Sad news — Coleen Gray died yesterday. Vienna, at Vienna’s Classic Hollywood, has a fine illustrated tribute:
The death of COLEEN GRAY has been announced (August 3rd,2015).
A fine actress known for many dramatic and western roles.
Born Doris Jensen, Coleen was under contract to Fox in 1944, Coleen’s career started off very promisingly – RED RIVER (1948, but shot in 1946), KISS OF DEATH (1947) and NIGHTMARE ALLEY (1947).
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There are not that many actors of the classic noir era (up to 1960) left. This is what I have come up with in the way of a list. If we dipped further into minor and marginal films, minor actors in minor roles, television noir, and international noir, we might be able to double or triple the 39 names here. But the numbers will decline pretty rapidly each year.
There are even fewer noir directors left. Offhand, I can think of two – Britnoir directors Lewis Gilbert and Michael Anderson, both born in 1920.
Suggestions and corrections welcome.
Surviving Actors of the Classic Noir Era
Lola Albright
Peggy Cummins
Doris Day
Olivia de Havilland
Kirk Douglas
Richard Erdman
Rhonda Fleming
Barbara Hale
Dorothy Malone
Terry Moore
Mamie Van Doren
Julie Adams (Six Bridges to Cross and Slaughter on Tenth Avenue)
Richard Anderson (several small roles)
Harry Belafonte (Odds against Tomorrow)
Sean Connery (several Britnoirs)
Arlene Dahl (No Questions Asked)
Gloria DeHaven (Scene of the Crime)
Rita Gam (The Thief and Night People)
Juliette Greco (Crack in the Mirror, Whirlpool [1959], several French noirs)
Steven Hill (A Lady Without Passport and Storm Fear)
Robert Horton (Code Two and The Man Is Armed)
Anne Jeffreys (Dillinger)
Glynis Johns (several Britnoirs)
Angela Lansbury (A Life at Stake and Please Murder Me!)
Cloris Leachman (Kiss Me Deadly)
Joan Leslie (Born to Be Bad)
June Lockhart (T-Men and Bury Me Dead)
Robert Loggia (The Garment Jungle and Cop Hater)
Betty Lynn (Behind the High Wall)
Maureen O’Hara (Malaga and Lisbon)
Gerald S. O’Loughlin (Cop Hater)
Nancy Olson (Sunset Blvd., Union Station, Big Jim McLain)
Sidney Poitier (Edge of the City)
Marion Ross (Lizzie)
William Schallert (several small roles)
Joe Turkel (numerous small roles)
Stuart Whitman (Hell Bound)
Jane Withers (Danger Street)
Joanne Woodward (A Kiss Before Dying and The Three Faces of Eve)
That’s an impressive piece of research, Patrick, and a really quite useful compilation. I tend to see it the other way round from your “There are not that many actors of the classic noir era (up to 1960) left” — rather I see it as reassuring that there are so many of them! I’d assumed we were down to far fewer than that (and had glumly thought that some of the folk you list were no longer with us).
Many thanks for, yet again, a valuable contribution here.
Thanks! I hope that the list might provide an idea or two to oral historians. I know that a number of these actors have been interviewed about their noir contributions, but some definitely have NOT been. Not all may still be capable of that. But there are chances to catch others’ thoughts while there is still time. The bloggers Stephen Bowie of Classic TV History and Marc Myers of JazzWax conduct such interviews in their fields frequently, and have done considerable sleuthing to track down aging interview candidates (whose current locations may not always be readily discovered).
Quite a testament to greatness on the above comment, and remarkable research. R.I.P.
Too true!