Cruella: who is the demonic character of the film inspired by?

In 1956, Dodie Smith created the character of Cruella from Hell in his novel 101 Dalmatians. This will then be featured in the animated film Disney of the same name then more recently in the film Cruella, directed by Craig Gillespie and released in 2021. However, the character imagined by Disney is directly inspired by a American actress.

This is Tallulah Bankhead, an American born on January 31, 1902 who became known to the general public in the 1940s. role of Connie Porter in the movie Lifeboat, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Tallulah Bankhead perfectly embodied the ideal of glamor at that time with his heart-shaped face, his penetrating gaze, his thin and arched eyebrows and his shoulder-length, well-groomed hair. A physique that is reminiscent of that of Cruella d’Enfer.

The troubled life of Tallulah Bankhead

If Tallulah Bankhead marked the world of show business, she had a life filled with drama. A few weeks after her birth, she lost his mother following sepsis and then grew up with a depressed father. Lacking attention, she ended up getting noticed thanks to her imitation skills. Following numerous chronic bronchitis, Tallulah Bankhead had developed a hoarse voice which later became his trademark.

Taken in the spiral of celebrity following several shootings, Tallulah Bankhead will gradually sink into a decadent existenceand. Parties, alcohol consumption, sexual and sentimental relations will come to punctuate his life. After marrying actor John Emery in 1937 and a divorce four years later, the actress was the lover of Alla Nazimova, Billie Holiday and childhood best friend of Zelda Fitzgerald. On December 12, 1968, she dies aged 66 of pneumonia.

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