Lila Leeds

Lila Leeds

Born: January 28, 1928
Died: September 15, 1999
in Dodge City, Kansas, USA
Lila Leeds (born Lila Lee Wilkinson, January 28, 1928 – September 15, 1999) was an American film actress. She signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and began appearing in small roles in the Red Skelton film The Show-Off (1946); Lady in the Lake (1947), based on a Raymond Chandler story; and in the Lana Turner vehicle Green Dolphin Street. She had a small part in So You Want to Be a Detective, which was part of the Joe McDoakes series of comedy shorts, the film being a reworking of the subjective camera style used in Lady in the Lake, in which Leeds had previously appeared.

Leeds was producer Harold Hecht's top choice to star in Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, the first film by Hecht and co-star Burt Lancaster's production company Norma Productions. Leeds was ultimately replaced by Joan Fontaine, who was already under contract with the movie's financer and distributor Universal-International Pictures.

On September 1, 1948, Leeds gained notoriety for being arrested together with actor Robert Mitchum on charges of marijuana possession. She subsequently spent sixty days in jail. Considered a Lana Turner look-alike, Leeds was 20 years old and engaged to Turner's ex-husband Stephen Crane at the time of her arrest. Although she starred in the Reefer Madness–style film She Shoulda Said No! (1949) following her release from jail, her acting career, unlike Mitchum's, never recovered from the scandal. She died of a heart attack at age 71 in Los Angeles.

Movies for Lila Leeds...

The House Across the Street
Title: The House Across the Street
Character: Billie Martin (uncredited)
Released: September 10, 1949
Type: Movie
Dave Joslin, the managing editor of a big-city newspaper, is demoted and moved to the Miss Lonely Hearts column-writing department by the newspaper's publisher, J. B. Grennell, because Joslin refuses to desist in printing stories linking a gangster, Matthew Keever, to a murder. But Joslin, aided by Kit Williams, a newspaper woman with whom he is in love, investigate the murder case on their own time.
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Wild Weed
Title: Wild Weed
Character: Anne Lester
Released: July 20, 1949
Type: Movie
A chorus girl's career is ruined and her brother is driven to suicide when she starts smoking marijuana.
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Moonrise
Title: Moonrise
Character: Julie
Released: October 1, 1948
Type: Movie
Stigmatized from infancy by the fate of his criminal father, a man is bruised and bullied until one night, in a fit of rage, he kills his most persistent tormentor. As the police close in around him, he makes a desperate bid for the love of the dead man’s fiancée, a schoolteacher who sees the wounded soul behind his aggression.
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So You Want to Be a Detective
Title: So You Want to Be a Detective
Character: Veronica Vacuum (uncredited)
Released: June 26, 1948
Type: Movie
Joe McDoakes imagines himself as a private detective on a murder case. Throughout the film, he spars verbally with narrator Art Gilmore.
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April Showers
Title: April Showers
Character: Society Girl (uncredited)
Released: March 27, 1948
Type: Movie
A married couple who have a song-and-dance act in vaudeville are in trouble. Their struggling act is going nowhere, they're almost broke and they have to do something to get them back on top or they'll really be in trouble. They decide to put their young son in the act in hopes of attracting some new attention. The boy turns out to be a major talent, audiences love him and the act is on its way to the top. That's when an organization whose purpose is to stop children from performing on stage shows up, and they're dead set on breaking up the act.
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So You Want to Be a Gambler
Title: So You Want to Be a Gambler
Character: Blonde at Dice Table (uncredited)
Released: February 14, 1948
Type: Movie
In this comedic short, Joe McDoakes experiences the pitfalls of gambling.
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Always Together
Title: Always Together
Character: Blonde (uncredited)
Released: December 10, 1947
Type: Movie
An old millionaire, who believes he's dying, bequeaths his fortune to a young woman with a fanatical obsession with movie stars. But then the elderly tycoon recovers from his illness and decides he wants his money back. Comedy most notable for its numerous unbilled cameos by Warner Bros. actors.
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Green Dolphin Street
Title: Green Dolphin Street
Character: Eurasian Girl (uncredited)
Released: January 15, 1947
Type: Movie
Sophie loved Edmund, but he left town when her parents forced her to marry wealthy Octavius. Years later, Edmund returns with his son, William. Sophie's daughter, Marguerite, and William fall in love. Marguerite's sister, Marianne, also loves William. Timothy, a lowly carpenter, secretly loves Marianne. He kills a man in a fight, and Edmund helps him flee to New Zealand. William deserts inadvertently from the navy, and also flees in disgrace to New Zealand, where he and Timothy start a profitable business. One night, drunk, William writes Octavius, demanding his daughter's hand; but, being drunk, he asks for the wrong sister.
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Lady in the Lake
Title: Lady in the Lake
Character: Receptionist
Released: December 19, 1946
Type: Movie
Private eye Phillip Marlowe wants to get out of the detective racket and into crime writing. But when he's called to the office of editor Adrienne Fromsett, it's not to talk about his story ideas — she wants him to locate the missing wife of her boss, Mr. Kingsby. The assignment quickly becomes complicated when bodies start turning up.
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I Love My Husband, But!
Title: I Love My Husband, But!
Character: Blonde Trying on Hat (uncredited)
Released: December 7, 1946
Type: Movie
In this Pete Smith Specialty short, a wife endures the trials of being married to a husband with traits that drive her crazy.
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The Show-Off
Title: The Show-Off
Character: Flo
Released: December 1, 1946
Type: Movie
Chaos is brought to a family when daughter marries a brash young man met on a blind date.