Trivia

While appearing in a stage play, during one performance she was about to launch into her big speech, as a wife berating her husband, when the prop telephone on the set rang. Correctly deducing that this was a practical joke arranged by the actor playing the husband, she grabbed up the phone, and without missing a beat ad-libbed along the lines of "Well, he's busy ... He really can't ... oh, very well ..." and then turned to her grinning cohort and wiped the smile off his face by snapping "It's for you!" and handing him the phone. She stood there tapping her foot while he ad-libbed a rather unconvincing conversation, and then, after he hung up, went on with the scene as if nothing had happened.

Often disguised her true age, but her tombstone was engraved by her family with the years "1908-1990", so she was 82 at her death.

Was a longtime friend of Jane Wyman, who attended her funeral in 1990. Arden guest-starred opposite Wyman on Falcon Crest (1981).

Eve Arden was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1995.

She was awarded two Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for Television and Radio.

She has appeared in three films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Mildred Pierce (1945), Anatomy of a Murder (1959) and Grease (1978).

She had one natural child, while two girls and one boy were adopted. Her fourth child and second son, Douglas Brooks West, was born on September 17, 1954, weighing 9 lbs., 4 oz.

In the film Anatomy of a Murder (1959), her real-life husband, Brooks West, plays the local prosecutor who goes up against defense attorney James Stewart.

Starred in several preview performances of one of Broadway's most notorious flops, "Moose Murders." After an argument with the author over her lines, she was replaced in the role of Hedda Holloway by Holland Taylor. "Moose Murders" opened and closed at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York City on February 22, 1983.

On August 23, 2021, she was honored with a day of her filmography during the Turner Classic Movies Summer Under the Stars.

Arden's adopted children were Liza Beatrice West, Constance Lucille West, and Duncan Paris West (died 2008; interred at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia). Her only biological child, Douglas Brooks West, was born on September 17, 1954.

Profiled in book "Funny Ladies" by Stephen Silverman. (1999)

Was the only cast member to appear in all 130 episodes of Our Miss Brooks (1952).

Was in three Oscar Best Picture nominees: Stage Door (1937), Mildred Pierce (1945) and Anatomy of a Murder (1959).

Interred at Westwood Memorial Park, Los Angeles, California, USA, Section D, #81.

Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith. pg. 22-24. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387

Arden was the daughter of Charles Quedens (1881-1959) and Lucille (née Frank) Quedens (1878-1936), both born and raised in California. She was the paternal granddaughter of Charles Quedens (1844-1900) and Meta (née Dierks) Quedens (1843-1926), both were born in Germany and died in California.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 26-27. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.