French postcard by Editions Tour Eiffel, Lyon. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer (M.G.M.).
Italian postcard by Garami, Milano. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Gloria DeHaven in Two Girls and a Sailor (Richard Thorpe, 1944).
Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, Bois d'Haine, no. C. 172. Photo: MGM. Mickey Rooney and Gloria DeHaven in Summer Holiday (Rouben Mamoulian, 1948).
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 752. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, no. C. 279. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Gloria DeHaven in Scene of the Crime (Roy Rowland, 1949).
Portraying her own mother
Gloria Mildred DeHaven was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1925. She was the daughter of actor-director Carter DeHaven and actress Flora Parker DeHaven, both former vaudeville performers. Her real family name was O'Callahan before her father legally changed his name to DeHaven. With her father's help, who was also an assistant director and a friend of Charles Chaplin, she received her first film appearance. She began her career with a bit part in Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times (1936).
Her first visible role was in the George Cukor-directed Susan and God (1940) starring Joan Crawford. DeHaven was signed to a contract with MGM. On loan to RKO, she gave Frank Sinatra his first screen kiss in Step Lively (Tim Whelan, 1944).
She had featured roles in such films as the musical Best Foot Forward (Edward Buzzell, 1943) starring Lucille Ball, The Thin Man Goes Home (Richard Thorpe, 1944) starring William Powell and Myrna Loy, the Film Noir Scene of the Crime (Roy Rowland, 1949) with Van Johnson, and the musical Summer Stock (Charles Walters, 1950), as the sister of Judy Garland.
In 1944 DeHaven was voted by exhibitors as the third most likely to be a 'star of tomorrow' in 1944. She portrayed her own mother, Flora Parker DeHaven, in the Fred Astaire film Three Little Words (Richard Thorpe, 1950), a musical film biography of the Tin Pan Alley songwriting partnership of Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby.
During the 1950s she appeared in such films as the musical comedy The Girl Rush (Robert Pirosh, 1955) starring Rosalind Russell. I.S. Mowis at IMDb: "Gloria never quite managed to get first-tier assignments and her career waned as musicals ceased to be a bankable commodity. In the early 1950s, she attempted stronger dramatic roles but with only moderate success. By 1955, she had wisely turned to the stage for occasional appearances on Broadway."
Vintage postcard.
Vintage card. Photo: MGM.
Belgian postcard, no. 8. Photo: Universal Film.
Vintage postcard, no. AX 1122. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
Belgian postcard, no. 317. Photo: Universal International.
An all-star box office flop
Gloria DeHaven's Broadway debut came in 1955. She played Diane in the musical version of 'Seventh Heaven'. She also toured in a summer stock production of 'No, No, Nanette'.
DeHaven's musical talents supplemented her acting abilities. Besides being cast as a singer in many of her films, including I'll Get By, So This Is Paris and The Girl Rush, and performing numbers in many of her films, DeHaven sang with the bands of Jan Savitt and Bob Crosby and at one time had her own nightclub act.
After a long absence from the screen, Gloria DeHaven was one of the numerous celebrities who appeared in the all-star box office flop, Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (Michael Winner, 1976). Later she appeared as the love interest of Jack Lemmon in the romantic comedy Out to Sea (Martha Coolidge, 1997), also starring Walter Matthau.
On television, DeHaven appeared in the soap operas Ryan's Hope (as Bess Shelby), As the World Turns (as Sara Fuller), and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. She also guest-starred in such television series as Wagon Train, Flipper, Marcus Welby, M.D., Gunsmoke, Mannix, Fantasy Island, Hart to Hart, The Love Boat, Murder, She Wrote and Touched by an Angel. From January 1969 to February 1971, DeHaven hosted a morning call-in movie show on WABC-TV in New York City.
DeHaven was married four times to three men. Her first husband was actor John Payne, star of the Western TV series The Restless Gun, whom she married in 1944 and divorced in 1950. Her second husband was real estate developer Martin Kimmel. They were married in 1953 and divorced the following year. She was married to Richard Fincher, son of a Miami Oldsmobile dealer, from 1957 until 1963. They remarried in 1965 and divorced again in 1969. She had two children with Payne, daughter Kathleen Hope (born 1945) and son Thomas John (born 1947) as well as two children with Fincher, son Harry (born 1958) and daughter Faith (born 1962).
Gloria DeHaven died in 2016, in Las Vegas of undisclosed causes a week after her 91st birthday while in hospice care after having had a stroke a few months earlier. She was survived by her four children. Her remains were cremated.
Belgian postcard. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Sent by mail in 1952.
Dutch postcard by Foto archief Film en Toneel, no. AX 304 / 22. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
British postcard in the Celebrity Autographs Series, no. 192. Photo: Universal-International. Gloria DeHaven in So This Is Paris (Richard Quine, 1954).
German postcard by Kunst und Film Verlag H. Lukow, Hannover, no. L2/1042. Caption: Filmschauspieler aus aller Welt (Film actors from around the world).
Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 856. Photo: Universal International. Caption: Happy New Year 1955.
Sources: I.S. Mowis (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
This post was last updated on 11 December 2023.
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