Education
Born in Shoshoni, Fremont County, Wyoming, Isabel was educated at Saint Mary"s Academy in Minnesota and at Hamilton College in Kentucky.
Born in Shoshoni, Fremont County, Wyoming, Isabel was educated at Saint Mary"s Academy in Minnesota and at Hamilton College in Kentucky.
Some of her most famous films were Ceiling Zero, Marked Woman, A Tale of Two Cities, and Gone With the Wind. After years in theater stock companies, including an 87-week stint in Lincoln, Nebraska, she hit the big time after getting a part on Broadway in Up Pops the Devil (1930). She received glowing critical reviews for Blessed Event (1932) as well.
She was brought to Hollywood by Warner Brothers for the film version of Up Pops the Devil.
Jewell gained other supporting roles, appearing in a variety of films in the early 1930s. She played stereotypical gangsters" women in such films as Manhattan Melodrama (1934) and Marked Woman (1937).
She was well received playing against type, as the seamstress sentenced to death on the guillotine along with Sydney Carton (Ronald Colman in A Tale of Two Cities (1935). Her most significant role was as the prostitute Gloria Stone in Lost Horizon (1937).
Jewell"s films included Gone with the Wind (1939) (in the role of "that white trash, Emmy Slattery"), Northwest Passage (1940), High Sierra (1941), and the low-budget The Leopard Manitoba (1943).
In the mid to late 1930s, Jewell was seen at nightclubs with actor William Hopper. (He appeared on the Perry Mason television series and was the son of gossip columnist Hedda Hopper and stage star DeWolf Hopper). By the end of the 1940s, her roles had reduced in significance to the degree that her performances were often uncredited, e.g.
The Snake Pit.
She performed in radio dramas in the 1950s, including This is Your Federal Bureau of Investigation. In 1972, Jewell appeared opposite Edie Sedgwick in the film Ciao! Manhattan. Jewell died in Los Angeles, California, aged 64, from undisclosed causes. Her ashes were buried in the Pacific Ocean.
She was recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to motion pictures.