Disgraced Minor Female Celebs

[Graugrun]

Originally Posted by VintageKell

Marjorie Wallace was the first American to win the Miss World contest in 1973.... stripped of title in 1974 ....

She quickly became a tabloid celebrity linked to various famous men including married Welsh crooner Tom Jones and British soccer star George Best. According to the New York Times, she resigned her crown after Best was charged with burglarizing her home. She went on to enjoy later success as a talkshow host.

Just another pic I found of her.....

[VintageKell]

Originally Posted by VintageKell

Annabell Battistella - has gone down in history by her stage name: Fanne Foxe, the "Argentine firecracker."

Occasionally I post a picture update when the girl has no other thread or posts .... In this case I always felt the newspaper pics on the post didn't really do her justice, so I hunted round for a better shot. None really came to light, but a better version of a publicity shot allowed me to create a decent picture.

I have added a few others to make a decent post, but you can see on the last picture what turned a Congressman's head



Two more pics

[VintageKell]

Taylor Momsen is an American actress, musician and model, who portrayed the character of Jenny Humphrey on the on the CW television series 'Gossip Girl', and also portrayed the role of 'Cindy Lou Who' in 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' with Jim Carey. She currently fronts the rock band 'The Pretty Reckless'.

She began acting professionally at 3 years of age with a national commercial for Shake 'N' Bake, but the highlight of her child career was undoubtedly in 2000, when she played the role of Cindy Lou Who. When one door shut another opened when she started her recording career with "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and after that the TV, Films, Gigs and Records went hand in hand .... added to which she became a teen fashion and scent model and signed for IMG Models.

But after a gap in her acting career while she transitioned to adulthood (well teenage at least), she hit a few bumps ... she received the lead role WB series 'Misconceptions' but the series was never-aired. She then auditioned for the title role in Hannah Montana, and was in the final three, but the role was instead awarded to Miley Cyrus ... this seems to have rankled.

Still, success piled upon success, so it must have been a bit of a surprise when the producers of the TV show "Gossip Girl" apparently suspended her from the show indefinitely, because of her "off-screen antics". According to Deadline Hollywood's anonymous sources, Momsen was making expletive-laced tirades against peers such as 'Miley Cyrus' (see she hadn't liked that earlier snub), and upsetting her fellow thespians such as Tim Gunn who apparently said "What a diva," he told E! News. "She was pathetic, she couldn't remember her lines, and she didn't even have that many. I thought to myself, 'Why are we being held hostage by this brat?'".

Momsen told Elle magazine that she quit acting to focus on her music career ..... so there!

From the sound of it, this girl will continue to rake in millions of dollars, via her band (anyone heard of them?), while I remain blithely unaware of her presence on the planet, but such is what passes for fame these days. I guess we can either expect a real train wreck later in her life, or she will grow up and safely navigate the dangerous shoals that vast amounts of money so early in life bring ..... only time will tell, but I'll be watching

Pictures:

She has a thread here already (started by our own uncle sam), so just a few samplers and as usual any follow ups to her thread please.

[VintageKell]

Yvonne Hughes was a dancer in the Ziegfeld Follies and an actress in silent motion pictures. Born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, her film career was brief, five films, all in 1923 and 1924, which included appearances with Gloria Swanson and with Rudolph Valentino. In all she had roles in 'Lawful Larceny', 'Zaza', 'Big Brother', 'A Society Scandal', and 'Monsieur Beaucaire'. Miss Hughes also appeared in Broadway hits "Rio Rita", "Whoopee", and "Rosalie".

In 1928, Time magazine reported that

Eloped. Gordon Godowsky, 22, son of famed Pianist-Composer Leopold Godowsky; brother of Cinemasiren Dagmar Godowsky; Harvard senior, now "suping" in The Trial of Mary Dugan (wherein a blonde Follies girl defends her name); with Miss Yvonne Hughes, blonde Follies girl. Result:disinheritance.

She married Godowsky, but sadly the marriage lasted just one year, and a few years later in 1932, Godowsky committed suicide over financial troubles in the depression.

