Primarily an actress of the stage, Bankhead also appeared in several films including an award-winning performance in Alfred Hitchcock 's Lifeboat She also had a brief but successful career on radio and made appearances on television.
In all, Bankhead amassed nearly film, stage, television and radio roles during her career. Bankhead was a member of the Bankhead and Brockman family , a prominent Alabama political family. Her grandfather and her uncle were U. Bankhead supported liberal causes , including the budding civil rights movement. Bankhead was an alcohol and drug user ; she reportedly smoked cigarettes a day and talked candidly about her vices.
She also had a series of sexual relationships with both men and women. Her father was the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from to his death in The two fell in love at first sight and were married on January 31, , in Memphis, Tennessee.
Their first child, Evelyn Eugenia January 24, β May 11, , was born two months prematurely and had some vision difficulties. The following year, Bankhead was born on her parents' second wedding anniversary, in a second floor apartment in what is now known as the Isaac Schiffman Building , where her father also had his office. A marker was erected to commemorate the site, and in the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. William B. Bankhead, devastated by his wife's death, descended into bouts of depression and alcoholism.
Consequently, Tallulah and her sister Eugenia were mostly reared by their paternal grandmother, Tallulah James Brockman Bankhead, at the family estate called Sunset in Jasper, Alabama. As a result, she did everything in her efforts to gain attention, and constantly sought her father's approval.
