Fay McKenzie

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Eunice Fay McKenzie (born February 19, 1918 in Hollywood , Los Angeles , California - † April 16, 2019 in Highland Park , Los Angeles, California) was an American actress who primarily made film roles in westerns of the 1930s and 1940s got known. Among other things, she played the leading female role as a film partner of Gene Autry in a total of five productions in 1941 and 1942 . McKenzie was one of the last surviving actors from Hollywood's silent film era.

Life

Fay McKenzie was born in Hollywood in 1918. Her parents Eva (1889–1967) and Robert McKenzie (1880–1949) were already active as actors. Her father also had his own production company and worked as a film producer and director. At the age of only ten weeks, Fay had her first film appearance as a child by Gloria Swanson in the silent film Station Content . Between 1921 and 1924, four more appearances in silent films followed. Her two sisters Ida Mae (1911–1986) and Ella McKenzie (1911–1987) also became actors.

After a break of ten years due to the school, Fay played again in films from 1934. In the same year she also appeared in her first western, many of which were to follow in the course of her career. Best known were her appearances as a film partner in five productions at the side of Gene Autry. In addition to several other leading roles in these films, she also appeared in other genres in small supporting roles, for example in Uprising in Sidi Hakim or in Under and Over . McKenzie played her best-known role outside of westerns in 1937 as Linda Clayton in Assassin of Youth . Since Arthur Gardner's death in December 2014, she is the last surviving actress from this film. The following year, McKenzie appeared in a supporting role in the star-studded short film Swingtime in the Movies .

During the Second World War McKenzie was mainly active in the theater, but occasionally also played in films. In 1946 she married the actor Steve Cochran , from whom she divorced in 1948. In the same year she married the screenwriter Tom Waldman, with whom she had two children: the actor Tom Waldman junior and the writer Madora McKenzie. The marriage lasted until Waldman's death in 1985.

McKenzie quit her film career after the war to raise her two children. Since the late 1950s, she has appeared as a guest in television series and has also appeared again in supporting roles in films, including in 1961 as a party guest who talked to himself in front of a mirror in Breakfast at Tiffany's and in an episode of Bonanza . In 1968 McKenzie played the role of Alice Clutterbuck in Blake Edwards comedy The Party Horror . Her husband Tom Waldman had previously worked with Edwards on several occasions. She played her last film role in 1981 in SOB - Hollywood's Last Howler .

Fay McKenzie died in April 2019 at the age of 101 in Highland Park, a suburb of Los Angeles.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1918: Station Content
  • 1921: A Knight of the West
  • 1922: When Love Comes
  • 1924: The Judgment of the Storm
  • 1924: The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln
  • 1934: Student Tour
  • 1935: Thunderbolt
  • 1936: Lucky Terror
  • 1937: Assassin of Youth
  • 1937: Tex Rides with the Boy Scouts
  • 1938: Swingtime in the Movies
  • 1938: Freshman Year
  • 1938: Slander House
  • 1939: Uprising in Sidi Hakim (Gunga Din)
  • 1939: Revenge for the Alamo (Man of Conquest)
  • 1939: Above and Above (It's a Wonderful World)
  • 1939: Unexpected Father
  • 1939: Disputed Passage
  • 1939: Laugh It Off
  • 1939: Death Rides the Range
  • 1939: All Women Have Secrets
  • 1939: The Big Guy
  • 1940: It's a date
  • 1940: Mad Youth
  • 1940: Love, Honor, and Oh Baby!
  • 1940: When the Daltons Rode
  • 1941: Dr. Kildare: The Wedding Day (Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day)
  • 1941: Down Mexico Way
  • 1941: Sierra Sue
  • 1942: Cowboy Serenade
  • 1942: Heart of the Rio Grande
  • 1942: Home in Wyomin '
  • 1942: Remember Pearl Harbor
  • 1946: Murder in the Music Hall
  • 1946: I think of you day and night (Night and Day)
  • 1959: The Millionaire (TV series, episode)
  • 1959: -30-
  • 1960: Mr. Lucky (TV series, an episode)
  • 1961: Breakfast at Tiffany's (Breakfast at Tiffany's)
  • 1961: Bonanza (TV series, an episode)
  • 1962: The Last Train (Experiment in Terror)
  • 1968: The Party (The Party)
  • 1981: SOB - Hollywood's Last Howler (SOB)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Sam Roberts: Fay McKenzie Dies at 101, Almost the Length of Her Screen Career. In: The New York Times . April 24, 2019, accessed April 25, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Debra Levine: Party on, Fay McKenzie! In: artsmeme.com. July 13, 2011, accessed March 19, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME McKenzie, Fay
ALTERNATIVE NAMES McKenzie, Eunice Fay (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-american actress
DATE OF BIRTH February 19, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Los Angeles , California
DATE OF DEATH April 16, 2019
Place of death Los Angeles , California