That's about all her career summed up, but sometimes its the post career that holds all the threats .... Not much information on her career post 1930, and she only resurfaced in public consciousness as the result of her brutal murder on December 26, 1950. According to reports in the newspapers, her body was found in a hotel room, in which an itinerant apple picker Birger Nordkvist, who had been working for a western New York cider firm, had been staying. He was not in the room, and she had apparently been strangled by him.

How she got to be in this room with him, was uncovered over the following days with this excerpt from a local newspaper the 'La Crosse Tribune, La Crosse, Wisconsin, Wednesday, December 27, 1950 | Page 12' giving a flavour of the reports:

Former Ziegfeld Follies Girl Slain

NEW YORK -(AP)- Investigation of the strangulation slaying of a former Ziegfeld follies showgirl turned to Utica, N.Y., Wednesday after an apple picker was arrested there for questioning in the case. The body of Evelyn (Yvonne) HUGHES, about 50, was found Tuesday in a Manhattan hotel room rented by Birger NORDKVIST, 41, on Christmas Eve.

Several hours after finding of the body, NORDKVIST was taken into custody at Utica. He was picked up after he asked a hotel manager there to telephone the New York hotel for him and find out if there had been any "trouble" Monday. The call was intercepted by police at the hotel here, the Ashland. No charge was lodged against NORDKVIST, who is from Hamlin, N.Y. Miss Hughes appeared in Broadway hits "Rio Rita" and "Rosalie" and with Rudolph Valentino and Gloria Swanson in movies.

Apparently, on the evening of the 26th of December, Birger Nordkvist had got into a cab driven by a John McDonald, McDonald had been living with Hughes for the previous fourteen years. For some reason, McDonald then offered to take Nordkvist to the Ashland Hotel, where he 'kept a room'. It was there that Nordkvist took another room and met Hughes, who settled down to drink with him after Hughes had 'gone back to taxiing'. She later demonstrated some old dance routines for him and they carried on drinking beer through the evening and night and into the early hours of the next morning.

Perhaps inevitably, Nordkvist allegedly made sexual advances, which Hughes apparently rebuffed. It was then that Nordkvist strangled her by tying his handkerchief around her throat and stuffing a silk scarf into her mouth.

None of the reports confirmed that he was convicted, but the reason why her death brings her here, are the questions that remain unanswered, which seem to point at a certain conclusion:

• Why did McDonald decide to leave his 'girlfriend' with a complete stranger?
• What was he doing keeping a room in the Ashland Hotel - a travellers hotel?
• Why was Miss Hughes in the room, and why did she agree to stay 'drinking beer' with a stranger or put on a dance show for him?

The sub text of the whole story seems to suggest that Miss Hughes fell on to hard times after her dancing days were over and was in fact reduced to working as a prostitute. That McDonald was her boyfriend / pimp for the last fourteen years of her life, and that he got her clients from his taxi cab. That she was killed when the 'trick' with Nordkvist went wrong for some reason. Unless anyone can find the final court reports, then I guess we'll never know for sure ....

Pictures:

Only three taken from the press wires and cleaned up by me ....

[VintageKell]

Jaimee Foxworth was a child actress (so no pics from her mainstream career), who began modeling at the age of five in national television advertisements, and as a result she got the role of 'Judy Winslow', on the long-running sitcom 'Family Matters'.

Oops lesson #1 - Greed backed by inflated self importance, usually backfires.

However the role was essentially a minor one with a much reduced scene presence from the rest of the characters. This meant that when the Foxworth family requested a raise in salary, the producers simply wrote her off the series after its 4th season .... actually it was quite brutal, in a Bobby Ewing moment, they made the character simply disappear i.e. the back plot no longer included the 3rd child, she had never been.

Oops lesson #2 - Being vaguely skilled in one area doesn't make you any good at another.

Needless to say, the acting work dried up rather quickly, so she now turned to music and in a desperate throw of the dice, she formed a short-lived musical group (named S.H.E.) with her two sisters .... flopped without trace .

