Ramsay Ames

Ramsay Ames (born Phillips Ames, March 30, 1919 – March 30, 1998) was a leading 1940s American B movie actress, model, dancer, pin-up girl and television host.

She appeared in the film The Mummy's Ghost (1944), where she played the Princess Ananka.

Career

After her career subsided in the 1940s, Ames and her husband lived in Spain, where she had her own television interview show and occasionally took on support roles in films produced in Europe.

During a trip to California to visit her mother, Ramsay had a chance meeting at the airport with Columbia Pictures President Harry Cohn. The meeting resulted in a screen test and then her movie debut in Two Señoritas from Chicago (1943).

From there, she moved to Universal Pictures, where she was featured in such films as Calling Dr. Death and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. She later appeared in a Monogram Pictures drama, Below the Deadline (1946), and in Republic serials including The Black Widow (1947) and G-Men Never Forget (1948).

Ames had attended the Walter Hillhouse School of Dance, specializing in Latin-style dance. She later became part of a dance team under the name "Ramsay Del Rico" and appeared as a model at the Eastman Kodak-sponsored fashion show at the 1939 New York World's Fair. An injury forced her to alter her dance career plans. She took up singing and became the vocalist with a top rhumba band.

Athletic in high school, she excelled as a swimmer. Of Spanish/English descent, Ames first was recognized as a dancer/singer before moving into sultry-eyed 40s film roles.

She was wed to "Man of La Mancha" playwright Dale Wasserman, and the couple later lived in a villa called "La Mancha" on the Costa del Sol.

According to director William Witney, some of Republic Pictures' stuntmen suffered more injuries running on rooftops to get a better look at Ramsay Ames walking across the backlot than were hurt performing dangerous action sequences in the studio's westerns.

Personal life

She was married to and later divorced Dale Wasserman, a Tony Award-winning musical writer. She died of lung cancer in 1998 on her 79th birthday.

Trivia

• Ramsay Ames plays a double role in the 1947 serial The Black Widow, as her character Ruth Dayton gets impersonated by Carol Forman's Sombra through use of a mask.

Selected filmography

• Una tal Dulcinea (1963)
• The Running Man (1963) as Madge Penderby
• At Five O'Clock in the Afternoon (1961)as Americana
• Alexander the Great (1956) as Drunken Woman (as Ramsey Ames)
• The Lie (1954) as Marlene
• Vicki (1953) as Café Photographer (uncredited)
• G-Men Never Forget (1948) as Frances Blake
• The Black Widow (1947) as Ruth Dayton
• Green Dolphin Street (1947) as Corinne (uncredited)
• The Vigilante: Fighting Hero of the West (1947) as Betty Winslow
• Philo Vance Returns (1947) as Virginia Berneaux
• The Time, the Place and the Girl (1946) as Bar Patron (uncredited)
• Beauty and the Bandit (1946) as Jeanne Du Bois
• Below the Deadline (1946) as Lynn Turner
• The Gay Cavalier (1946) as Pepita Geralda
• Too Young to Know (1945) as Party Guest
• Mildred Pierce (1945) as Party Guest (uncredited)
• A Wave, a WAC and a Marine (1944) as Betty
• The Mummy's Ghost (1944) as Amina Mansouri
• Ghost Catchers (1944) as Minor Role (uncredited)
• Follow the Boys (1944) as Laura
• Hat Check Honey (1944) as Mona Mallory
• Ladies Courageous (1944) (uncredited)
• Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944) as Nalu
• Calling Dr. Death (1943) as Maria Steele
• Crazy House (1943) as Ramsay Ames (as Ramsay Ames and Her Tropicanans)
• Two Señoritas from Chicago (1943) as Louise Hotchkiss

Soundtrack (5 credits)

• Philo Vance Returns (1947) (performer: "Tell Me")
• The Gay Cavalier (performer: "One Kiss and Ride", "The Gay Caballero") (1946) (writer: "One Kiss and Ride", "The Gay Caballero")
• Hat Check Honey (1944) (performer: "Nice To Know You")
• Crazy House (1943) (performer: "Tropicana" - uncredited)
• Two Señoritas from Chicago (1943) (performer: "Coca Chica")

Archive footage (5 credits)

• Svengoolie (TV Series)- The Mummy's Ghost (2012) (2012)
• Mummy Dearest: A Horror Tradition Unearthed (Video documentary short) (1999) Amina Mansouri
• Code 645 (TV Movie) (1966) (Frances Blake)
• Sombra, the Spider Woman (TV Movie) (1966) Ruth Dayton
• The Mummy's Ghost (Short) (1966) Amina

References

• Screen Sirens Scream (USA)2000, pg. 3-11, by: Paul Parla/Charles P. Mitchell "Reminiscences Of The Doomed Ananka"
• Filmfax (USA)July 1998, Iss. 67, pg. 46-49, by: Paul Parla/Charles P. Mitchell, "Bride Of The Mummy"
• Fantastyka (France)July 1998, Iss. 16, pg. 36-38, by: Paul Parla/Charles P. Mitchell, "Souvenirs D'Ananka La Mandite"
• Movie Collectors World (USA)28 November 1997, Iss. 539, pg. 86-88, by: Paul Parla/Charles P. Mitchell, "Reminiscences Of The Doomed Ananka"
• Scary Monsters Magazine (USA)June 1997, Iss. 23, pg. 47-50, by: Paul Parla, "I Shall Make You Immortal"
• Classic Images (USA)June 1996, Iss. 252, pg. 28-29, by: Paul Parla, "Ramsay Ames-Sultry Latin Beauty"

Pictorial Yank (USA)4 May 1945 Yank (USA)20 April 1945 Yank (USA)24 December 1943