Marie Windsor (born December 11, 1919) was an actress known as "The Queen of the Bs" because she appeared in so many B-movies and film noirs.
Birth Name: Emily Marie Bertelsen
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue
Height: 5' 9"
Quote: "I had to do a tango with George Raft and I learned to dance in ballet shoes with my knees bent."
In 1940, after moving to Hollywood, and entering Maria Ouspenskaya's drama school, she appeared in the play Forty Thousand Smiths, her first use of the stage name Marie Windsor. The next year she appeared in Once in a Lifetime at the Pasadena Playhouse. She also was seen as a villainess in a New York production of Follow the Girls.
After working for several years as a telephone operator, a stage and radio actress, and a bit and extra player in films, Windsor began playing feature parts on the big screen in 1947. Her first film contract, with Warner Bros. in 1942, resulted from her writing jokes and submitting them to Jack Benny. Windsor said she submitted the gags under the name M.E. Windsor "because I was afraid he might be prejudiced against a woman gag writer." When Benny finally met Windsor, "he was stunned by her good looks" and had a producer sign her to a contract. After a tenure with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in which the studio "signed her, put her in two small roles and then promptly forgot her", she signed a seven-year contract with The Enterprise Studios in 1948.
The 5'9" actress's first memorable role was in 1948 opposite John Garfield in Force of Evil playing seductress Edna Tucker. She had roles in numerous 1950s film noirs, notably The Sniper, The Narrow Margin, City That Never Sleeps, and Stanley Kubrick's heist movie, The Killing, in which she played Elisha Cook Jr.'s scheming wife. She also made a foray into science fiction with the 1953 release of Cat-Women of the Moon. Windsor co-starred with Randolph Scott in The Bounty Hunter (1954).
Later, Windsor moved to television. She appeared in 1954 as Belle Starr in the premiere episode of Stories of the Century. In 1962, she played "Ann Jesse", a woman dying in childbirth, in the episode "The Wanted Man" of Lawman. She appeared on such programs as Maverick, Bat Masterson, Perry Mason, Bourbon Street Beat, The Incredible Hulk, Rawhide, General Hospital, Salem's Lot (TV miniseries), and Murder, She Wrote.
Windsor worked consistently through the '60s and '70s, and remained on screen once or so annually clear up to the 1990s, playing her final role at 72 in 1991.
Windsor died of congestive heart failure on December 10, 2000......one day before her 81st birthday.
Birth Name: Emily Marie Bertelsen
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue
Height: 5' 9"
Quote: "I had to do a tango with George Raft and I learned to dance in ballet shoes with my knees bent."
In 1940, after moving to Hollywood, and entering Maria Ouspenskaya's drama school, she appeared in the play Forty Thousand Smiths, her first use of the stage name Marie Windsor. The next year she appeared in Once in a Lifetime at the Pasadena Playhouse. She also was seen as a villainess in a New York production of Follow the Girls.
After working for several years as a telephone operator, a stage and radio actress, and a bit and extra player in films, Windsor began playing feature parts on the big screen in 1947. Her first film contract, with Warner Bros. in 1942, resulted from her writing jokes and submitting them to Jack Benny. Windsor said she submitted the gags under the name M.E. Windsor "because I was afraid he might be prejudiced against a woman gag writer." When Benny finally met Windsor, "he was stunned by her good looks" and had a producer sign her to a contract. After a tenure with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in which the studio "signed her, put her in two small roles and then promptly forgot her", she signed a seven-year contract with The Enterprise Studios in 1948.
The 5'9" actress's first memorable role was in 1948 opposite John Garfield in Force of Evil playing seductress Edna Tucker. She had roles in numerous 1950s film noirs, notably The Sniper, The Narrow Margin, City That Never Sleeps, and Stanley Kubrick's heist movie, The Killing, in which she played Elisha Cook Jr.'s scheming wife. She also made a foray into science fiction with the 1953 release of Cat-Women of the Moon. Windsor co-starred with Randolph Scott in The Bounty Hunter (1954).
Later, Windsor moved to television. She appeared in 1954 as Belle Starr in the premiere episode of Stories of the Century. In 1962, she played "Ann Jesse", a woman dying in childbirth, in the episode "The Wanted Man" of Lawman. She appeared on such programs as Maverick, Bat Masterson, Perry Mason, Bourbon Street Beat, The Incredible Hulk, Rawhide, General Hospital, Salem's Lot (TV miniseries), and Murder, She Wrote.
Windsor worked consistently through the '60s and '70s, and remained on screen once or so annually clear up to the 1990s, playing her final role at 72 in 1991.
Windsor died of congestive heart failure on December 10, 2000......one day before her 81st birthday.
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