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Ona Munson [1] (June 16, 1903 – February 11, 1955) was an American actress perhaps best known for her portrayal of prostitute Belle Watling in Gone with the Wind.

Personal life

Born Ona Wolcott in Portland, Oregon, she first came to fame on Broadway as the singing and dancing ingenue in the original production of No, No, Nanette. From this, Munson had a very successful stage and radio career in 1930s in New York, where she also introduced the song "You're the Cream in My Coffee".

Munson's lesbianism was made explicitly clear in the book The Hollywood Sewing Circle (by Axel Madsen), which was also about other Hollywood lesbians. Munson wrote a love letter to brief companion Mercedes de Acosta, who was at the time the lover of actress Greta Garbo, with whom Munson also became involved. During the mid 1930s she was involved with a married Marlene Dietrich, as well as actress Tallulah Bankhead, among others.

Career

Ona Munson's first starring role was in a Warner Brothers talkie called Going Wild in 1930. Originally this film was intended as musical but all the numbers were removed prior to release due to the public's distaste for musicals which had virtually saturated the cinema in 1929-1930. Ona Munson appeared the next year in a musical comedy called Hot Heiress in which she sings several songs along with her co-star Ben Lyon. She also starred in Broadminded (1931) and Five Star Final (1931). She briefly retired from the screen, only to return in 1938.

When David O. Selznick sought out the cast for his production Gone with the Wind, he first announced Mae West was to play Belle, but this was a publicity stunt. Tallulah Bankhead (one of her former female lovers) refused the role as too small. Munson herself was the antithesis of the voluptuous Belle: tall, freckled, and of slight build. But her skills as an actress electrified her screen test: it was all in the voice. She spoke deep and throaty in her test, and her voice conveyed sexiness and worldliness. The needed look for Belle could be created in the wardrobe and makeup departments.

Ona Munson’s career was stalemated by the acclaim of GWTW; for the remainder of her career, she was typecast in similar roles.

In 1955, plagued by ill health, she committed suicide at the age of 51 with an overdose of barbiturates in her apartment in New York.

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