Oops lesson #3 - Doing drugs don't resurrect a career.

She then quickly ran through the usual tick boxes of substance abuse ( marijuana, alcohol and painkillers), depression and destitution

Oops lesson #4 - Get a proper job and don't expect that break.

In May 2003 she was apparently working as an assistant at her mom's 'talent agency' between mainstream auditions .... Why it is that none of these girls can never just get a normal job at Wal-Mart has to be that they just can't live without being the centre of attention that even minor celebdom can offer, hence the proneness to substance abuse, depression and unemployment.

Oops lesson #5 - Never trust your money to your family.

Rumours abounded that her family had been allowed to raid her $500,000 trust fund to stave off bankruptcy, but she said that this wasn't strictly true, as her family had never filed for bankruptcy, but she admitted that the family had been completely flat broke. In any event the trust money was apparently gone somehow.

Oops lesson #6 - The only way is down baby.

And at last, she took the final plunge. Faced with the prospect of actually having to do a proper job, Foxworth started starring in pornographic films (usually credited as "Crave"). It was quick money, and as she apparently put it, she'd show up for a shoot, and "in 30 minutes I was $15,000 richer." So starting in 2000, and ending in 2002, she starred in such titles as 'More Black Dirty Debutantes 30', 'Hot Girlz', 'Adventures of Peeping Tom No. 28', 'Chillin' with Jake Steed's Freaks Whoes & Flows 25', 'More Black Dirty Debutantes 32', 'My Baby Got Back 29' - mostly as Crave or Monet.

Oops lesson #7 - Nobody cares baby, you just ain't of interest.

In December 2008, 'People magazine' reported that Foxworth was pregnant, and a child was born in the spring of 2009. The magazine also reported that Foxworth was working on a music career (again) and a reality TV show (never happened), and expected to release her autobiography in 2009 .... I musta missed it.

Oops lesson #7 - Once you become part of the feeding matter for other peoples shows your dead meat in celebrity terms.

Her transition to the pornographic industry was covered by a dedicated show on 'The Oprah Winfrey Show', entitled "Former Child TV Star Reveals the Biggest Mistake of Her Life" .. she then reprised this role on both the 'Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew', and 'The Tyra Banks Show'.

She has since been listed as being uncredited in the 2009 porn movie 'The Jeffersons: A XXX Parody (video)' .... you know your sliding, when you can't even get a credit in a porn movie .....

Pictures:

She has a few posts and movie links on her own thread. So as usual just a few illustrative pictures, and any follow ups to her thread please.

[VintageKell]

Farrah Fawcett (b. Ferrah Leni Fawcett - Ferrah means joy in Arabic) was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, her father was an oil contractor. She was bright and attended the University of Texas in Austin, where she studied microbiology and art, but she was already taking the standard route to celebdom, the beauty contest. She featured in the "Ten Most Beautiful Coeds" competition in Cashbox magazine.

Luckily a Hollywood publicist saw her in the photo, called Fawcett and over the course of a year urged her to move to Los Angeles, which she did the summer following her junior year, with her parents' permission to "try her luck" in Hollywood over the course of the summer. She did not return to further education. She was rapidly snapped up for many television commercials including Ultra-Brite toothpaste and Wella Balsam shampoo, and would appear grinning on dozens of magazine covers before she began to appear, from the mid-1960s, in some TV series such as 'I Dream of Jeannie', 'The Flying Nun' and 'The Partridge Family'.

Success on TV quickly followed, firstly in Harry O', then 'The Six Million Dollar Man', and then she was in the original first series of 'Charlies Angels' (a massive international hit), but quit after series one, and then followed this up with well received dramatic roles on both stage and TV leading to Emmy nominations. She continued to do guest roles until ill health stopped her.

Her film career was not to match the brief flare of fame she achieved on TV ... in fact I barely recognised any of them except her bit part in 'Logans Run' and 'The Cannonball Run' .... she got some critical acclaim, but little commercial success, and that about covers it.

