Gaby Rodgers (born Gabrielle Rosenberg; March 29, 1928
) is a German-born American actress, theater director, and journalist.
Biography
Rodgers is the daughter of Jewish art dealer Saemy Rosenberg, the niece of art historian
Jakob Rosenberg and the great-niece of the philosopher
Edmund Husserl
Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (; 8 April 1859 – 27 April 1938) was an Austrian-German philosopher and mathematician who established the school of Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology.
In his early work, he elaborated critiques of histori ...
. Rodgers was born in
Frankfurt-am-Main
Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
, but immigrated with her family to Amsterdam, London and finally into the United States as refugees from the National Socialist regime in Germany. In Amsterdam, she played marbles with
Anne Frank
Annelies Marie Frank (, ; 12 June 1929 – February or March 1945)Research by The Anne Frank House in 2015 revealed that Frank may have died in February 1945 rather than in March, as Dutch authorities had long assumed"New research sheds new li ...
as her family knew the Franks.
Although she worked extensively as a television actress in the 1950s, Rodgers is perhaps best remembered as Lily Carver in the 1955 film ''
Kiss Me Deadly
''Kiss Me Deadly'' is a 1955 American film noir produced and directed by Robert Aldrich, starring Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart, Juano Hernandez, and Wesley Addy. It also features Maxine Cooper and Cloris Leachman appearing i ...
''. Her only other film role was in the 1953 New York indie ''The Big Break''. She appeared on the cover of the January 1957 issue of ''Cosmopolitan'', representing "The New Face of Broadway". Rodgers continued to work as a stage actress and director into the new century.
Private life
Rodgers was married for many years to lyricist
Jerry Leiber, half of the songwriting team of
Leiber & Stoller, who wrote "
Hound Dog", "
Jailhouse Rock", and other songs. Rodgers frequently is cited as co-author of the song "
Jackson" with
Billy Edd Wheeler
Billy Edd Wheeler (December 9, 1932 – September 16, 2024) was an American songwriter, performer, writer, and visual artist.
His songs include " Jackson" ( Grammy award winner for Johnny Cash and June Carter) " The Reverend Mr. Black", "Dese ...
, but this is untrue; Leiber wrote the song with Wheeler, using his then-wife's name as a pseudonym.
References
External links
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Actresses from Amsterdam
American film actresses
American television actresses
Emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States
Living people
21st-century American women
1928 births
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