A role in Rachel, Rachel (1968) required her to sing. Displeased with the results, she took voice lessons. She later became a cabaret artist. Her show "Streetsongs" was a nightclub hit and appeared three times on Broadway over the years.
Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 8120184. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007.
Daughter of William, a solicitor, and Mary Fitzgerald, she spent time in a convent school in London while growing up. William Butler Yeats and James Joyce were clients of her father's law firm and often visited the family home when she was a child.
Due to her combative nature and refusal to appear in several Warner Bros. pictures, studio head Jack L. Warner would not allow her to take on the Mary Astor role in the classic The Maltese Falcon (1941) starring Humphrey Bogart.
First husband Edward Lindsay-Hogg was an aristocrat who aspired to be a songwriter. The couple moved to New York from England in 1938 to further his ambitions. Second husband Stuart Scheftel was the grandson of Isador Straus, the co-owner of the R.H. Macy Co. who went down on the Titanic in 1912 along with Scheftel's grandmother. Scheftel, a baby at the time, was scheduled to sail with them, but caught a cold and was left behind in England with his nurse. He grew to become a prosperous businessman whose accomplishments include co-founding New York's Pan-Am Building. He first got a crush on Fitzgerald when he saw her on screen in Wilson (1944) and persuaded a mutual friend, actor / director Martin Gabel, to arrange an introduction.
Founded the Everyman Street Theater with B. Jonathan Ringkamp, which utilized children from all walks of life as street performers. Known for her liberal sense, she staged several street shows that were all-black productions.
Her Broadway debut in 1938 was in the Mercury Theatre production "Heartbreak House" with fellow ex-Gate Theatre performer, Orson Welles who had been impressed by her talent back in Dublin.
Is a cousin of the famous Australian novelist Nevil Shute whose novel "On the Beach" was made into a film starring Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner.
Longtime friend of Anne Shirley, who attended a taping of Geraldine's guest appearance on "The Golden Girls" (1985).
Mother of director Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Orson Welles was his biological father from a brief affair; and clinical psychologist, Susan Scheftel, from her marriage to Stuart Scheftel.
Once Vivien Leigh's school mate, she became a childhood and lifelong friend of Irish actress Maureen O'Sullivan.
Received critical kudos for her role as Mary Tyrone in "Long Day's Journey Into Night" on Broadway in 1971 opposite Robert Ryan.
Received the Handel Medallion, New York City's highest cultural award, for her civic work, particularly in finding theater work for ghetto students in her street theater company.
Reportedly a distant relative of Irish author James Joyce, her father's law firm, D. & T. Fitzgerald, is mentioned in Joyce's classic novel "Ulysses". His sister once worked for this law firm.
She is the niece of Irish actress Shelah Richards, who brought her into Dublin's Gate Theatre, where both first worked with Orson Welles. Fitzgerald, in turn, is the grand-aunt of contemporary actress Tara Fitzgerald (Sirens (1993)), who continues the family tradition, along with Geraldine's son, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg.
She was not shown in the so-called Memorial Tribute during the telecast of the 78th Annual Academy Awards, in which the Academy pays tribute to artist who passed away since the last Award's show, although she has been nominated for an Academy Award in 1940 and played roles in memorable movies.
Showed signs of Alzheimer's disease in the early '90s. The death of her husband in 1994 aggravated the severity of her illness afterward.
Upon her death, her remains were interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, New York in Chestnut Hill, Section 111 Lot 12461 (Scheftel family plot).
Was nominated for Broadway's 1982 Tony Award as Best Director (Play) for "Mass Appeal." Her son, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, had been nominated for the same award in 1979 for "Whose Life Is It Anyway?"