Gladys Blake

Gladys Blake

Blake in the 1942 film, Ship Ahoy
Born Gladys Timmons
January 12, 1910
Luray, Virginia, United States
Died May 21, 1983 (aged 73)
Sacramento, California, United States
Occupation Actress
Years active 1933–52
Spouse(s) Lee Gresham

Gladys Blake was an American character actress from the 1930s to the 1950s. Born in Luray, Virginia on January 12, 1910 to Ada Timmons,[1] her mother died when she was less than a year old.[2] At fourteen, she would enter the theater world in a stock company, before moving on to vaudeville. In vaudeville, she met her husband, Lee Gresham, and the two formed an act together. While performing in Los Angeles, they were noticed by the producer, Edward Small, which led to her beginning in the film industry.[2]

Blake would make her film debut in a small role in 1933's I Have Lived, directed by Richard Thorpe.[3] She would have her first featured role later that same year in Rainbow over Broadway, which Thorpe also directed.[4] Over her 20 year career, she would appear in over 100 films.[5] She was noted for playing very talkative supporting roles.[6] Appearing mostly in supporting or bit parts, she would occasionally be given a featured role, as in Lucky Night (1939), whice starred Myrna Loy and Robert Taylor;[7] or 1942's classic Woman of the Year, which starred Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, in which she played the role of Flo Peters, the wife of one of Tracy's friends.[8] Even more rarely she would be given the lead in a film, such as in Racing Blood (1936).[9] In the early 1940s, she played the recurring role of Maisie in several of the Dr. Kildare films starring Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, and Laraine Day.[10][11][12] Other notable films in which she appeared include: Ship Ahoy (1942), starring Eleanor Powell and Red Skelton;[13] the Abbott and Costello film, Who Done It?;[14] the 1943 version of Phantom of the Opera, starring Claude Raines;[15] The Naughty Nineties, again with Abbott and Costello;[16] the 1950 musical starring Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Betty Garrett, Ann Miller, Jules Munshin, and Vera-Ellen, On the Town;[17] The Yellow Cab Man, starring Red Skelton;[18] and Cecil B. DeMille's 1952 epic, The Greatest Show on Earth.[19]

Blake's final role would be in 1952's This Woman is Dangerous, starring Joan Crawford and Dennis Morgan, in which she plays a garrulous hairdresser.[20] Blake would die on May 21, 1983, in Sacramento, California.[1]

Filmography

(Per AFI database)[5]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Gladys Blake (actress)". Omnilexica. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "biography of Blake, Gladys". MoviePictures.org. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  3. ↑ "I Have Lived". American Film Institute. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Rainbow over Broadway". American Film Institute. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Gladys Blake". American Film Institute. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Gladys Blake, biography". AllMovie. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Lucky Night". American Film Institute. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  8. ↑ "Woman of the Year". American Film Institute. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  9. ↑ "Racing Blood". American Film Institute. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  10. ↑ "Dr. Kildare's Crisis". American Film Institute. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  11. ↑ "Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day". American Film Institute. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  12. ↑ "The People vs. Dr. Kildare". American Film Institute. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  13. ↑ "Ship Ahoy". American Film Institute. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  14. ↑ "Who Done It?". American Film Institute. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  15. ↑ "Phantom of the Opera". American Film Institute. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  16. ↑ "The Naughty Nineties". American Film Institute. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  17. ↑ "On the Town". American Film Institute. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  18. ↑ "The Yellow Cab Man". American Film Institute. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  19. ↑ "The Greatest Show on Earth". American Film Institute. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  20. ↑ "This Woman Is Dangerous". American Film Institute. Retrieved January 10, 2015.

External links