Marie Harmon, Actress in 1940s Westerns, Dies at 97
She was not on the list.
A contract player at Republic Pictures, she worked alongside the Andrews Sisters, Roy Rogers and Mickey Rooney.
Marie Harmon, a starlet in 1940s Hollywood who starred with Roy Rogers in Nighttime in Nevada and with Sunset Carson in The El Paso Kid, has died. She was 97.
Harmon died Monday of natural causes in Los Angeles, one of her daughters, actress Sondra Currie, said.
A contract player at Republic Pictures, Harmon also appeared in other features including The Sailor Takes a Wife (1945) opposite Robert Walker, Her Lucky Night (1945) with the Andrews Sisters, Killer McCoy (1947) with Mickey Rooney and Not Wanted (1949) with Sally Forrest.
One of seven children, Harmon was born on Oct. 21, 1923, in Oak Park, Illinois. She entered a contest in the Chicago Tribune to become "The Perfect Blind Date for a Serviceman" shortly after the start of World War II and won.
She came to Hollywood in 1942 as worked as a car-hop at a drive-in, a cigarette girl — "George Raft flirted with me one evening, to the distaste of Betty Grable," she said in an undated interview for the website Western Clippings — and a hostess for a nightclub owned by Lou Costello.
Spotted by a Universal Pictures executive while appearing in a play in Beverly Hills, she was given a role in Hers to Hold (1943), starring Deanna Durbin and Joseph Cotten, and her career was off and running. However, she gave up her acting in the 1950s to launch a dress business.
In addition to Sondra Currie and her husband, producer-director Alan J. Levi, survivors include her twin daughters, Cherie Currie (former lead vocalist of The Runaways and ex-wife of actor Robert Hays) and Marie Currie (also a musician and ex-wife of Toto guitarist Steve Lukather); her son, Don; and grandchildren Tina, Trevor, Jake and Grace.
Her husband of 35 years, Wolfgang Kaupisch, died in 2010.
Harmon was portrayed by Tatum O'Neal in The Runaways (2010), which starred Dakota Fanning as Cherie, Riley Keough as Marie, Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett, Scout Taylor-Compton as Lita Ford and Stella Maeve as Sandy West. The movie was based on Cherie's 2010 book, Neon Angel.
Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
1943 Hers to Hold Ella Mae Uncredited
Hi'ya, Sailor Deadpan's hostess Uncredited
1944 Ladies Courageous Genevieve Uncredited
Hat Check Honey Hat check girl Uncredited
Hi, Good Lookin'! Waitress Uncredited
South of Dixie Annabella Hatcher Uncredited
Allergic to Love Miss Higgenbothan Uncredited
Reckless Age Salesgirl O'Toole Uncredited
1945 Her Lucky Night Susie
See My Lawyer Singer Uncredited
Springtime in Texas Kitty Stevens
Secrets of a Sorority Girl Judy O'Neill
Allotment Wives Girl Uncredited
Black Market Babies Receptionist Uncredited
The Sailor Takes a Wife WAC Uncredited
1946 Girl on the Spot Girl Uncredited
The El Paso Kid Sally Stoner
Behind the Mask Minor Role Uncredited
She Wrote the Book Blonde Uncredited
1947 Gunsmoke Conchita
Secret Beyond the Door Sub-Deb Uncredited
Killer McCoy Gwen Brady Uncredited
1948 If You Knew Susie Secretary Uncredited
The Checkered Coat Minor Role Uncredited
Night Time in Nevada Toni Borden
Jiggs and Maggie in Court Alice Uncredited
1949 Not Wanted Irene
1958 I Married a Woman Bridesmaid Uncredited
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