She was married to Lee Majors (the bionic man) and later had a long-term on off relationship with actor Ryan O'Neal to whom she had a son. She had an unfortunate relationship with producer James Orr. But after she turned down his marriage proposal in 1998, he severely beat her and the scandal drew nationwide headlines. She immediately broke off all ties with him and he was charged and sentenced for assault. She died of cancer in 2009.

Oops moments:

She's here because surprisingly she had a couple of events that bring her inside the thread .....

• She had two brushes with the law in 1970, when she was arrested twice for shoplifting, after she took clothes from boutiques and was convicted both times on the lesser plea bargain charges of trespassing and fined $125 and $265, respectively. In her defence Fawcett claimed to be returning clothes at both stores, substituting new ones of equivalent value, because they wouldn't exchange the merchandise. "I was just taking justice into my own hands" she explained. The judges weren't especially impressed by this line of defence, hence the two convictions.
  
• She had also refused to do any nude scenes at the height of her fame - with the exception of a topless scene in the 1980 film 'Saturn 3' with a rather old Kirk Douglas as her lover - But sadly the fame bug had truly bitten, and in 1995, with the work drying up somewhat, she posed semi-nude in the December 1995 issue of Pl*yboy, and then tried the same trick again at the age of 50, when she returned to Pl*yboy with a pictorial for the July 1997 issue ... both were big selling copies, as her original teen male fan club were all now of an age to buy the magazines

Sometimes a star can burn bright for a brief moment, but just as quickly fade ... and such is what happened to this girl. For a while she was 'A List' with a capital 'A', but time has done its work, and with her major TV work a long time ago, she has drifted into the 'forgotten' category of ladies on this thread ... men of a certain age may shake their heads, and stroke their white beards, but sadly, her major fame was mid 1970's (that's 35 yrs ago chaps ).

Pictures:

She has a thread here already ... I can't completely duplicates, so just a few illustrative pictures and as usual, any follow ups to her thread please.




additional tweaked version ... its a taste thing.

[VintageKell]

Lysette Anthony (b. Lysette Chodzko) born in Fulham, London, is the only daughter of jobbing actors. Her first stage appearance at the Cambridge Theatre, at age 10 in her parents' theatre company. Four years later she performed with the National Youth Theatre. At age 16 she was heralded as the "Face of the Eighties" by photographer David Bailey and enjoyed early success as a model before she had success as an actress at the age of 20.

Its fair to say that her TV and film work has been of 'mixed quality', and that she is probably most pleased with her role in Woody Allen's 'Husbands And Wives' in 1992. But many will remember her more from movies like 'Krull', 'Dracula: Dead and Loving It', 'Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde' and 'Look Who's Talking Now', where she is mostly not the lead actress i.e 'and Lysette Anthony' on the posters ...you get the picture. Her latest movies includes 'Strippers vs Werewolves'.

Similarly, her TV and stage work is a real mixture ... highlights include adaptations of 'Dombey and Son' and 'Oliver Twist', the 1982 TV film 'Ivanhoe', and the sitcom 'Three Up, Two Down'. This latter I don't recall, but she is obviously proud of; "What surprises me though, is that it is never in that Top 100 Favourite Sitcoms show, because almost daily people come up and mention it. So I know how popular it is, and that's really lovely" ... But there are also a lot of 'guest slots' in various shows of perhaps variable notability ..... She has also continued to work in the theatre and appeared in various music videos, notably with Bryan Adams.

She was married to Dutch actor Luc Leestermaker, and then to American film director David Price, before entering a relationship with composer Simon Boswell with whom she had one child .... and its partly her personal life that brings her here.

Oops Moments:

First - The body beautiful: When she couldn't get US work because of what she perceived as her "English Rose" typecast image ..... she took that most obvious of career shortcuts, and 'tastefully' dropped her knickers. She posed nude in Pl*yboy in 1988, apparently in an attempt to make her more appealing to the Hollywood casting directors .... you have to judge for yourselves whether this improved the quality of her roles. Years later the UK's Daily Mail Newspaper reported that she had admitted that 'There have been, some "pretty bad films", not to mention some equally rotten real-life romances' which takes me nicely to the next 'oops' moment.

