Una Merkel

Una Merkel (December 10, 1903 – January 2, 1986) was an American stage, film, radio, and television actress.

Merkel was born in Kentucky and acted on stage in New York in the 1920s. She went to Hollywood in 1930 and became a popular film actress. Two of her best-known performances are in the films 42nd Street and Destry Rides Again. She won a Tony Award in 1956 and was nominated for an Oscar in 1961.

Early life Merkel was born on December 10, 1903, in Covington, Kentucky, to Bessie ( Phares) and Arno E. Merkel Jr.Kentucky. Birth Records, 1847-1911 Her parents married in Covington on December 31, 1902. Una attended First and Sixth District Schools in Covington, Kentucky. Their home was at the corner of Fourth and Greenup Streets, since demolished in 1976. Una lived in Covington until her early teens.

In her early childhood, she lived in many of the Southern United States due to her father's job as a traveling salesman. At the age of 15, she and her parents moved to Philadelphia. They stayed there a year or so before settling in New York City, where she began attending the (Claude M.) Alviene School Of Dance Arts.

Career Because of her strong resemblance to actress Lillian Gish, Merkel was offered a part as Gish's youngest sister in a silent film called World Shadows. However, the funding for the film dried up and it was never completed. Merkel went on to appear in a few silent movies, several of them for the Lee-Bradford Corporation. She also appeared in the two-reel Love's Old Sweet Song (1923), which was made by Lee de Forest in his Phonofilm sound-on-film process and starred Helen Weir and Louis Wolheim. Not making much of a mark in films, Merkel turned her attention to the theater and found work in several important plays on Broadway. Her biggest triumph was in Coquette (1927), which starred her idol, Helen Hayes.

Invited to Hollywood by director D. W. Griffith to play Ann Rutledge in his film Abraham Lincoln (1930), Merkel became a big success in sound films. During the 1930s, she became a popular second lead in a number of films, usually playing the wisecracking best friend of the heroine, supporting actresses such as Jean Harlow, Carole Lombard, Loretta Young, and Eleanor Powell.

Merkel was known for her Kewpie-doll looks, strong Southern accent, and wry line delivery. She played Sam Spade's secretary in the original 1931 version of The Maltese Falcon. Merkel was a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player from 1932 to 1938, appearing in as many as 12 films in a year, often on loan-out to other studios. She was also often cast as leading lady opposite Jack Benny, Harold Lloyd, Franchot Tone, and Charles Butterworth, among others.

In 42nd Street (1933), Merkel played a streetwise show girl. In the famous "Shuffle Off to Buffalo" number, Merkel and Ginger Rogers sang the verse: "Matrimony is baloney. She'll be wanting alimony in a year or so./Still they go and shuffle, shuffle off to Buffalo." Merkel appeared in both the 1934 and the 1952 film versions of The Merry Widow, playing different roles. She received second billing in The Good Old Soak (1937) with Wallace Beery and Ted Healy in the same year that Healy died mysteriously.

One of her most famous roles was in the Western comedy Destry Rides Again (1939), in which her character, Lily Belle, gets into a famous "cat-fight" with Frenchie (Marlene Dietrich) over the possession of her husband's trousers, won by Frenchie in a crooked card game. She played the elder daughter to the W. C. Fields character, Egbert Sousé, in the 1940 film The Bank Dick. Her film career went into decline during the 1940s, although she continued working in smaller productions and in radio as Adeline Fairchild on The Great Gildersleeve. In 1950, she starred with William Bendix in the baseball comedy Kill the Umpire, which was a surprise hit.

She made a comeback as a middle-aged woman playing mothers and maiden aunts, and in 1956 won a Tony Award for her role on Broadway in The Ponder Heart, adapted from the novella of the same name. She had a major part in the MGM 1959 film The Mating Game as Paul Douglas's character's wife and Debbie Reynolds' character's mother, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Summer and Smoke (1961). She was also featured as Brian Keith's character's housekeeper, Verbena, in the Walt Disney comedy The Parent Trap in 1961. Her final film role was opposite Elvis Presley in Spinout (1966).

Personal life Merkel was a lifelong Methodist.

In 1932, Merkel married North American Aviation executive Ronald Lucin Burla. They separated in April 1944. Merkel filed for divorce on December 19, 1946, in Miami, which was granted in March 1947. The couple had no children.

On March 5, 1945, Merkel was nearly killed when her mother Bessie, with whom she shared an apartment in New York City, died by suicide by gassing herself. Merkel was overcome by the five gas jets her mother had turned on in their kitchen and was found unconscious in her bedroom.

On March 4, 1952, seven years almost to the day after her mother died, Merkel overdosed on sleeping pills. She was found unconscious by a nurse who was caring for her at the time and remained in a coma for a day before recovering.

On January 2, 1986, Merkel died in Los Angeles at the age of 82. She is buried near her parents, Arno and Bessie Merkel, in Highland Cemetery in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky.

Legacy

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Una Merkel has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (6230 Hollywood Boulevard). In 1991, a historical marker was dedicated to her in her hometown of Covington.

