NAKARAJAN: GRAY

Sunday, 14 February 2021

SALLY GRAY ,BRITISH ACTRESS BORN 1915 FEBRUARY 14- 2006 SEPTEMBER 2006

SALLY GRAY ,BRITISH ACTRESS BORN

1915 FEBRUARY 14- 2006 SEPTEMBER 2006

Constance Vera Browne, Baroness Oranmore and Browne (née Stevens; 14 February 1915 – 24 September 2006), commonly known as Sally Gray, was an English film actress of the 1930s and 1940s.[1] Her obituary in The Irish Times described her as "once seen as a British rival to Ginger Rogers."[2]

According to one obituary, "In the Thirties she was a charming soubrette of light movies and musical comedy. After a break from performing, she emerged in the mid-Forties as a sultry beauty who starred in a series of moody dramas and potent thrillers.

Biography

Early life

Born Constance Vera Stevens in Holloway, London, Gray was the daughter of Charles Stevens, who drove a motor cab, and his wife, Gertrude Grace.[4] Her mother was a ballet dancer[3] and her grandmother a "principal boy" in the 1870s. Her father died when Gray was young.

Theatre career

She trained as a child at Fay Compton's School of Dramatic Art, and began acting on stage at the age of 10. Gray made her professional stage debut at the age of twelve in All God's Chillun at the Globe Theatre in London, playing an African boy. When she was 14, Gray appeared in a minstrel show at the Gate Theatre in London. She made her film debut with a bit part in The School for Scandal (1930).[3]

She then went back to school for two years, training at Fay Compton's School of Dramatic Art,[5] during which time she performed in cabarets.[6]

She appeared in The Gay Divorce (1933) on stage with Fred Astaire. The agent John Gliddon saw her in the musical Jill Darling (1934) and signed her.[7]

Film career

Gray returned to films in 1935, with The Dictator (1935). She could also be seen in Cross Currents (1935), Radio Pirates (1935), Lucky Days (1935), and Checkmate (1935). She returned on stage and was spotted by Stanley Lupino, who fell in love with her.

Gray had the female lead in Cheer Up (1936) with Stanley Lupino. She had leads in Calling the Tune (1936), Cafe Colette (1936), and Saturday Night Revue (1937) with Billy Milton. In 1936 she was earning £150 a week.[8] Gray had support roles in Lightning Conductor (1937), a thriller; Over She Goes (1937) with Lupino; Mr. Reeder in Room 13 (1937), a non musical; and Hold My Hand (1938) with Lupino. Gray was the female lead in Sword of Honour (1938), The Saint in London (1939) with George Sanders, The Lambeth Walk (1939) with Lupino Lane, and A Window in London (1940), a non musical film with Michael Redgrave.[9][10] Gray was in Olympic Honeymoon (1940) then had the female lead in The Saint's Vacation (1941). She had a sensitive role in Brian Desmond Hurst's romantic melodrama Dangerous Moonlight (1941).[3] The same year she appeared in the West End musical Lady Behave which had been written by her co-star Stanley Lupino. The show had to close early because of Lupino's illness.

Gray returned to the stage to star in My Sister Eileen (1942) with Coral Browne. Lupino died, leaving Gray £10,000.[11] Gray had a nervous breakdown, resulting in her retirement for a number of years.[2]

Comeback

Gray returned to the screen in 1946 and made her strongest bid for stardom in a series of melodramas. They include the hospital thriller Green for Danger (1946), Carnival (1946), They Made Me a Fugitive (1947) and The Mark of Cain (1948). Gray then made Silent Dust (1948) and Edward Dmytryk's film noir piece Obsession (1949), in which she plays Robert Newton's faithless wife.[5] Her final film was the spy yarn Escape Route (1952).[3]

RKO executives, impressed with Gray, authorised producer William Sistrom to offer her a long-term contract[4] if she would move to the United States. John Paddy Carstairs, director of The Saint in London, also thought she could be a star.[citation needed] However, she declined the offer and instead retired in 1952 after getting married.

Personal life

Gray married The 4th Baron Oranmore and Browne, an Anglo-Irish peer, on 1 December 1951,[4] and lived in County Mayo, Ireland.[3] The couple kept the marriage secret until the 1953 coronation of Elizabeth II, at which she appeared with her husband.[12][13]

In the early 1960s they returned to England and settled in a flat in Eaton Place, Belgravia, London. The couple had no children.

Monday, 23 October 2017

COLEEN GRAY AMERICAN ACTRESS BORN OCTOBER 23,1922

COLEEN GRAY AMERICAN ACTRESS

BORN OCTOBER 23,1922

Coleen Gray (born Doris Bernice Jensen; October 23, 1922 – August 3, 2015) was an American actress. She was best known for her roles in the films Nightmare Alley (1947), Red River (1948), and Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956).

