Pamela Britton

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Pamela Britton
Pamela Britton
Birth name	Armilda Jane Owen
Born	December 19, 1923 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Died	June 17, 1974 Arlington Heights, Illinois
Height	5ft 5
Other name(s)	Gloria Owen

Pamela Britton was an actress best known for appearing as Lorelei Brown in the television series My Favorite Martian. She also appeared in the film noir classic D.O.A..

Born Armilda Jane Owen, her mother was Ethel Waite Owen, a prominent stage, radio and early television actress, her father Raymond G. Owen was a doctor who died when the actress was only 20. She had two sisters, Virginia, an actress under contract to RKO Radio and Mary, a social worker.

Pamela attended State Teacher's Normal School and Holy Angels Academy in her hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, taking leads in her school class plays. By the age of nine she was doing summer stock and Hollywood came calling at ten though her mother rejected the advances, saying she wanted her to be an actress, not a child star. Pamela started making the rounds at fifteen using the name Gloria Jane Owen but found that as soon as people knew who her mother was they expected her to be as accomplished as the respected dramatic actress. She chose the name Pamela from a British book and Britton to emphasise the source.

After a stint touring with band-leader Don McGuire, her big break came when she was cast as both Celeste Holm's understudy and Gertie in the Broadway singer of Oklahoma!. When the show went on tour she took over Holm's role as Ado Annie. After her New York agent pushed her credentials to MGM executive Marvin Schneck, he came to see her performance in Chicago. Disappointed on the first night he returned after cajoling from her agent on the second and signed her immediately. Her first role in a major production was as Frank Sinatra's girlfriend in Anchors Aweigh. However afterwards, a forgettable part in a forgettable film, A Letter for Evie in 1946 disappointed and after three years she went on suspension to play Meg Brockie in Brigadoon on Broadway.

She returned in the Clark Gable-starring Key to the City in 1950 and then went on to make by far her most significant film appearance in the classic D.O.A. in 1950. She made her third film of the year in the Red Skelton-starring Watch the Birdie though it was 19 years after that until she returned to the big-screen as she devoted her time to married life, motherhood and the theatre.

Britton was married on April 8, 1943 to Capt. Arthur Steel after they met on a blind date in Texas arranged by Pamela's sister. After the wedding he was posted to Italy on active service and Britton continued working. They had a daughter Katherine Lee on September 8, 1946. After the war Steel worked as an advertising executive and went on to manage the Gene Autry hotels. Britton worked mainly in West Coast theatre while their daughter grew up, reprising her role in Brigadoon in 1954, appearing in Annie Get Your Gun at the Santa Barbara Bowl and then going back to Broadway to replace an ailing Janice Paige in Guys and Dolls.

What is perhaps her signature role began in 1963 and lasted until 1966 as she appeared as nosy landlady Mrs. Lorelei Brown in My Favorite Martian. The show also brought her back to MGM. After the series ended she appeared in the eminently forgettable If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium before her final big-screen appearance in another dud, Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came?.

While performaning on rout with Don Knotts in The Mind with the Dirty Man, Britton began to have headaches. She went to a doctor and two weeks later died of a brain tumor leaving her mother Ethel Owen (who lived to be 103), her husband Arthur Steel and her daughter Kathy Steel Ferber. She had four grandsons.

Pamela Britton's main love was the musical stage. In her spare time she loved gardening, played the piano and listed her hobbies as horseback riding, tennis and swimming.

Pamela Britton is buried at Forest Lawn.