Kristine Miller (born April 13, 1929) is an American actress who appeared in various supporting roles throughout the 1940s to the early 1960s.
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Born Jacqueline Olivia Eskesen in Buenos Aires, Argentina to a Danish father and an American mother, the family moved to Denmark when Jacqueline was eight years of age. In 1938, they relocated again, this time to Long Island, and later to California. As a child, she showed no interest in acting. However, after she played a main role in her high school's production of American Way, her taste for show-business began to form. She saw an opportunity when word spread that a Warner Bros. talent scout was to attend one of her school's performances. The scout never showed up, so she sent a letter and photograph to the studio, and garnered a screen test.
After Eskesen came to the attention of producer Hal Wallis, he cast her in a number of his films. Famed for his discoveries such as Shirley Maclaine, Lizabeth Scott, Kirk Douglas and Charlton Heston, it represented quite an opportunity. After changing her name to Kristine Miller, she played her first role, an uncredited bit part, opposite fellow newcomer Lizabeth Scott in 1945's You Came Along. The pair would work together four times, all in films produced by Hal Wallis.
Wallis ensured Miller received billing for Desert Fury (1947), despite her role being little more than walk-on. In 1948, she featured with Barbara Stanwyck in Sorry, Wrong Number, a very successful and memorable film for which Stanwyck received an Oscar nomination. Miller had expected to play the wife of the investigating detective but was cast as the girlfriend of the wife's doctor (played by Wendell Corey).
In 1949, she moved on to a more substantial part, again opposite Lizabeth Scott, in Too Late for Tears. Miller played Kathy Palmer, the sister-in-law of Jane Palmer (Scott), whom she suspects has murdered her brother. As she is romanced by Don DeFore, the pair quietly investigate the shady dealings of Jane. After a string of small roles in both film and television, she appeared as Georgette in From Here to Eternity (1953).
After establishing herself as a "discovery" of Hal Wallis, she soon found herself left behind. In Wallis' biography Hal Wallis: Producer to the Stars, she says "He didn't know what to do with me". Miller's prospects began to look a little better when she met journalist and film producer Mark Hellinger, who felt sure she could be a star. But he died suddenly in 1947, and Kristine soon found herself making a living with the usual small roles she had always been given.
In 1955, she appeared as Margaret Jones in the western television series Stories of the Century, with co-star and narrator Jim Davis. Stories of the Century was the first western to win an Emmy Award. In this role, she replaced Mary Castle, who had portrayed fellow detective Frankie Adams. In the last episode of the series, Miller joined Davis as Matt Clark in investigating horse theft by the outlaw L.H. Musgrove.
After she met her husband, William Schuyler, she continued her career mostly on television into the 1960s, until the couple moved to Monterey, California. Filling her time with public speaking and lecturing on films of the 1940s and 1950s, the couple continue to reside in the coastal town today, while also running the William H and Kristine M Schuyler Charitable Foundation.