‘Titanic’ narrator Gloria Stuart passes away at the age of 100

Longtime actress Gloria Stuart passed away in her West Los Angeles home on September 26, her daughter Sylvia Thompson confirmed. Stuart, a glamorous Hollywood starlet during the 1930s who appeared in several James Whale films, including The Old Dark Horse, The Kiss Before The Mirror, and The Invisible Man, had been diagnosed with breast cancer several years ago, the Washington Post reports.

After a several decade hiatus from the film industry, Stuart earned an Academy Award nomination in 1997 for her portrayal of Old Rose in James Cameron’s record-breaking romance and disaster film Titanic. In the movie, she played the elderly version of Kate Winslet’s character and narrated the project, serving as the vital element of Titanic’s past and present-day storylines.

Cameron has stated that he was searching for a prestigious actress from Hollywood’s golden era, and Stuart fit the profile to a T. However, she later joked about his interest in having her play Old Rose, telling the New York Times that she was cast because she was “still viable, not alcoholic, rheumatic, or falling down,” unlike most actresses in her age group.

“This actress in her 80s holds the picture together, and the irony is, we come to look forward more to her scenes than we do those featuring the colossal scale of the rebuilt Titanic and its expertly milling passengers,” film reviewer Elvis Mitchell wrote of Stuart’s role in Titanic, according to the Washington Post.

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