Noreen Nash obit

Noreen Nash (1924–2023), actress in The Big Fix, Giant

 

Noreen Siegel Whitmore, age 99, of Beverly Hills, California passed away on Tuesday, June 6, 2023.

She was not on the list.

Noreen Nash was an actress who starred in movies including “The Bix Fix” and “The Red Stallion” and had a small role in the James Dean (1931–1955) film “Giant.”

Nash received a screen test after being crowned Apple Blossom Queen in her hometown of Wenatchee, Washington. She held off on her movie career in order to finish high school, then began acting professionally in the mid-1940s with a string of small, uncredited roles. After appearing in a minor but credited role in “The Southerner,” Nash starred in 1947’s “The Big Fix,” about a gambling ring fixing college basketball games. Further leading roles came in “The Red Stallion,” “Assigned to Danger,” “The Checkered Coat,” and a variety of B-movies of the 1940s and ‘50s. Among Nash’s best-known movies is “Giant,” in which she had a small role as a movie star.

In addition to her film career, Nash appeared in such TV shows as “The Lone Ranger,” “The Abbott and Costello Show,” “My Little Margie,” “Dragnet,” and “77 Sunset Strip.” She retired from acting in the early 1960s, going on to write several books. 

“What I remember most is, by the time I got on the picture, director George Stevens and James Dean were at each other. Dean did his usual mumbling and Stevens kept saying, ‘This script cost a lot of money. I want to hear those words!’ George didn’t like James’ style of acting!” —from an interview for Western Clippings.

Norabelle Jean Roth was born on April 4, 1924, in Wenatchee, Washington. Her mother, Gayle, was a teacher and her father, Albert, owned a Coca-Cola bottling plant. She was crowned an Apple Blossom Queen when she was 18, then signed with MGM after being noticed by Bob Hope’s agent at the Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood.

She took the stage name Noreen Roth and appeared in films including Girl Crazy (1943) with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland; Bathing Beauty (1944) with Esther Williams and Basil Rathbone; Mervyn LeRoy’s Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) with Spencer Tracy; and Mrs. Parkington (1944) with Greer Garson.

Her first big role came in The Southerners after she had left MGM, and working with Naish inspired her to change her stage name one more time, she said.

Nash then starred for such “Poverty Row” outfits as Producers Releasing Corp. and Eagle Lion in films including The Devil on Wheels (1947) alongside Darryl Hickman and Terry Moore, The Big Fix (1947), Assigned to Danger (1948), The Checkered Coat (1948) and Adventures of Casanova (1948).

She collaborated with director Lesley Selander on four Westerns: The Red Stallion (1947), Storm Over Wyoming (1950), Road Agent (1952) and The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold (1958), where her Frances Henderson kills a man with an ax.

She played the wife of Dick Shawn’s character in LeRoy’s Wake Me When It’s Over (1960) before leaving acting in 1962. She went on to receive a bachelor’s degree in history from UCLA in 1971 — the same year her youngest son, Robert, graduated from the school.

Nash published her first novel, the 16th century-set By Love Fulfilled, in 1980 and co-wrote 2015’s Titans of the Muses: When Henry Miller Met Jean Renoir.

She was married to Lee E. Siegel, the studio medical director at Fox from 1955-71 who was known as “Doctor to the Stars,” from 1942 until his 1990 death, and to Oscar-nominated actor James Whitmore from 2001 until his 2009 death.

In addition to her sons, survivors include her grandchildren, Sebastian, Dmitri, John and Cara, and four great-grandchildren.

 

Filmography

Year       Title       Role       Director                Notes

1943      Girl Crazy             Showgirl               Norman Taurog Uncredited

1944      Meet the People               Showgirl               Charles Reisner Uncredited

Maisie Goes to Reno       Good-looking girl              Harry Beaumont               Uncredited

Bathing Beauty Noreen - Co-ed George Sidney   Uncredited

An American Romance   Vaudeville act    King Vidor           Uncredited

Mrs. Parkington                Bridget Tay Garnett         Uncredited

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo           Lt. Bob Gray's girlfriend Mervyn LeRoy    Scenes deleted

1945      The Southerner                 Becky Devers      Jean Renoir        

Ziegfeld Follies   Ziegfeld girl         Vincente Minnelli             Uncredited

1946      Monsieur Beaucaire        Baroness              George Marshall               Uncredited

1947      The Devil on Wheels       Sue Tanner          Crane Wilbur     

The Big Fix           Ann Taylor           James Flood        First leading role

The Perils of Pauline                        George Marshall               Uncredited

The Red Stallion                Ellen Reynolds   Lesley Selander

1948      The Tender Years              Linda     Harold D. Schuster          

Adventures of Casanova                Zanetta                 Roberto Gavaldón           

Assigned to Danger          Bonnie Powers Budd Boetticher               

The Checkered Coat        Betty Madden    Edward L. Cahn

1950      Storm over Wyoming      Chris Marvin       Lesley Selander

Charlie's Haunt  Sally      

1952      Aladdin and His Lamp     Passion flower   Lew Landers      

Road Agent         Cora Drew           Lesley Selander

We're Not Married!         Girl in Hector's daydream              Edmund Goulding            Uncredited

1953      Phantom from Space      Barbara Randall                 W. Lee Wilder   

The Body Beautiful          Laurie    Max Nosseck     

1956      Giant     Lona Lane            George Stevens

1958      The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold             Mrs. Frances Henderson                Lesley Selander

1960      Wake Me When It's Over               Marge Brubaker                Mervyn LeRoy

 

Television credits

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1951      Fireside Theatre                                "Going Home"

1952      Hopalong Cassidy             Noreen Thomas                "Don Colorado"

1952–1955         Four Star Playhouse         Kathy/Leonora/Salesgirl                3 episodes

1953      Your Favorite Story                          "The Gold Bug"

The Lone Ranger               Marianne Mornay            "A Stage for Mademoiselle"

My Hero               Peggy Buchanan               "Cinderella's Revenge"

Big Town                              "The Big Cheat"

Ramar of the Jungle        Nancy Barton     "The Unknown Terror"

City Detective    Louise   "The Rebel"

1954      The Abbott and Costello Show    June Thomas      "Fall Guy"

1955      My Little Margie               Countess Louise DuBois "Countess Margie"

1955–1957         Schlitz Playhouse of Stars              Mary Gerski        "Pattern for Death"

"Ambitious Cop"

1956      Dragnet                                "The Big Slug"

It's a Great Life Thelma Adams "The Yachting Party"

The Charles Farrell Show               Doris Mayfield   6 episodes

1956–1958         The Lineup                          "The Vanishing Writer Case"

"The Madcap McGee Case"

1957      State Trooper     Cynthia Hayes    "The Dancing Dowager"

1958–1959         Yancy Derringer                 Agatha Colton    "Fire on the Frontier"

"The Belle from Boston"

1959      77 Sunset Strip Lisa Reynolds     "In Memoriam"

1960      General Electric Theater                Carol      "R.S.V.P"

1962      The Dick Powell Show     Woman #1          "Crazy Sunday"