Early years[edit source]

She was born Doris Bernice Jensen on October 23, 1922 in Staplehurst, Nebraska,[3] the daughter of a farmer. After graduating from high school, she studied drama at Hamline University, and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts.[4] She travelled to California, and worked as a waitress in a restaurant in La Jolla. After several weeks there, she moved to Los Angeles and enrolled at the University of California. She also worked in the school's library and at a YWCA while a student.[5]

Stage[edit source]

She had leading roles in the Los Angeles stage productions Letters to Lucerne and Brief Music, which won her a 20th Century Fox contract in 1944.[6]

Film appearances[edit source]

When I attended the University, I daydreamed about being a movie star. I would do my dressing room in Early American and give lovely presents to my make-up man and hairdresser for making me look so lovely, and so on. When I got my contract at 20th I was in seventh heaven, but I found out that a movie career is mostly hard work laced with disappointments.[7]

Coleen Gray, The Boston Sunday Post November 9, 1947

After playing a bit part in State Fair (1945),[4] she became pregnant and briefly stopped working, only to return a year later as the love interest of the character played by John Wayne in Red River (1948), which was shot in 1946 but held for release until 1948. Gray appeared in two 1947 films noir: In Kiss of Death as ex-con Victor Mature's wife and as Richard Widmark's target; and in Nightmare Alley as Tyrone Power's carnival performer wife, "Electra."[6] In 1950, Gray used her musical abilities as she sang her part (rather than having her voice dubbed) opposite Bing Crosby in Riding High, directed by Frank Capra.[4] Riding High was not a success and Fox ended her contract in 1950.

Gray worked steadily in the 1950s, but mostly in smaller movies. She played a crooked nurse in The Sleeping City (1950) and appeared in Kansas City Confidential (1952) and in the Stanley Kubrick film noir The Killing (1956), in which she played a lonely woman desperate for love. In the 1953 Western The Vanquished, she played a woman who attacks Jan Sterling with a pair of scissors in a crazed attempt to exonerate the man she loves (John Payne). Other films included Father Is a Bachelor (1950), The Leech Woman (1960), The Phantom Planet (1961), and P.J. (1968).[8]

Gray appeared in The Late Liz (1971), and acted in the films Forgotten Lady (1977), and Mother (1978) with Patsy Ruth Miller. Mother had a premiere at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Both Mother and Forgotten Lady were written for Gray by Brian Pinette, who also served as director and producer. She appeared in the religious film Cry From the Mountain (1986, in the USA), directed by James F. Collier.[9][10]

Television[edit source]

From the 1950s, Gray guest-starred in episodes of television series such as Four Star Playhouse, Maverick, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Perry Mason, Mr. Ed, Rawhide in 1962 in the episode "The Devil and the Deep Blue" as Helen Wade, 77 Sunset Strip, Bonanza, The Deputy, Have Gun Will Travel, The Dakotas, Family Affair, Ironside,The Name of the Game and Branded. On May 23, 1962, she was cast as Miss Wycliffe in the series finale, "A Job for Summer", of the CBS comedy/drama series, Window on Main Street, starring Robert Young as a widowed author in his hometown. She made four guest appearances on Perry Mason, including the title role of defendant Lorraine Kendall in the 1960 episode, "The Case of the Wandering Widow."

Gray was a regular on the daytime dramas Bright Promise and Days of Our Lives.[4]

Personal life[edit source]

Gray married Rod Amateau, a screenwriter, on August 10, 1945; they divorced on February 11, 1949, and had one daughter, Susan (born 1946). Gray's second husband was William Clymer Bidlack, an aviation executive. They were married from July 14, 1953,[11] until his death in 1978. The union produced a son, Bruce Robin Bidlack (born 1954).[12]

In 1979, Gray married widowed biblical scholar Joseph Fritz Zeiser;[13] they remained together until his death in March 2012. They were active with the non-profit organization, Prison Fellowship, founded in 1976 by Chuck Colson, a convicted felon in the Watergate scandal. Prison Fellowship assists the church in ministering to prisoners and their families and victims. Gray was a staunch conservative Republican[14]. In 1964, along with actors Victor Jory and Susan Seaforth, Gray testified before the United States Congress as part of "Project Prayer," arguing in favor of a constitutional amendment allowing school prayer.

Gray died in her Bel Air, Los Angeles home on August 3, 2015, of natural causes. She was 92.[15][16] She was cremated at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery and her ashes given to her stepson, Rick Zeiser[17].
Public service[edit source]
Gray was a member of the board of directors at her alma mater, Hamline University.[4]