Una Merkel

Una Merkel
Una Merkel in 1934
Born	(1903-12-10)December 10, 1903 Covington, Kentucky, U.S.
Died	January 2, 1986(1986-01-02) (aged 82) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Highland Cemetery Fort Mitchell, Kentucky
Years active	1920–1966
Spouse(s)	Ronald Burla (m. 1932; div. 1947)

Una Merkel (December 10, 1903 – January 2, 1986) was an American stage, film, radio, and television actress.

Una Merkel was born in Covington, Kentucky, but in her early childhood, she lived in many of the Southern states due to her father's job as a traveling salesman. At the age of 15, her parents and she moved to Philadelphia. They stayed there a year or so before settling in New York City, where she began attending the Alviene School of Dramatic Art.

Because of her strong resemblance to actress Lillian Gish, Merkel was offered a part as Gish's youngest sister in a silent film called World Shadows. Unfortunately, the public never saw the film because funding for it dried up, and it was never completed. Merkel went on to appear in a few silent films during the silent era, several of them for the Lee Bradford Corporation. She also appeared in the two-reel Love's Old Sweet Song (1923), which was made by Lee DeForest in his Phonofilm sound-on-film process and starred Louis Wolheim and Helen Weir. Not making much of a mark in films, Merkel turned her attention to the theater and found work in several important plays on Broadway. Her biggest triumph was in Coquette (1927), which starred her idol, Helen Hayes.

Invited to Hollywood by famous director D. W. Griffith to play Ann Rutledge in his Abraham Lincoln (1930), Merkel was a big success in the "talkies". During the 1930s, she became a popular second lead in a number of films, usually playing the wisecracking best friend of the heroine, supporting actresses such as Jean Harlow, Carole Lombard, Loretta Young, and Eleanor Powell.