Mary Lee (actor)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mary Lee

Born	Mary Lee Wooters October 24, 1924 (1924-10-24) Centralia, Illinois
Died	June 6, 1996 (aged 71) California
Occupation	Film actress
Spouse(s)	Harry Banan, Jr.

Mary Lee, born Mary Lee Wooters in Centralia, Illinois (October 24th, 1924-June 6th, 1996), was a B-movie actress and singer from the late 1930s well into the 1940s, starring mostly in westerns.

Cute, with a youthful look well into her thirties, Lee was singing with the Ted Weems Orchestra in the late 1930s, coming to the attention of Republic Pictures. Her first screen appearance was with Warner Bros., portraying Nancy Drew in Nancy Drew..Reporter in 1939. Her first B-western was that same year, when she starred alongside Gene Autry in South of the Border. In 1940 and 1941 she would star in another six films with Autry. In the Autry films actress June Storey would play the heroine, with Lee as the younger sister.

When Gene Autry left acting for a time to serve during World War II, Lee made a few appearances on the series of Roy Rogers. Republic Pictures picked Lee up on contract from 1940 through 1945 as a "Term Player". She retired from acting in 1945. Around that same time she married Harry Banan Jr., with whom she would remain married until his death in 1990. She died in California on June 6th, 1996.

Her first screen appearance was with Warner Bros., portraying Mary Nickerson, the younger sister of Nancy Drew's (Bonita Granville) boyfriend, Ted Nickerson (Frank Thomas Jr.), in Nancy Drew Reporter 1939. The film utilized Lee's vocal talents in the "Nursery Rhyme Melody" in which Mary, Nancy, Ted and Killer (Dickie Jones) performed in a restaurant to pay for their meal.