Louise Currie (born Louise Gunter; April 7, 1913 – September 8, 2013) was an American film actress, active from 1940 into the early 1950s.

Biography

Louise Currie-Béla Lugosi in The Ape Man

Currie was born in

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, and ...

, the daughter of Charles W. Gunter, a banker, and his wife, Louise (née Currie), whose maiden name she would take for her professional acting surname. She was prominent in society. While attending the Martha Washington Seminary, a finishing school for young women in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, she was chosen one of the ten most beautiful society girls in the nation's capital."RKO Director Makes Ten Strike". ''

Oakland Tribune The ''Oakland Tribune'' is a weekly newspaper published in Oakland, California, by the Bay Area News Group (BANG), a subsidiary of MediaNews Group. Founded in 1874, the ''Tribune'' rose to become an influential daily newspaper. With the declin ...

'', December 15, 1940 She attended Sarah Lawrence College in New York, where she became interested in acting. She moved to

Hollywood, California Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, ...

and attended

Max Reinhardt Max Reinhardt (; born Maximilian Goldmann; 9 September 1873 – 30 October 1943) was an Austrian-born theatre and film director, intendant, and theatrical producer. With his innovative stage productions, he is regarded as one of the most pro ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

school, where she was spotted by talent scouts while taking part in the school's stage workshop. She declined to attempt screen tests until after graduation. With the help of her agent, Sue Carol, wife to actor Alan Ladd, she began working with Monogram Pictures and

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

. Most of her movies were

B-movies A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feature ...

and serials, in which she often portrayed the heroine. Her film career began in 1940, when she appeared first in '' Billy the Kid Outlawed'' and then as a society debutante, in the

Kay Kyser James Kern Kyser (June 18, 1905 – July 23, 1985), known as Kay Kyser, was an American bandleader and radio personality of the 1930s and 1940s. Early years James Kern Kyser was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the son of pharmacists Emily ...

musical '' You'll Find Out''. In 1941 she starred in the serial '' Adventures of Captain Marvel'' opposite

Tom Tyler Tom Tyler (born Vincent Markowski; August 9, 1903 – May 1, 1954) was an American actor known for his leading roles in low-budget Western films in the silent and sound eras, and for his portrayal of superhero Captain Marvel in the 1941 ...

. Currie had an uncredited role in '' Citizen Kane'' (1941), as a reporter at Xanadu. She was the last surviving ''Kane'' cast member. From 1940–49 she had roles in 39 films, many of which were starring, including ''

The Masked Marvel ''The Masked Marvel'' (1943) is a 12-chapter film serial created by Republic Pictures, who produced many other well known serials. It was Republic's thirty-first serial, of the sixty-six they produced. Plot In ''The Masked Marvel'', a hero dress ...

'' (1943). She made a few television appearances in the 1950s, retiring permanently from acting in 1956.

Personal life

Currie was first married to Robert A. Hefner Jr., but that marriage ended in divorce January 29, 1940. She married actor John Whitney (1918-1985) at the peak of her career, but the marriage ended in divorce. On May 4, 1948, she married character actor John Good. He retired from acting, and the two opened a successful antique import-export business in Beverly Hills, remaining together until his death in December 1996.

Other

In 1944, Currie had starred opposite Hollywood legend

Bela Lugosi Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (; October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), known professionally as Bela Lugosi (; ), was a Hungarian and American actor best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the 1931 horror classic ''Dracula'', Ygor in ''S ...

in ''

The Ape Man ''The Ape Man'' is a 1943 American horror film directed by William Beaudine. The film is based on "They Creep in the Dark" by Karl Brown, which was published in ''The Saturday Evening Post''. It stars Bela Lugosi as Dr. James Brewster who is ai ...

'' (1943) and '' Voodoo Man'' (1944). Along with actress

Lucille Lund Lucille may refer to: People People with the given name "Lucille": * Lucille Bailie (born 1969), Australian basketball player * Lucille Ball (1911–1989), American actress best known for the television series ''I Love Lucy'' * Lucille Berrien (b ...

and others, she took part in the

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

''Lugosi: Hollywood's Dracula'' (1997), which detailed the life and acting career of Lugosi. In 2002, she married Grover Asmus, widower of actress

Donna Reed Donna Reed (born Donna Belle Mullenger; January 27, 1921 – January 14, 1986) was an American actress. Her career spanned more than 40 years, with performances in more than 40 films. She is well known for her portrayal of Mary Hatch Bailey in ...

. On May 17, 2010, Currie appeared at the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...

in Beverly Hills to introduce a screening of a restored print of the first chapter of the 1941 serial, ''Adventures of Captain Marvel''.Actress Louise Currie

, May 17, 2010; retrieved January 26, 2013. She made repeat appearances on May 24, 2010 and August 16, 2010.

Filmography

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Currie, Louise 1913 births 2013 deaths Actresses from Oklahoma City Sarah Lawrence College alumni American film actresses 20th-century American actresses American centenarians Women centenarians 21st-century American women