LAS VEGAS, Aug. 1, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — Actress and MGM movie musical star Gloria DeHaven passed away just a week after her 91st birthday.
According to a press release from her agent, DeHaven died after suffering a stroke several weeks ago. She was in hospice care in Las Vegas when she passed.
According to her bio, she began her career as a child actor with a bit part in “Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times” (1936). She was signed to a contract with MGM. Despite featured roles in such films as “Best Foot Forward” (1943), “The Thin Man Goes Home” (1944), “Scene of the Crime” (1949) and “Summer Stock” (1950) and being voted by exhibitors as the third most likely to be a “star of tomorrow'” in 1944, DeHaven never made it to the top rung of the celebrity ladder.
She portrayed her own mother, Flora Parker DeHaven, in the Fred Astaire film “Three Little Words” (1950).
After a long absence from the screen, DeHaven appeared as the love interest of Jack Lemmon in the 1997 comedy Out to Sea, also starring Walter Matthau. She was one of the numerous celebrities enticed to appear in one of the the all-star box office flops, “Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood” in 1976.
On television, DeHaven appeared as a regular in the television series and soap operas “Ryan’s Hope” (as Bess Shelby), “As the World Turns” (as Sara Fuller) and “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.”
DeHaven also guest starred in many television series throughout the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, such as “Robert Montgomery Presents,” “Johnny Ringo,” “The Rifleman,” “Wagon Train,” “The Lloyd Bridges Show,” “Marcus Welby, M.D.,” “Gunsmoke,” “Mannix,” “The Eddie Capra Mysteries,” “Fantasy Island,” “Hart to Hart,” “The Love Boat,” “Mama’s Family,” “Highway to Heaven,” “Murder,” “She Wrote” and “Touched by an Angel.”
DeHaven’s musical talents were as in demand as much as her acting. Besides being cast as a singer in many of her films, including “I’ll Get By,” “So This Is Paris” and “The Girl Rush,” and performing numbers in many of her movies, DeHaven sang with the bands of Jan Savitt and Bob Crosby.
