Joyce MacKenzie obit

Joyce MacKenzie, Actress in ‘Tarzan and the She-Devil,’ Dies at 95

She also appeared in movies with Robert Mitchum, James Stewart, Humphrey Bogart and Jane Russell. 

She was not on the list.

Joyce MacKenzie, who portrayed Jane opposite Lex Barker in the 1953 film Tarzan and the She-Devil, has died. She was 95.

MacKenzie died June 10 at a health care facility in Hollywood, her son Norman Leimert told The Hollywood Reporter.

MacKenzie also played the wife of Robert Mitchum’s character in The Racket (1951) and a newspaper publisher’s daughter opposite Humphrey Bogart in Deadline — U.S.A. (1952), and in the 3D musical The French Line (1953), her model character exchanged identities with Jane Russell’s.

A onetime contract player at Fox, MacKenzie appeared with Barker in his fifth (and last) stint as Johnny Weissmuller’s replacement in Tarzan and the She-Devil, with the King of the Jungle battling the evil She-Devil, Lyra (Monique van Vooren).

Born Oct. 13, 1925, in Redwood City, California, MacKenzie worked as a carpenter’s helper in a San Francisco shipyard to help pay for acting school. While performing at the Pasadena Playhouse, she was spotted by Orson Welles, who gave her a part in Tomorrow Is Forever (1946), also starring Claudette Colbert.

MacKenzie played a nurse in Gregory Peck’s in Twelve O’Clock High (1949), and in 1950 releases, she appeared with Marilyn Monroe in A Ticket to Tomahawk, with James Stewart in Broken Arrow, with Ann Sheridan in Stella and in the film noirs Destination Murder and Whirlpool.

She left acting after a 1961 episode of CBS’ Perry Mason and worked as an assistant producer at ABC and as an English teacher.

Married three times, she is survived by her sons Norman and Walter.

Filmography

Year     Title     Role     Notes

1946    Tomorrow Is Forever  Cherry Davis  

1946    The Kid from Brooklyn          Goldwyn Girl  Uncredited

1949    Whirlpool        Daisy – Telephone Operator   Uncredited

1949    Twelve O'Clock High Nurse   Uncredited

1950    Mother Didn't Tell Me            Helen Porter   

1950    A Ticket to Tomahawk            Ruby   Uncredited

1950    Destination Murder     Laura Mansfield         

1950    Stella   Peggy Denny 

1950    Broken Arrow Terry   

1951    On the Riviera Mimi   

1951    His Kind of Woman    Lady Gwendolyn in Film        Uncredited

1951    People Will Talk         Gussie Uncredited

1951    The Racket      Mary McQuigg          

1951    The Model and the Marriage Broker  Doris   Uncredited

1952    Deadline - U.S.A.       Katherine Garrison Geary      

1952    Wait till the Sun Shines, Nellie           Bessie Jordan 

1952    O. Henry's Full House Hazel Woods   (segment "The Clarion Call"), (scenes deleted)

1952    Night Without Sleep   Laura Harkness          

1953    The I Don't Care Girl  Babette            Uncredited

1953    Tarzan and the She-Devil        Jane    

1953    The French Line          Myrtle Brown

1954    Rails Into Laramie      Helen Shanessy