Rhonda Fleming

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Rhonda Fleming (actually Marilyn Louis ; born August 10, 1923 in Hollywood , California - † October 14, 2020 in Santa Monica , California) was an American actress and singer .

Life

Rhonda Fleming was born the daughter of New York model Effie Graham. After her debut in an extra role in the western Hell of Oklahoma in 1943, the good-looking young actress was initially cast in smaller roles in the following years. She had one of her first significant roles in Alfred Hitchcock's psychological thriller I fight for you in 1945 , where she played the man-hating patient of a sanatorium at the side of Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck . She was then cast in numerous Black Series films , including as the murdered secretary in Robert Siodmak's The Spiral Staircase(1945) and as femme fatale in Jacques Tourneurs Goldenes Gift (1947). Fleming was used particularly often in Technicolor films, as these brought out her red hair. Together with the red-haired Maureen O'Hara , she was nicknamed the Queen of Technicolor .

Between 1947 and 1957, Fleming was under contract with Paramount Pictures , where she received many leading female roles. Her film partners included Bing Crosby ( Knight Hank, the terror of the Round Table ) , Bob Hope (The Great Lover) , Ronald Reagan (Hong Kong) , Donald O'Connor (The Buster Keaton Story) and Dana Andrews in the by Fritz Lang turned Film noir The Beast (1956). Fleming played one of her best-known roles in 1957 in the classic western Zwei reckoning alongside Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas . Fleming also appeared as a singer in several of her film appearances. In 1959 she presented the piece A Very Precious Love at the 31st Academy Awards .

Fleming stayed in leading roles in American cinema until the late 1950s, before her film career slowly waned. In the 1960s she played almost exclusively in television films, but also made several films abroad. This included the female lead in the 1960 historical adventure film Die Sklaven Roms , an Italian production.

From the 1960s onwards, Fleming also appeared increasingly in television series such as The People of Shiloh Ranch , Kung Fu , Make-up and Guns, and Love Boat . In 1980 she ended her career as an actress, but returned in 1990 for the short film Waiting for the Wind with Robert Mitchum in front of the camera.

Most recently she was involved in charities. Rhonda Fleming married six times, including actor Lang Jeffries and film producer Hall Bartlett . In 1991 she founded a clinic with her fifth husband, the businessman Ted Mann, which she continued to support after his death in 2001. She was married to Darol Carlson from 2003 until his death in October 2017. Rhonda Fleming was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 .

Fleming died on October 14, 2020 at Providence Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica at the age of 97.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1943: The Hell of Oklahoma (In Old Oklahoma)
  • 1944: Never Marry a Stranger (When Strangers Marry)
  • 1945: I fight for you (Spellbound)
  • 1946: The spiral staircase (The Spiral Staircase)
  • 1946: Bandits without a mask (Abilene Town)
  • 1947: Adventure Island
  • 1947: Goldenes Poison (Out of the Past)
  • 1949: Knight Hank, the Terror of the Round Table (A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court)
  • 1949: The Great Lover
  • 1950: The Eagle and the Hawk
  • 1951: Cry Danger
  • 1951: The Redhead and the Cowboy
  • 1951: His Last Outpost (The Last Outpost)
  • 1951: Little Egypt
  • 1951: Gold in New Guinea (Crosswinds)
  • 1952: Hong Kong (Hong Kong)
  • 1953: The Serpent of the Nile
  • 1953: Pony Express
  • 1953: Fateful Traces (Inferno)
  • 1954: In the dungeons of Morocco (Yankee Pasha)
  • 1954: Semiramis, the courtesan of Babylon (Cortigiana di Babilonia)
  • 1954: The Jivaro Treasure (Jivaro)
  • 1955: Fist of Death (Tennessee's partner)
  • 1956: Bloody Hands (The Killer is Loose)
  • 1956: The Beast (While the City Sleeps)
  • 1957: The Man Who Never Laughed (The Buster Keaton Story)
  • 1957: Two accounts (Gunfight at the OK Corral)
  • 1957: canyon of destruction (Gun Glory)
  • 1958: The Devil Woman of Montana (Bullwhip)
  • 1959: One shot and 50 dead (aka Jesse James)
  • 1960: SOS for flight T 17 (The Crowded Sky)
  • 1960: The slaves of Rome (La rivolta degli schiavi)
  • 1964: The Patsy (The Patsy)
  • 1965: The People at Shiloh Ranch ( The Virginian ; TV series, an episode)
  • 1974: Makeup and Guns ( Police Woman ; TV series, an episode)
  • 1975: Kung Fu (TV series, an episode)
  • 1976: Won Ton Ton - The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood)
  • 1978: Love Boat ( The Love Boat ; television series, one episode)
  • 1980: The Nude Bomb (The Nude Bomb)
  • 1990: Waiting for the Wind (short film)

literature

  • Gregor Hauser, Peter L. Stadlbaur: Prairie bandits: The gripping world of B-Westerns . Verlag Reinhard Marheinecke 2018, ISBN 978-3-932053-98-6 . Pp. 146-148.

Web links

Commons : Rhonda Fleming  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Anita Gates: Rhonda Fleming, 97, Movie Star Made for Technicolor, Is Dead. In: nytimes.com . October 16, 2020, accessed on October 17, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b Hal Erickson: Rhonda Fleming. In: Allmovie. Retrieved October 17, 2020 (English).
  3. ^ Rhonda Fleming. In: Hollywood Walk of Fame. October 25, 2019, accessed on October 17, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Fleming, Rhonda
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Louis, Marilyn (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actress and singer
DATE OF BIRTH August 10, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Hollywood , California , United States
DATE OF DEATH October 14, 2020
Place of death Santa Monica , California , United States