Louise Currie (born Louise Gunter; April 7, 1913 – September 8, 2013) was an American film actress, active from 1940 into the early 1950s.
Biography
Currie was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the daughter of Charles W. Gunter, a banker, and his wife, Louise (née Currie), whose maiden name she would take for her professional acting surname. She was prominent in society. While attending the Martha Washington Seminary, a finishing school for young women in Washington, D.C., she was chosen as one of the ten most beautiful society girls in the nation's capital."RKO Director Makes Ten Strike". Oakland Tribune, December 15, 1940 She attended Sarah Lawrence College in New York, where she became interested in acting. She moved to Hollywood, California and attended Max Reinhardt's drama school, where she was spotted by talent scouts while taking part in the school's stage workshop. She declined to attempt screen tests until after graduation.
With the help of her agent, Sue Carol, wife of actor Alan Ladd, she began working with Monogram Pictures and Columbia Pictures. Most of her movies were B-movies and serials, in which she often portrayed the heroine. Her film career began in 1940, when she appeared first in Billy the Kid Outlawed and then as a society debutante, in the Kay Kyser musical You'll Find Out. In 1941 she starred in the serial Adventures of Captain Marvel opposite Tom Tyler.
Currie had an uncredited role in Citizen Kane (1941), as a reporter at Xanadu, which included Alan Ladd as another reporter in the same sequence. She was the last surviving Kane cast member.
From 1940–49 she had roles in 39 films, many of which were starring, including The Masked Marvel (1943). She made a few television appearances in the 1950s, retiring permanently from acting in 1956.
Personal life Currie was first married to Robert A. Hefner Jr., but that marriage ended in divorce on January 29, 1940. She married actor John Whitney (1918-1985) at the peak of her career, but the marriage ended in divorce. On May 4, 1948, she married character actor John Good. He retired from acting, and the two opened a successful antique import-export business in Beverly Hills, remaining together until his death in December 1996.John Good obituary, Variety, February 17–23, 1997. In 2002, Currie married Grover Asmus, the widower of actress Donna Reed. Asmus died in 2003.
Other In 1944, Currie starred opposite Hollywood legend Bela Lugosi in The Ape Man (1943) and Voodoo Man (1944). Along with actress Lucille Lund and others, she took part in the documentary film Lugosi: Hollywood's Dracula (1997), which detailed the life and acting career of Lugosi.
On May 17, 2010, Currie appeared at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills to introduce a screening of a restored print of the first chapter of the 1941 serial, Adventures of Captain Marvel.Actress Louise Currie. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, May 17, 2010; retrieved January 26, 2013. She made repeat appearances on May 24, 2010 and August 16, 2010.
Filmography Year Title Role Notes1940 Billy the Kid Outlawed Molly Fitzgerald 1940 You'll Find Out Marion Uncredited1940 The Green Hornet Strikes Again! Bordine's Girlfriend Serial, Uncredited1940 Billy the Kid Outlawed Molly Fitzgerald 1940 Billy the Kid's Gun Justice Ann Roberts 1941 The Reluctant Dragon Minor Role Uncredited1941 The Pinto Kid Betty Ainsley 1941 Adventures of Captain Marvel Betty Wallace Serial1941 Citizen Kane Reporter at Xanadu Uncredited1941 Hello, Sucker Model Uncredited1941 Tillie the Toiler Office Girl Uncredited1941 Double Trouble Miss Mink 1941 Look Who's Laughing Jane, Marge's Friend Uncredited1941 Dude Cowboy Gail Sargent 1941 Bedtime Story Hotel Telephone Operator Uncredited1942 Call Out the Marines Girl Too Tired to Dance Uncredited1942 The Bashful Bachelor Marjorie 1942 Stardust on the Sage Nancy Drew 1943 The Ape Man Billie Mason 1943 The Masked Marvel Alice Hamilton Serial1943 Around the World WAAC Uncredited1944 Million Dollar Kid Louise Cortland 1944 Voodoo Man Sally 1944 Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves Katherine Reynolds 1944 Christmas Holiday Stewardess Uncredited1944 Sensations of 1945 English Girl Uncredited1944 Practically Yours Uncredited1945 Love Letters Clara Foley Uncredited1946 Gun Town Buckskin Jane Sawyer 1946 The Bachelor's Daughters Salesgirl Uncredited1946 Her Sister's Secret Dick's Blonde Girlfriend Uncredited1946 Wild West Florabelle Bannister 1947 Backlash Marian Gordon 1947 Three on a Ticket Helen Brimstead 1947 The Crimson Key Heidi 1947 Second Chance Joan Summers 1947 The Chinese Ring Peggy Cartwright 1949 And Baby Makes Three Miss Quigley - Secretary Uncredited1951 Queen for a Day Secretary
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