Faye Marlowe (1926)

Marlowe

Abandoned by an alcoholic father, red-haired, dimple-cheeked Faye Marlowe was born in a Salvation Army Home for Unwed Mothers near the 20th Century Fox lot in Los Angeles. Luckily for her, she was soon adopted by acclaimed vaudevillian Fanchon and her husband, the restaurateur William Simon. Doted on by her adoptive parents, Faye was educated at Beverly Hills High School and then studied arts and drama at Los Angeles University High School, graduating in 1943. By the time she was spotted by a 20th Century Fox talent scout, she had already won two diving and swimming awards, had taken up ice skating to become "Pan-Pacific Ice Queen" and was considered an expert student at the Los Angeles Riding Academy. Alas, her Hollywood tenure was all-too brief, spanning a mere decade, from 1945 to 1955. Faye's screen debut, as the murderer's girlfriend in John Brahm's stylishly evocative film noir Hangover Square (1945) also became the role for which she is now best remembered. Brahm directed Faye again in her penultimate movie, Il ladro di Venezia (1950), an Italian-American costume drama, which, though colourful, was pure hokum. In between, Faye had four substantial roles in the female lead role: an entertaining George Seaton comedy entitled Junior Miss (1945) (based on a Broadway play); in The Spider (1945), a murder mystery set in the New Orleans French Quarter, as a carnival clairvoyant, who, fearing for her life, hires tough gumshoe Richard Conte; as a wartime pilot's pregnant wife in Johnny Comes Flying Home (1946); and (on loan to Republic) in Rendezvous with Annie (1946), a marital comedy co-starring Eddie Albert. After this, Faye's career began to sputter. She made a few more appearances in anthology television before quitting the scene in 1955, later remarking "I don't think my departure upset anyone."

Faye adopted two daughters and later travelled to Europe, variously residing in France, Italy and England. In 2014, she returned to the U.S., to live out her remaining years in Cary, North Carolina. As Faye Hueston she published her third book, the autobiographical 'Fanchon's Daughter', that very year.