1940s Hollywood musical comedies actress Gloria DeHaven dies at 91

Las Vegas

GLORIA DeHaven, a pert actress who debuted in Charlie Chaplin's 1936 silent-movie masterpiece Modern Times, sang and danced her way through musicals starring Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, and bestowed on Frank Sinatra his first onscreen kiss, died on July 30 in Las Vegas. She was 91.

The cause was complications from a stroke, said a daughter, Faith Fincher-Finkelstein. DeHaven had moved to Las Vegas in 2003 after years in Beverly Hills, California, and New York.

DeHaven was the daughter of vaudevillians and enjoyed a long career propelled by her warm singing voice and fetching looks. Her forte was romantic musical comedy - technicolour fare in which her golden red hair glistened for the camera - but she seldom had dazzling solo showcase numbers that might have boosted her to higher echelons of stardom.

She remained a solid journeyman performer who held her own opposite charismatic entertainers such as Judy Garland, Van Johnson, Mickey Rooney, Red Skelton, Donald O'Connor and Lucille Ball.

DeHaven was still in her teens when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Hollywood's most prestigious studio, began grooming her for featured roles in lavishly produced musicals such as Thousands Cheer starring Kelly and Best Foot Forward (both 1943) with Ball and June Allyson.

DeHaven's career dwindled as the musical faded in popularity. She transitioned to stage and television work, proving adaptable to dramatic anthology shows, westerns and series including Quincy M.E., Fantasy Island, B.J. and the Bear and Murder, She Wrote.

Her final movie role was as Jack Lemmon's love interest in Out to Sea (1997), a tepid cruise ship comedy co-starring Walter Matthau.

She once quipped that she had "two chances not to be in this business: slim and none". "I was born in a stage trunk and that's all I really knew." WP