Marie Windsor
| Marie Windsor | |
|---|---|
Windsor, c. 1954
|
|
| Born |
Emily Marie Bertelsen December 11, 1919 Marysvale, Utah, U.S. |
| Died | December 10, 2000 (aged 80) Beverly Hills, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Marysvale, Utah, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1941–1991 |
| Height | 5 ft 9 in (175 cm) |
| Spouse(s) | Ted Steele (1946; annulled) Jack Hupp (1954–2000, her death); 1 child |
| Children | Richard Rodney Hupp (b. 1963) |
Marie Windsor (December 11, 1919 – December 10, 2000) Born as Emily Marie Bertelsen in Marysvale, Piute County, Utah, Windsor was an actress known as "The Queen of the Bs" because she appeared in so many B-movies and film noirs.
The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Lane Bertelsen, Windsor was born in 1919 in Marysvale, Utah. She graduated from Marysvale High School in 1934, doing a "musical reading" as part of the graduation exercises. She attended Brigham Young University, where she participated in dramatic productions. She was described in a 1939 newspaper article as "an accomplished athlete ... expert as a dancer, swimmer, horsewoman, and plays golf, tennis and skis."
In 1939, Windsor was chosen from a group of 81 contestants to be queen of Covered Wagon Days in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was unofficially appointed "Miss Utah of 1939" by her hometown Chamber of Commerce, and trained for the stage under famed Hollywood actress and coach Maria Ouspenskaya.
Windsor worked in radio in Salt Lake City before she moved to California. After moving to California, she worked as a model for glamor photographer Paul Hesse.
In 1940, after moving to Hollywood, and entering Ouspenskaya's drama school, she appeared in the play Forty Thousand Smiths, her first use of the stage name Marie Windsor. The next year she appeared in Once in a Lifetime at the Pasadena Playhouse. She also was seen as a villainess in a New York production of Follow the Girls. She returned to the stage in the 1980s.
After working for several years as a telephone operator, a stage and radio actress, and a bit and extra player in films, Windsor began playing feature parts on the big screen in 1947.
Her first film contract, with Warner Bros. in 1942, resulted from her writing jokes and submitting them to Jack Benny. Windsor said she submitted the gags under the name M.E. Windsor "because I was afraid he might be prejudiced against a woman gag writer." When Benny finally met Windsor, "he was stunned by her good looks" and had a producer sign her to a contract. After a tenure with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in which the studio "signed her, put her in two small roles and then promptly forgot her", she signed a seven-year contract with The Enterprise Studios in 1948.
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