Hedda Hopper

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American journalist and Hollywood gossip columnist who was both on radio and in syndication. With an education that was sketchy at best, she was syndicated in national papers two years after the 1936 launch of her column. She also did scores of silent films and made a try at the fashion business. The fifth of nine kids, she ran away at 17 to perform on stage; her Broadway debut was in 1909. She appeared in more than 120 movies over her twenty-three year acting career. She married DeWolf Hopper in 1913 and their son Bill was born on 26 January 1915; she divorced her husband for infidelity. Hopper, a staunch Republican, was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Hollywood blacklist, using her 35 million strong readership to destroy the careers of those in the entertainment industry whom she suspected of being Communists, having Communist sympathies, being homosexual, or leading dissolute lives. She waged campaigns against Dalton Trumbo, Charles Chaplin and Ingrid Bergman. Hopper spread rumors that Michael Wilding and Stewart Granger had a sexual relationship; Wilding later sued Hopper for libel and won. In 1958, Hopper made racist remarks to African American actor Sidney Poitier. Hopper died of pneumonia and heart complications on 1 February 1966 in Los Angeles, California. Link to Wikipedia biography