She received an Honorary Oscar at the 1982 Academy Award ceremony , and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1986 . She was also the recipient of honorary lifetime awards from the American Film Institute ( 1987 ) , the Film Society of Lincoln Center ( 1986 ) , the Los Angeles Film Critics Association ( 1981 ) , and the Screen Actors Guild ( 1967 ) . Stanwyck received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 , and was ranked as the 11th greatest female star of classic American cinema by the American Film Institute . One of her directors , Jacques Tourneur , said of Stanwyck , " She only lives for two things , and both of them are work . " Barbara Stanwyck was born Ruby Catherine Stevens on July 16 , 1907 , in Brooklyn , New York , of English and Scottish descent . She was the fifthand youngestchild of Catherine Ann ( née McPhee ) and Byron E. Stevens , working-class parents . Her father was a native of Lanesville , Massachusetts , and her mother was an immigrant from Sydney , Nova Scotia . When Ruby was four , her mother died of complications from a miscarriage after a drunken stranger accidentally knocked her off a moving streetcar . Two weeks after the funeral , her father , Byron Stevens , joined a work crew digging the Panama Canal and was never seen again . Ruby and her older brother , Malcolm Byron ( later nicknamed " By " ) Stevens , were raised by their eldest sister Laura Mildred , ( later Mildred Smith ) ( 1886 – 1931 ) , who died of a heart attack at age 45 . When Mildred got a job as a showgirl , Ruby and Byron were placed in a series of foster homes ( as many as four in a year ) , from which young Ruby often ran away
1982 Academy Award ceremony
54th Academy Awards
Barbara Stanwyck