Second - The end of days: Her relationships have not always ended well, or with dignity ... her latest break up in 2011 was splashed over UK national newspapers. She had accused the father of her child of 'punching and slapping' her, in an sustained incident of domestic violence her during their relationship. The courts were told that their relationship had broken down after her partner alleged she had had an affair, which she claimed had caused her partner to assault her. She admitted to a 'friendship', but denied any 'affair' and declined to name the friend in court.

Her ex partner countered by stating the 'bruises and marks' occurred, when she threatened to commit suicide after a row over the money division from the sale of their home. Firstly via a window when she attempted to straddle the ledge, and then by slashing at her wrists with a wine glass she had smashed. He had restrained her and there was a brief struggle.

He supported this assertion by producing a medical report from her doctors taken when this event had occurred. The court believed his account, the case was dismissed, and he was duly found not guilty of assault, leaving court with his reputation intact. An attempt by Ms Anthony to also secure a restraining order against her former partner, was also rejected by the court, and she was ordered to pay the defence costs. As he said outside the court "The verdict speaks for itself".

Trivia:

• After she starred in the play Pinocchio in London's West End at the age of 10, her parents were so appalled at her 'precocious nature' that they sent her to a convent school in Torquay, Devon.
• Her looks and acting style were once infamously described by Victor Lewis-Smith, TV critic of the (London) "Evening Standard", as "like scoffing a whole packet of icing sugar: very sweet but rather nauseating after a while".

Quote:

• "In Hollywood, being a producer is rather like being a lesbian. Everybody says they're doing it, when only a select few actually qualify".
• "I think we can safely say that I have appalling taste in men".

Pictures:

She has a large thread, so illustrative pics only, although as she was rather fit I am allowing myself the luxury of few extra posts .... many of them are not on her thread or are better versions of the pictures. As usual, any follow ups to her thread please

[VintageKell]

María Belén Chapur is an Argentine celebrity, who armed with a university degree in international relations moved to the city of Buenos Aires, and got a job with a local TV company. Her facility with foreign languages (She is fluent in English, as well as Portuguese and Chinese), meant that soon she was covering foreign news stories. She married, and soon had a young family, all the while covering stories in the US or visits by foreign celebrities.

It was in Punte del Este in Uruguay, a local 'celeb hot-spot', that she met Mark Sanford, the married Republican Govenor from South Carolina. After the meeting she remained in touch over the next seven years with this rising star of the Republican party via e-mail, during which time she became divorced and had started working for 'Bunge y Born', an agribusiness and grain trading corporation as a commodity broker.

In 2008 she, and the still married Sanford, started an affair, with him flying down to Argentina for trysts - it was later claimed at taxpayer expenses (he later repaid these costs). In mid-2009 Sanford went missing from his family, the public and even the State Law Enforcement Division, which provides security for him. His disappearance garnered nationwide news coverage, and no one within his circle had heard from him for more than four days. It was then claimed by his office that he was hiking in the Appalachian mountains alone ... but 'The State' newspaper in S.C., accosted Sanford at the Atlanta airport blowing his 'Appalachian Trail' hiking cover story and the cat was out of the bag.

In the hours afterwards, he held a news conference, during which he admitted that he had been unfaithful to his wife. It soon emerged that he had been in Argentina .... his wife, who had known of the affair, but had hoped it would end, said "to look my sons in the eyes and maintain my dignity, self-respect, and my basic sense of right and wrong, I asked my husband to leave". In the US and Argentina the story was the scandal of the year - Ms Chapur kept her silence despite all the requests for interviews by journalists, but after her emails are hacked and made public she issues a short statement asking for privacy and offered no further details about her life. This excerpt gives something of the emails flavour.

