bennett has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to motion pictures, at 6250 Hollywood Boulevard, a short distance from the star of her sister, Joan.
Bennett was married five times.
