Coleen Gray
| Coleen Gray | |
|---|---|
Coleen Gray, 1952
|
|
| Born |
Doris Bernice Jensen October 23, 1922 Staplehurst, Nebraska, U.S. |
| Died | August 3, 2015 (aged 92) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Westwood Memorial Park |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1944–1986 |
| Spouse(s) |
|
| Children | Bruce Robin Bidlack (b. 1954) Susan Amateau (b. 1946) |
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).
She was born Doris Bernice Jensen on October 23, 1922 in Staplehurst, Nebraska, 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. 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 in the University of California. She also worked in the school's library and at a YWCA while a student.
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.
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.
After playing a bit part in State Fair (1945), 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." 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.Riding High wasn't a success and Fox ended her contract in 1950.
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