Claire Kelly
| Claire Kelly | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Claire Ann Green March 15, 1934 San Francisco, California, US |
| Died |
July 1, 1998 (aged 64) Palm Springs, California, US |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Actress |
Claire Kelly (March 15, 1934 in San Francisco, California – July 1, 1998 in Palm Springs, California)[1] was an American actress. Born Claire Ann Green, the daughter of a wealthy California rancher, she was trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. Kelly started out as a model in Miami, and appeared several times on the cover of McCall, continuing her modelling career throughout the 1950s. She made the cover of Picture Week in 1956, and was a 1958 Deb Star.[2]
Kelly went on to starring roles in films such as The Badlanders (1958), Ask Any Girl (1959) and A Guide for the Married Man (1967). In The Badlanders, a western remake of the film noir The Asphalt Jungle, she played "the Angela role immortalized by Marilyn Monroe" [3] in the original film. In 1959 she was publicized as "the screen's most exciting discovery since Rita Hayworth".[1] In 1964-65 she appeared in several episodes of the television series Burke's Law.
From 1951 to 1955 Kelly was married to singer-comedian George DeWitt, using the name Claire DeWitt in Son of Sinbad, after which she was seen publicly with Lance Reventlow, son of wealthy heiress Barbara Hutton, singer Frank Sinatra, hotel heir Conrad "Nicky" Hilton, Jr., and actor Perry Lopez, whom she briefly married in 1960-1961, after which she married wealthy banking heir Robert Alan Kenaston, Jr. (d. 1995), son of actress Billie Dove, in 1961-1963, followed by wealthy Robert Murphy.[1] She once dismissed Prince Aly Khan as "gauche" and Elvis Presley as "a mere child".[1]
On November 6, 1954 Kelly's 3-year-old son Nicholas Christopher DeWitt died after fighting for three days in an iron lung at Variety Children’s Hospital in Miami, Florida, the victim of a rare anesthetic hazard, which happened after he was bitten on the lip by Duke, a cocker spaniel owned by former featherweight champion Willie Pep, and his heart stopped beating as doctors repaired the damage with 25 stitches.[1]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com
- ↑ www.imdb.com
- ↑ Schwartz, Ronald (1 January 2001). Noir, Now and Then: Film Noir Originals and Remakes, (1944-1999). Greenwood Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-313-30893-2.