By Breeanna Hare, CNN
(CNN) – Kate Winslet won plenty of accolades for her portrayal of Mildred Pierce in the HBO miniseries that aired in 2011, but she was following in the footsteps of Oscar winner Joan Crawford, who also stunned as Mildred Pierce in the 1945 adaptation.
Crawford’s performance earned her the best actress Oscar in the spring of ’46, beating out Ingrid Bergman in “The Bells of St. Mary’s” (as well as Greer Garson in “The Valley of Decision”; Jennifer Jones in “Love Letters”; and Gene Tierney in “Leave Her to Heaven”). Crawford’s award has since been auctioned off, selling for $426,732 on Tuesday.
That price earned the Oscar’s new owner a piece of cinema history in more ways than one.
On the night of the ceremony in March 1946, Crawford stayed home in bed, too “ill” to attend. (After she won, press captured the actress receiving the award in her bed, as seen in the image above.)
As Nate Sanders, the owner of Nate D. Sanders Auctions, put it in a statement, “This Oscar carries with it a fascinating story … and represents Joan Crawford’s gutsy comeback in the industry that labeled her ‘box office poison’ several years earlier. It’s really one of the most spectacular Oscars in existence.”
Crawford is said to have commented of the win, “Whether the Academy voters were giving the Oscar to me, sentimentally, for ‘Mildred’ or for 200 years of effort, the hell with it — I deserved it.”
