Adrienne Ames (born Ruth Adrienne McClure; August 3, 1907 – May 31, 1947) was an American film actress. Early in her career she was known as Adrienne Truex.

Early years

Ames was born in

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...

, one of six children of Samuel Hugh McClure and Flora Parthenia (née Potter) McClure.

Career

Film

Ames began her film career in 1927 as a

stand-in A stand-in, sometimes a lighting double, for film and television is a person who substitutes for the actor before filming, for technical purposes such as lighting and camera setup. Stand-ins are helpful in the initial processes of film and tele ...

for Pola Negri. Ames was soon cast in small film roles in

silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

s. With the advent of talking pictures, Ames' popularity grew and she was usually cast as society women, or in musicals. She made thirty films during the 1930s with her biggest success in ''

George White's Scandals ''George White's Scandals'' were a long-running string of Broadway revues produced by George White that ran from 1919–1939, modeled after the ''Ziegfeld Follies''. The "Scandals" launched the careers of many entertainers, including W. C. ...

'' (1934). She appeared with the three leading men from the 1931 version of ''

Dracula ''Dracula'' is an 1897 Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. The narrative is Epistolary novel, related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and opens ...

'' (

Bela Lugosi Blaskó Béla Ferenc Dezső (; October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), better known by the stage name Bela Lugosi ( ; ), was a Hungarian–American actor. He was best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the horror film classic Dracula (19 ...

, David Manners, and

Edward Van Sloan Edward Van Sloan (born Edward Paul Van Sloun; November 1, 1882 – March 6, 1964) was an American character actor best remembered for his roles in the Universal Studios horror films such as ''Dracula'' (1931), ''Frankenstein'' (1931), and '' Th ...

) in '' The Death Kiss'' (1932).

Radio

Ames left Hollywood for New York. In 1941, she was hostess of two talk shows on station WHN in New York City. Her schedule included broadcasts at noon and 3:30 p.m. six days a week and 7:30 p.m. broadcasts on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. She continued broadcasting until two weeks before her death in 1947.

Television

In December 1941, Ames began a weekly series of movie-review programs on WNBT in New York City. The 10-minute programs ran on Tuesday afternoons.

Personal life

Ames was married three times. In 1920, at the age of 13 or 14, she married Derward Dumont Truax, the son of an oil businessman. They had a daughter, and divorced in 1924. A later marriage to broker Stephen Ames ended in divorce on October 30, 1933. Her last marriage, on October 31, 1933, was to fellow actor Bruce Cabot; they divorced on July 24, 1935.

Death

Ames died of cancer on May 31, 1947, in New York City, aged 39. She is interred in the Oakwood Cemetery in her hometown of

Fort Worth Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...

, Texas. For her contributions to the film industry, Ames has a motion pictures star on the

Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a landmark which consists of 2,813 five-pointed terrazzo-and-brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in the Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood dist ...

at 1612

Vine Street Vine Street is a street in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, that runs north–south between Franklin Avenue, Los Angeles, and Melrose Avenue. The intersection of Hollywood and Vine being symbolic of Hollywood itself. The intersection has be ...

. It was dedicated February 8, 1960.

Filmography

References

External links

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The Private Life and Times of Adrienne AmesAdrienne Ames
at Virtual History {{DEFAULTSORT:Ames, Adrienne 1907 births 1947 deaths 20th-century American actresses American film actresses American silent film actresses Deaths from cancer in New York (state) Actresses from Fort Worth, Texas American radio personalities