Gloria DeHaven

Gloria Mildred DeHaven (July 23, 1925 – July 30, 2016) was an American actress, singer and a former contract star for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Early life

DeHaven was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of actor-director Carter DeHaven and actress, Flora Parker DeHaven, both former vaudeville performers. A 1983 newspaper article reported, "Miss DeHaven ... says that her real family name was O'Callahan before her father legally changed his name to DeHaven."

Film

She began her career as a child actor with a bit part in Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times (1936).[3] She was signed to a contract with MGM. Despite featured roles in such films as Best Foot Forward (1943), The Thin Man Goes Home (1944), Scene of the Crime (1949) and Summer Stock (1950), and being voted by exhibitors as the third most likely to be a "star of tomorrow'" in 1944, she did not achieve film stardom. She portrayed her own mother, Flora Parker DeHaven, in the Fred Astaire film Three Little Words (1950).

After a long absence from the screen, DeHaven appeared as the love interest of Jack Lemmon in the 1997 comedy Out to Sea, also starring Walter Matthau.

Music

DeHaven's musical talents supplemented her acting abilities. Besides being cast as a singer in many of her films, including I'll Get By, So This Is Paris and The Girl Rush, and performing numbers in many of her movies, DeHaven sang with the bands of Jan Savitt and Bob Crosby and at one time had her own nightclub act.

Television

DeHaven also appeared as a regular in the television series and soap operas Ryan's Hope (as Bess Shelby), As the World Turns (as Sara Fuller), and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. She was one of the numerous celebrities enticed to appear in the all-star box office flop, Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976), and has guest starred in such television series as Robert Montgomery Presents, Appointment with Adventure (episode entitled "The Snow People"), The Guy Mitchell Show, Johnny Ringo (as Rosemary Blake in "Love Affair"), The Rifleman, Wagon Train, The Lloyd Bridges Show, Marcus Welby, M.D., Gunsmoke, Mannix, The Eddie Capra Mysteries, Fantasy Island, Hart to Hart, The Love Boat, Mama's Family, Highway to Heaven, Murder, She Wrote and Touched by an Angel. On March 21,1974 Gloria appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Later that year saw her debut as a regular in the cast of the short-lived ABC police drama Nakia.

From January 1969 to February 1971 DeHaven hosted a morning call-in movie show, Prize Movie, on WABC-TV in New York City. She also appeared on five episodes of Match Game 75 as a guest panelist along with Patti Deutsch and Buck Owens.

Stage

DeHaven's Broadway debut came in 1955. She played Diane in the musical version of Seventh Heaven. She also toured in a summer stock production of No, No, Nanette.

Personal life

DeHaven has been married four times to three different men. Her first husband was actor John Payne, star of The Restless Gun television series, whom she married on December 28, 1944, and divorced in 1950. Her second husband was real estate developer Martin Kimmel; they were married June 21, 1953, and divorced the following year. She was married to Richard Fincher from 1957 until 1963; they remarried in 1965 and divorced again in 1969.

She has two children with Payne, daughter, Kathleen Hope (born 1945), and son, Thomas John Payne (born 1947), and two children with Fincher, son, Harry (born 1958), and daughter, Faith (born 1962).

DeHaven has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6933 Hollywood Blvd.

DeHaven died on July 30, 2016 in Las Vegas, one week after her 91st birthday.