Filmography Films

Year Title Role Notes1923Love's Old Sweet SongShort1924The Fifth HorsemanDorothy1930Abraham LincolnAnn Rutledge1930The Eyes of the WorldSybil1930The Bat WhispersDale Van Gorder1931Command PerformancePrincess Katerina1931Don't Bet on WomenTallulah Hope1931Six Cylinder LoveMargaret Rogers1931The Maltese FalconEffie Perine1931Daddy Long LegsSally McBride1931The BargainEtta1931WickedJune1931The Secret WitnessLois Martin1931Private LivesSibyl1932She Wanted a MillionaireMary Taylor1932The Impatient MaidenBetty Merrick1932Man WantedRuth 'Ruthie' Holman1932HuddleThelma1932Red-Headed WomanSally1932They Call It SinDixie Dare1932Men Are Such FoolsMolly1933Whistling in the DarkToby Van Buren1933The Secret of Madame BlancheElla193342nd StreetLorraine Fleming1933Clear All Wires!Dolly1933Reunion in ViennaIlsa Hinrich1933Midnight MaryBunny1933Her First MateHattie1933Broadway to HollywoodFlirt in AudienceUncredited1933Beauty for SaleCarol Merrick1933MenuMrs. OmskShort, uncredited1933BombshellMac1933Day of ReckoningMamie1933The Women in His LifeMiss 'Simmy' Simmons1934This Side of HeavenBirdie1934Murder in the Private CarGeorgia Latham1934Paris InterludeCassie1934The Cat's-PawPet Pratt1934Bulldog Drummond Strikes BackGwen1934Have a HeartJoan O'Day1934The Merry WidowQueen Dolores1934Evelyn PrenticeAmy Drexel1935Biography of a Bachelor GirlSlade Kinnicott1935The Night Is YoungFanni Kerner1935One New York NightPhoebe1935Baby Face HarringtonMillicent1935Murder in the Fleet'Toots' Timmons1935Broadway Melody of 1936Kitty Corbett1935It's in the AirAlice Lane Churchill1936RiffraffLil Bundt1936SpeedJosephine Sanderson1936We Went to CollegeSusan Standish1936Born to DanceJenny Saks1937Don't Tell the WifeNancy Dorsey1937The Good Old SoakNellie1937SaratogaFritzi1937CheckersMamie Appleby1937True ConfessionDaisy McClure1939Four Girls in WhiteGertie Robbins1939Some Like It HotFlo Saunders1939On Borrowed TimeMarcia Giles1939Destry Rides AgainLily Belle1940Comin' Round the MountainBelinda Watters1940Sandy Gets Her ManNan Clark1940The Bank DickMyrtle Sousé1941Double DateAunt Elsie Kirkland1941Road to ZanzibarJulia Quimby1941Cracked NutsSharon Knight1942The Mad Doctor of Market StreetAunt Margaret Wentworth1942Twin BedsLydia1943This Is the ArmyRose Dibble1943Quack ServiceDaffyShort1944To Heir Is HumanUnaShort1944Sweethearts of the U.S.A.Patsy Wilkins1947It's a Joke, Son!Mrs. Magnolia Claghorn1948The Bride Goes WildMiss Doberly1948The Man from TexasWidow Weeks1950Kill the UmpireBetty Johnson1950My Blue HeavenMiss Irma Gilbert1950Emergency WeddingEmma1951Rich, Young and PrettyGlynnie1951A Millionaire for ChristyPatsy Clifford1951Golden GirlMary Ann Crabtree1952With a Song in My HeartSister Marie1952The Merry WidowKitty Riley1953I Love MelvinMom Schneider1955The KentuckianSophie Wakefield1956The Kettles in the OzarksMiss Bedelia Baines1956Bundle of JoyMrs. Dugan1957The Fuzzy Pink NightgownBertha1958The Girl Most LikelyMother1959The Mating GameMa Larkin1961The Parent TrapVerbena1961Summer and SmokeMrs. Winemiller1963Summer MagicMariah Popham1964A Tiger WalksMrs. Watkins1966SpinoutViolet Ranley

Television

Year Title Role Notes1952Four Star PlayhouseRose Barton"My Wife Geraldine"1953Schlitz Playhouse of Stars"Guardian of the Clock"1953Your Jeweler's Showcase"The Monkey's Paw"1953Willys Theatre Presenting Ben Hecht's Tales of the City"Miracle in the Rain"1954Westinghouse Studio OneParsis McHugh"Two Little Minks"1955Kraft Television Theatre"Trucks Welcome"1956Calling Terry ConwayPearl McGrathTV film1957Playhouse 90Louise Hoagland"The Greer Case"1957The Red Skelton ShowMrs. Van Wyck"Freddie and the Happy Helper"1957Climax!Maud"The Secret of the Red Room"1958DuPont Show of the MonthAladdin's Mother"Cole Porter's 'Aladdin'"1958The United States Steel Hour"Flint and Fire"1962The Real McCoysMrs. Gaylord"The New Housekeeper"1963The Bill Dana ShowMrs. Hatten"The Poker Game"1963–1965Burke's LawClara Lovelace / Mrs. Thomas Barrett / Miss Samantha Cartier3 episodes1964The Cara Williams ShowAmelia Hofstetter"Amelia Hofstetter, Please Go Home"1964DestryGranny Farrell"Law and Order Day"1968I SpyAunt Alma"Home to Judgment"

References

Una Merkel

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