Karen Morley

Karen Morley (born Mildred Linton; December 12, 1909 – March 8, 2003)<ref name="la obit">Template:Cite news</ref> was an American film actress.

Life and career

Born Mildred Linton<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> in Ottumwa, Iowa,<ref name="la obit" /> Morley lived there until she was 13 years old. When she moved to Hollywood, she attended Hollywood High School.<ref name="lat">Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> She went on to attend the University of California, but she dropped out to join the Los Angeles Civic Repertory Theatre and the Pasadena Playhouse.<ref name="wwp">Template:Cite news</ref>

After working at the Pasadena Playhouse,<ref name="lat" /> she came to the attention of the director Clarence Brown, at a time when he had been looking for an actress to stand in for Greta Garbo in screen tests. This led to a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and roles in films such as Mata Hari (1931), Scarface (1932), The Phantom of Crestwood (1932), The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), Arsene Lupin (1932), Gabriel Over the White House (1933), and Dinner at Eight (1933). She left MGM in 1934 after having a dispute with the studio over her marriage to Charles Vidor and her decision to have children.<ref name="la obit" /><ref name="nyt obit" />

After World War 2, she returned to Hollywood and became involved in labor union activity with the Screen Actor's Guild.<ref name="la obit" />

Her career came to an end in 1947 when she testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee and refused to answer questions about her alleged American Communist Party membership.<ref name="nyt obit">Template:Cite news</ref> She maintained her political activism for the rest of her life.<ref name="nyt obit" />

After being blacklisted from Hollywood, she moved to New York.<ref name="la obit" /> In 1952, she appeared in The Banker's Daughter on Broadway with her second husband.<ref name="la obit" /> In 1954, she ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor of New York on the American Labor Party ticket.<ref name="la obit" /><ref name="nyt obit" />

In December 1999, at the age of 90, she appeared in Vanity Fair in an article about blacklist survivors, and she was honored at the San Francisco Film Festival.<ref name="auto">Template:Cite news</ref>

Personal life

In November 1932, Morley married director Charles Vidor in Santa Ana, California.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> They were divorced on March 2, 1943.<ref name="divorce">Template:Cite news</ref> Vidor and Morley had a son.<ref name=divorce/> She married actor Lloyd Gough in 1943, with whom she shared political leanings.<ref name="la obit"/>

Death

Morley lived in Santa Monica, California at the now demolished retirement facility the Beautiful Montana Gardens during her later years. She died of pneumonia at the age of 93 in Woodland Hills, California.<ref name="auto"/> She was survived by three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.<ref name="la obit" />

Partial filmography

• Thru Different Eyes (1929) as bit part (uncredited)
• Inspiration (1931) as Liane Latour
• Daybreak (1931) as Emily Kessner
• Never the Twain Shall Meet (1931) as Maisie
• Politics (1931) as Myrtle Burns
• High Stakes (1931) as Anne Cornwall
• The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931) as Alice
• The Cuban Love Song (1931) as Crystal
• Mata Hari (1931) as Carlotta
• Arsene Lupin (1932) as Sonia
• Are You Listening? (1932) as Alice Grimes
• Scarface (1932) as Poppy
• The Man About Town (1932) as Helena
• The Washington Masquerade (1932) as Consuela Fairbanks
• Downstairs (1932) as Karl's New Employer (uncredited)
• The Phantom of Crestwood (1932) as Jenny Wren
• The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) as Sheila Barton
• Flesh (1932) as Laura Nash
• Gabriel Over the White House (1933) as Pendola Molloy
• Dinner at Eight (1933) as Mrs. Lucy Talbot
• The Crime Doctor (1934) as Andra
• Our Daily Bread (1934) as Mary Sims
• Straight Is the Way (1934) as Bertha
• Wednesday's Child (1934) as Kathryn Phillips
• Black Fury (1935) as Anna Novak
• $10 Raise (1935) as Emily Converse
• The Healer (1935) as Evelyn Allen
• Thunder in the Night (1935) as Madalaine
• The Littlest Rebel (1935) as Mrs. Cary
• Devil's Squadron (1936) as Martha Dawson
• Beloved Enemy (1936) as Cathleen O'Brien
• Outcast (1937) as Margaret Stevens
• The Girl from Scotland Yard (1937) as Linda Beech
• The Last Train from Madrid (1937) as Baroness Helene Rafitte
• On Such a Night (1937) as Gail Stanley
• Kentucky (1938) as Mrs. Goodwin – 1861
• Pride and Prejudice (1940) as Mrs. Collins
• Jealousy (1945) as Dr. Monica Anderson
• The Unknown (1946) as Rachel Martin Arnold
• The Thirteenth Hour (1947) as Eileen Blair
• Framed (1947) as Beth
• Samson and Delilah (1949) (uncredited)
• M (1951) as Mrs. Coster
• Born to the Saddle (1953) as Kate Daggett

Further reading

• The Gettysburg Times, "Discovered", November 3, 1932, p. 7.
• Template:Cite book
• Oakland Tribune, "One Star's Family", September 9, 1935, p. 68.

External links

• Template:IMDb name
• Template:IBDB name
• Photographs of Karen Morley