Judy Lewis

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Judy Lewis (born November 6, 1935 in Los Angeles , California - † November 25, 2011 in Gladwyne , Pennsylvania ) was an American actress , author and psychotherapist .

Life

family

Judy Lewis was born in Venice , a borough of Los Angeles, to the actress Loretta Young and the actor Clark Gable .

During the shooting of the film Call of the Wild (1934/1935; director: William A. Wellman ), Young and Gable had a love affair that they hid from the public, partly for technical reasons, partly for private reasons: Gable was with them Time married; Young, raised strictly Catholic , did not want to reveal himself in public as a single mother.

Lewis was therefore born in a private home in Venice rented by Loretta Young; on the birth certificate, Young gave the name Judith Young for her child . Lewis grew up with various foster families and in orphanages, including St. Elizabeth's Infants Hospital in San Francisco . Young pursued her film career during this time and only took her daughter in when she was barely two years old; she told columnist Louella Parsons and the Hollywood press that she had "adopted" a girl from an orphanage. In 1940, after Young married radio producer Tom Lewis, Lewis was given the name Judy Lewis . However, Tom Lewis never formally adopted Judy Lewis, only gave her his name.

In 1994 Lewis published her memoir under the title Uncommon Knowledge , in which she wrote extensively and in detail about her childhood, about the ambivalent relationship of her mother to her, about the rumors about her ancestry and her biological father. Lewis wrote that she only saw Clark Gable once and spoke to him personally. When she was 15 years old, she met him in the entrance hall of her mother's house. Gable then chatted with her in the living room about the school, her boyfriend and her interests. Lewis later learned that this was a meeting arranged by her mother, at which Gable was able to meet his daughter.

The publication of Lewis' book Uncommon Knowledge sparked a falling out between Loretta Young and Judy Lewis. Young did not speak to her daughter for three years; Only shortly before Young's death was there a discussion and reconciliation. The true background of Lewis' origins was not fully revealed to the public until after her death in 2000 in Loretta Young's authorized biography Forever Young: The Life, Loves, and Enduring Faith of a Hollywood Legend: The Authorized Biography of Loretta Young .

Education and career

Lewis attended Marymount High School , a girls' Catholic school, in Beverly Hills ; there she graduated from high school in 1953 . She then went to New York City to begin an acting career. In 1964 she appeared on Broadway as Tiffany in the comedy Mary, Mary by Jean Kerr on.

Lewis began her film and television career in 1957 with a small role in the Kraft Television Theater series . In the course of her career she also took on a few cinema roles; she mainly worked for television . In this profession, she had several continuous and recurring roles in US television series . In the western series Outlaws (1961/1962) she played Connie Masters, the clerk of a Wells Fargo office. She took on a leading role as Susan Ames Dunbar in the soap opera The Secret Storm ; she embodied the daughter of a family clan. She had a mother role as Barbara Vining in the soap opera General Hospital (1975-1976, 1978).

Lewis has also had numerous episode and guest roles in many American television series, including Highway Patrol (1958), Perry Mason (1959), 77 Sunset Strip (1961), FBI (1974), The Streets of San Francisco (1974) and Makeup and Guns (1974).

In the movie Airport '75 - Giants in the Sky (1974) she had a small role as the passenger Mrs. Taylor.

In the late 1970s, in his mid-forties, Lewis retired from the film business and acting. She began studying clinical psychology at Antioch University in Los Angeles; there she obtained a bachelor's and master's degree in this subject . Since 1992 she has worked as a state-approved family therapist and child psychologist . Their areas of expertise were foster care ( Foster Care ), couples therapy and counseling unmarried mothers.

Private

Lewis was married to Joseph Tinney since 1958; the marriage was divorced in 1972. The marriage had a daughter, Mary Tinney Dagit, who gave Lewis two grandchildren.

Lewis died on November 25, 2011, at the age of 76, at her Gladwyne home of complications from cancer ; she had malignant lymphoma .

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Judy Lewis, Secret Daughter of Hollywood, Dies at 76 Obituary in: New York Times, November 30, 2011
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Judy Lewis: Actress eventually revealed as the love child of Clark Gable and Loretta Young Obituary in: The Independent of December 12, 2011
  3. ↑ a b c d Judy Lewis dies at 76; daughter of stars Loretta Young and Clark Gable Obituary in: Los Angeles Times, December 1, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Lewis, Judy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Young, Judith (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actress, writer and psychotherapist
DATE OF BIRTH November 6, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Los Angeles , California, United States
DATE OF DEATH November 25, 2011
Place of death Gladwyne , Pennsylvania, United States