Here’s another movie star from the 1940′s. Who is she?
Well, perhaps she wasn’t a full fledged star, but she was in dozens of films, some very famous ones such as director Nicholas Ray’s 1950 movie,“In a Lonely Place,” which many consider one of Humphrey Bogart’s best late-career outings (he died seven years after the picture was made).
Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your classic movie guys, back again with another photo taken from The Donald Gordon Collection.
Donald is the guy on the left, hands intertwined with our mystery star. Seems he never let a chance slip by to become chummy with an an attractive actress.
Today we also want to salute and warmly welcome those of you who follow us on Twitter (and those we follow). You’ve got some great comments.
Bobby Rivers, for example, notes that although Rita Moreno has won all those acting awards she has never been interviewed on “Inside the Actor’s Studio” while Jennifer Aniston HAS. Is there no justice in the world?
Others have made suggestions about who of their favorite stars they’d like to see profiled on our blog. We’ll do our our very best to accomodate all requests.
And, please remember — our twitter moniker is MOVIE CHAT GUYS. Come on and chat with us.
But for now back to our mystery gal pictured above.
Although she worked at all the major studios, she was under contract at Columbia where she met and started a warm friendship with our man Donald. He has many shots of her in his collection.
Can you identify her?
OK, since we’re such nice guys, we’ll provide a few hints:
– Although usually cast as the wholesome looking supporting actresses, our mystery gal had a complicated personal life. (She married and divorced four husbands.)
– Although born as Jean Marie, our mystery gal was professionally billed with a male first name.
– Seven years after making “In A Lonely Place,” our mystery star had a small but meaty part in one of the most memorably hard boiled urban dramas ever filmed.
– On tv in the Sixties, she was mostly maternal to someone by the name of Gidget.
– Also on tv, she worked with an assortment of big names including Jimmy Stewart and Bob Newhart, and appeared in a mid-to-late Fifties series starring George Gobel, a comedian more or less forgotten today.
Now can you name our mystery gal?
That’s Miss Jeff Donnell. Back in the 70s (maybe early 80s) I first became aware of her on “General Hospital” playing a maid to the notorious Quartermaines. Later on, she seemed to show up in every old movie I watched.
Right again, Patricia