Una Merkel

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Una Merkel (b. December 10, 1903, Covington, Kentucky – d. January 2, 1986, Los Angeles) was an American film actress.

The tall (5'4" according to IMDB), lanky Kentucky-born Merkel resembled the popular actress Lillian Gish, and her resemblance allowed her to enter films in 1920, aged only 16, as Gish's double in the film Way Down East.

She appeared in several films during the silent era but spent most of her time in New York working on Broadway. She returned to Hollywood and achieved her greatest success with the advent of "talkies".

She played Ann Rutledge in the 1930 film Abraham Lincoln and during the 1930s became a popular second lead in a number of films, usually playing the wisecracking best friend of the heroine such as Jean Harlow, Carole Lombard, Loretta Young, and Dorothy Lamour. One of her most famous roles was in the Western Destry Rides Again (1939) in which her character gets into a physical scrap with Marlene Dietrich's character over the affections of the film's leading man, Jimmy Stewart. She played W.C. Fields' elder daughter in The Bank Dick (1940).

Her film career went into decline during the 1940s and although she continued working it was in less prestigious productions. 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. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Summer and Smoke (1961). Her final film role was in the Elvis Presley film Spinout (1966).

She died in Los Angeles, California, aged 82, of undisclosed causes.

Una Merkel has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to Motion Pictures, at 6230 Hollywood Boulevard.