"You have a particular grace and calm that I adore. You have a level of sophistication that so fitting with your beauty. I could digress and say that you have the ability to give magnificent gentle kisses, or that I love your tan lines or that I love the curve of your hips, the erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of the night's light - but hey, that would be going into sexual details..."

Meanwhile Sanford was asked to resign. He refused. Impeachment proceedings began, but failed. When his wife moves out of the governor's mansion, he is censured. But he remains in office and 'true' to his vocation, he serves out his term as Governor and now works for Fox TV.

Its not clear whether she still works as a commodity broker, but when Sanford's wife divorces Sanford, they become free and are now engaged and will marry next year .... now all say ah!

Trivia:

• She runs marathons.

Pictures:

She is too minor for a thread, or any further pics ....

[VintageKell]

Olga Korbut was born in Belarusian in the former Soviet union, and by the age of 9 yrs old she was started in the gymnast training regime in a Belarusian sports school. Although under age she entered her first competition in the USSR in 1969 where she ended fifth. He peak of fame came aged 17+ at the Summer Olympics of 1972 in Munich (three gold medals and one silver), and then at the 1976 Montreal Olympics (one team gold and individual silver), for the USSR team.

After the 1972 Olympics she was a worldwide celebrity, who at just 4ft 11in tall and weighing six stone, her pigtails and her elfin performances, and had she been in the West at the time she would have made millions in endorsements, but this was the USSR, so in 1977 she became a teacher and retired from gymnastic competition. She then married a member of a popular Belarusian folk band 'Pesniary'.

The couple had a son in 1979. In 1991, the family emigrated to the United States, but they divorced in 2000, and she remarried to a web designer (who ended up delivering pizzas) but this also ended in divorce ...she now lives in Scottsdale, Arizona as an occasional private gymnastics tutor and motivational speaker.

She had various attempts to get into movies and TV as a gymnastics/sports analyst, but her English wasn't really up to it .... so most of her appearances were in documentaries - bizarrely in 2002 she was in TV show 'Celebrity Boxing 2 (2002)', fighting and losing in the bout 'Olga Korbut vs. Darva Conger' (a reality TV contestant - I had to look her up).

Troubles and Woes:

Life after the collapse of the Soviet Union wasn't easy, she had been 'looked after' by the old communist system, but this all stopped. Emigration to the capitalist USA seemed to offer a chance to capitalise on her former fame, but unlike her great rival of 1976, Romanian Nadia Comănecic, she didn't manage to do this. She set up a gymnastics academy but had to close it in 1995 after complaints about her coaching methods being too tough .... if she tried to emulate the Soviet system (see trivia section) this is not a surprise.

She never did the Pl*yboy thing and to be frank her tough life really shows now, but she did do a couple of 'physical fitness' nudes when she retired - the set was never fully released.

By 2002 she was living in an upmarket home with her 'web designer' second husband, but then the couple dramatically flitted from their luxury home, leaving a large number of unpaid bills. Bailiffs accompanied from the mortgage company, by police, turned up only to find the house trashed - Light fixtures had been removed, banisters had been unhinged from the stairs, and the Sheriff's Deputy Tracy Lee who had come to serve the eviction notice said that her belongings including her wedding dress, portrait painting, and Olympic mementos (including her medals) had been thrown onto the lawn. The Sheriff's Deputy is reported as saying that ''Whoever was living here was angry because the house was being taken over by a mortgage company''. A neighbour later rescued some of her things, and stored them in his garage.

The couple had a tiny flat in Atlanta Georgia in 2002, and she was then caught shoplifting for food .... she was accused of shoplifting $19.35 worth of figs, seasoning, tea, cheese and syrup from a supermarket near her townhouse northeast of Atlanta. Ms Korbut said she simply forgot her wallet in the car and planned to return to pay for the groceries. She avoided jail time and probation by agreeing with the courts to pay a small sum of money to complete an 'ethics course'.

Also in 2002, 'The US Secret Service' announced that it was investigating $30,000 in counterfeit $100 bills found in a house that she had formerly owned in Duluth, Georgia, but seemingly abandoned, and whose last occupant apparently was her son. Through her agent, she denied any connection to the counterfeit bills found in the house that she no longer owned or lived in. No one has ever been charged.

