Fay McKenzie obit

Fay McKenzie Dies at 101, Almost the Length of Her Screen Career

She was not on the list.


Fay McKenzie, an actress and singer whose film career spanned a century and crested when she was Gene Autry’s leading lady in five early 1940s horse operas, died on April 16 in Highland Park, Calif. She was 101.

Her death was confirmed by Bryan Cooper, a distant relative.

Ms. McKenzie made her screen debut in 1918, when she was 10 weeks old, cradled in Gloria Swanson’s arms in “Station Content,” a five-reel silent romance. Her last role was a cameo appearance with her son, Tom Waldman Jr., in “Kill a Better Mousetrap,” a comedy, based on a play by Scott K. Ratner, that was filmed last summer and has yet to be released.

In between, she appeared in five movies for the director Blake Edwards (in one instance playing the hostess of the title bacchanal in “The Party,” a 1968 madcap comedy written by her husband, Tom Waldman, and starring Peter Sellers); co-starred with Don Barry in “Remember Pearl Harbor” in 1942; and was cast in dozens of B-movies, revues and Broadway productions.

Despite her precocious start in motion pictures, she said she was discovered, in the Hollywood vernacular, only in 1941, when Herbert J. Yates, the president of Republic Pictures, spotted her in a bathing suit poolside at the home of her brother-in-law Billy Gilbert, the comedian renowned for his spasmodic sneezes.

After a screen test, Yates signed her to appear opposite Gene Autry, the singing cowboy, in “Down Mexico Way,” followed by “Sierra Sue,” also in 1941, and “Cowboy Serenade,” “Heart of the Rio Grande” and “Home in Wyomin,’ ” all in 1942.

“I could sing, and that was something the earlier girls couldn’t do,” Ms. McKenzie was quoted as saying in an interview with westernclippings.com. “I could do more than smile and wave at the cowboy.”


Being a co-star, she recalled, contrasted with some of her roles as a teenager in low-budget silents, which were shot in three days without a script.

“They’d all ride one way and say this,” she remembered. “Then they’d all ride the other way and say that.”


Fay McKenzie was born in Hollywood on Feb. 19, 1918, to Robert and Eva (Heazlitt) McKenzie. Her mother was a film actress, and her father was an actor and director with his own stock company. Fay went to Beverly Hills High School.

Her marriage to the actor Steve Cochran in 1946 ended in divorce two years later. She married Mr. Waldman in 1949; he died in 1985. In addition to their son, she is survived by their daughter, Madora McKenzie Kibbe, and two grandchildren.

Among her other roles were young Sarah Lincoln (the older sister) in “The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln” (1924) and Linda Clayton in the anti-cannabis film “Assassin of Youth” (1938). She also appeared in “Burlesque” on Broadway with Bert Lahr (1946) and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1961).

While she could ride a horse, she wasn’t skillful enough to do stunts — though “you do everything — if you want to work,” Ms. McKenzie said. That resolve was severely tested on the set of one western when she was asked to drive a buckboard.

“Oh, sure!” she recalled replying. “I thought I was going to perish,” she said. “I jumped on the wagon — a-raring to go. The horses took off, and I thought to myself, ‘Oh, Lord, this is the end of me!’ Then the director yelled, ‘Cut!’ and those horses stopped on a dime!”

Filmography

Year       Title       Role

1918      Station Content                Baby in Arms (uncredited)

1921      A Knight of the West       Fray Murten

1922      When Love Comes           Ruth

1924      The Judgment of the Storm          Heath Twin

The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln     Sarah Lincoln

1934      The Boss Cowboy             Sally Nolan

Ferocious Pal      Girl at Dog Fight

Sundown Trail   Mickey Moore

Student Tour      Mary Lou

1935      Arizona Bad Man              Girl at Barn Dance

Lawless Riders   Girl in Candy Kisses Booth

Thunderbolt       Annie

1936      Lucky Terror       Young Girl Spectator

Ride 'Em Cowboy             Stamp Buyer

1937      Assassin of Youth             Linda Clayton

Tex Rides with the Boy Scouts     Girl at the Dance

1938      Swingtime in the Movies               Girl from Dallas

Freshman Year Student

Slander House   Anna

Ghost Town Riders          Molly Taylor

1939      Gunga Din           Girl at Party

Man of Conquest             Young Lady

It's a Wonderful World   Guest

Unexpected Father         Chorus Girl

What a Life         Student in Lunchroom

Disputed Passage             Nurse

Little Accident   Woman

Laugh It Off         Chorus Girl

Death Rides the Range   Letty Morgan

All Women Have Secrets               Martha

The Big Guy        Waitress

1940      Ma, He's Making Eyes at Me        Brooklyn Girl

It's a Date            Young Girl

Mad Youth          Escort Girl

Love, Honor, and Oh Baby!           Waitress

When the Daltons Rode                 Hannah

1941      Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day            Nurse

Down Mexico Way           Maria Elena Alvarado

Sierra Sue            Sue Larrabee

1942      Cowboy Serenade           Stephanie Lock

Heart of the Rio Grande                Alice Bennett

Home in Wyomin'            Clementine Benson

Remember Pearl Harbor               Marcia Porter

1944      The Singing Sheriff           Caroline

1946      Murder in the Music Hall              Singer in Mom's Café

Night and Day    Singer

1959      -30-        Mrs. Jason

1961      Breakfast at Tiffany's      Party Guest Laughing in Mirror

1962      Experiment in Terror      Hospital Superintendent (uncredited)

1968      The Party             Alice Clutterbuck

1981      S.O.B.    Woman on the Beach

2018      Kill a Better Mousetrap