After her success on the stage, Director Elia Kazan brought her to Hollywood to work on screen. Kazan, who had directed her on stage in 1952's Flight to Egypt and 1953's Camino Real, cast her as Cathy Ames in his film adaptation of John Steinbeck's East of Eden (1955); this was her film debut. She won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. Her subsequent film work was steady through 1960, and included films such as The Rose Tattoo (1955), I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955), The King and Four Queens (1956), and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957). However, her career did not progress as she had hoped. Her friend and mentor, Kazan, once said "Jo stagnated, and, since she knew it, was bitter. And as she became bitter, she became more difficult."
In 1958, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in Look Homeward, Angel, in which she played the acquisitive mother of Anthony Perkins' character. Her later films included Wild River (1960) -- though only 46, Fleet would spend five hours every morning getting into her make-up and applying wrinkles to play the role of an 89-year-old matriarch -- Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (1965), as Paul Newman's mother in Cool Hand Luke (1967), and I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968).