Finally, thoughout her stay in the US she has gone from gym to gym; plans for her own gymnasium have never really materialized. Along the way, she has struggled with both her family relationships and her health. David Day, who owns the Gym Elite in Georgia is reported to have said that he severed his coaching ties with Ms Korbut because of her excessive drinking. This seems to have been an ongoing issue which its not clear from the reports if she has overcome.

Quote:

''One day, I was nobody and the next day, I was a star,'' Ms. Korbut wrote in her 1992 autobiography, ''My Story.'' ''It was almost more than I could take in.''

Trivia:

• Her first coach found her found her "lazy and capricious" (under the Olympic training regime, she suffered multiple concussions and fractures from the brutal, 20-hours-a-day regime).
• She was given only one meal a day and began smoking at the age of ten in order to keep her weight down.
• In her biography "My Story" she claimed that her coach had regularly hit her and she claimed her former coach plied her with cognac and raped her repeatedly - allegations he denied and no prosecutions ever took place.
• Her nickname was the "Sparrow from Minsk".
• She had feared radioactive contamination from Chernobyl after thyroid problems, but tests showed she was not damaged.

Pictures:

She has no thread, but has a couple of posts in the 'sports threads' ... as these are the best of the pics (I made sure by colourising the 3 adult ones myself), no need for anymore to be posted, or start a thread for her if you want.

[VintageKell]

Catherine Dale Owen was born to a wealthy and influential family in Louisville, Kentucky and graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She first appeared on Broadway in 'Little Women' in 1920. She appeared in several other productions during the 1920's, notably 'Trelawny of the Wells'. She was often typecast in 'upper crust' roles, and seemingly tended to feel most at home playing society or aristocratic types. However at the time she was considered to possess an 'uncommon beauty'.

It appears that critics of the time considered her most successful role on the screen to be in the first all-technicolour, all-sound musical, 'The Rogue Song' in 1930. A contemporary review in the NY Times, January 29, 1930 declared that "beauty is impersonated by Catherine Dale Owen, whose charms suffice for any picture". As it turned out, in the absence of a greater acting range (and she was often described as 'decorative, but little else'), her charms were not enough to suffice to keep her career going, and, after another four minor films, her 8 movies ended and Catherine 'graced the screen no more'.

So why is she here? Well two reasons really ....

Oops moments:

Firstly, she was happy to drop her clothing. This was still a shocking event in the 1920's, and in fact up until the 1970's, but disguised by the 'artistic nature' of the pictures, and the fact that many Ziegfeld girls were also doing it at the time, she managed to get away with it.

But secondly she had the dubious distinction of co-starring in one of the worst talkies of all time, and destroying the career of the great silent star, John Gilbert. The film, 'His Glorious Night' made in 1929, proved to be anything but a 'glorious night' for Gilbert, Dale, nor in fact many others in the cast and production crew. Apparently the lines "Oh beauteous maiden, my arms are waiting to enfold you. I love you. I love you. I love you", and others of a similar nature, provoked first titters of laughter, then out right hysterics from the audience.

These excessively passionate declarations of love by Gilbert, came out sounding high-pitched and ridiculous when played against Owen's icily phlegmatic Princess Orsolini i.e. a performance of Steven Seagal like stature (aka wooden). Although in her defence ,the 'New York Times' critic described her performance as 'captivatingly aloof', and were probably the first time that the reality of the utter ridiculous nature of the dialogue from many of the silent movies, was exposed to real life.

The scene, which proved utterly disastrous for Gilbert's career, was later parodied in the 1952 film "Singin' in the Rain." .... her own career, after one moderately successful movie (the audience didn't laugh unexpectedly), the following year, was also finished as well.

Trivia:

• She was acclaimed as one of the world's ten most beautiful women of 1925

.
Pictures:

She has a small thread here already, so apologies for any duplicates ... as usual, any follow ups to her thread please.