Kay Aldridge

Kay Aldridge

Born: July 9, 1917
Died: January 12, 1995
in Tallahassee, Florida, USA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Katharine Gratten Aldridge (July 9, 1917 – January 12, 1995) was an American actress and model, best known for playing feisty and imperiled heroines in black-and-white serials during the 1940s. A notable role was as Nyoka Gordon in Perils of Nyoka.

Aldridge was born on July 9, 1917 in Tallahassee, Florida. Her father was a surveyor and her mother was an artist and writer. After attending her first year of high school in Westminster, Maryland, she enrolled in St. Mary's Female Seminary (now St. Mary's College of Maryland) in St. Mary's City, Maryland. While at St. Mary's, she acted in plays, played basketball, and was a member of the Delta Phi Epsilon sorority.

Following her high school graduation in 1934, Aldridge found work with the John Powers modeling agency in New York. She appeared on the covers of magazines such as Life, Ladies' Home Journal, Redbook, and Look. In 1937, Aldridge was chosen as one of the ten most photographed girls in the world, and was selected to go to Hollywood to appear in the United Artists film Vogues of 1938.

In 1939 she signed a contract with 20th Century Fox, and in the next few years landed a number of minor and largely decorative roles, credited as Katherine Aldridge. The films she made during this period include Shooting High (1940) playing Evelyn Trent, Sailor's Lady (1940) playing Georgine, Down Argentine Way (1940) playing Helen Carson, and Dead Men Tell (1941) playing Laura Thursday. She was among the actresses screen tested for the part of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind.

After her contract with 20th Century Fox expired in 1941, she was approach by Republic Pictures to star in an upcoming film serial. Although she considered serial work a "comedown" from being a featured player at Fox, she accepted the offer because it offered her a lead role and a salary of about $650 a week, good money at the time. Her first serial for Republic was Perils of Nyoka (1942), which offered dramatic cliffhanger scenes at the end of each episode. She retired from acting in 1945.

Aldridge was married three times: to Arthur Cameron from 1945 to 1954, to Richard Derby Tucker from 1956 until his death in 1979, and lastly to Harry Nasland until his death in 1988. In her later years she lived in Camden, Maine, and was a locally renowned hostess.

Aldridge died of a heart attack on January 12, 1995 in Rockport, Maine. She is interred at Sea View Cemetery in Rockport, Maine.

Movies for Kay Aldridge...

The Phantom of 42nd Street
Title: The Phantom of 42nd Street
Character: Claudia Moore
Released: May 2, 1945
Type: Movie
A theatre critic teams up with a cop to investigate the murder of a Broadway actor.
bee
The Man Who Walked Alone
Title: The Man Who Walked Alone
Character: Wilhelmina Hammond
Released: March 15, 1945
Type: Movie
A war hero returns home following a medical discharge and ends up entangled with a young woman speeding away from her wedding day in her fiance's car. Seeing the soldier, she gives him a ride and explains her predicament. Things get sticky when the cops capture them and accuse the soldier of desertion.
bee
Haunted Harbor
Title: Haunted Harbor
Character: Patricia Harding
Released: August 26, 1944
Type: Movie
A sea captain about to be hanged for a murder he didn't commit is rescued from the gallows by two of his crewmen. They head for the island of Pulinan, where they believe the real murderer--the captain's former partner--is hiding so the captain can clear his name. As it turns out, their troubles are only beginning
bee
Du Barry was a Lady
Title: Du Barry was a Lady
Character: Mrs. McGowan
Released: August 13, 1943
Type: Movie
Hat check man Louis Blore is in love with nightclub star May Daly. May, however, is in love with a poor dancer but wants to marry for money. When Louis wins the Irish Sweepstakes, he asks May to marry him and she accepts even though she doesn't love him. Soon after, Louis has an accident and gets knocked on the head, where he dreams that he's King Louis XV pursuing the infamous Madame Du Barry.
bee
Daredevils of the West
Title: Daredevils of the West
Character: June Foster
Released: May 1, 1943
Type: Movie
A gang of land-grabbers tries to prevent safe passage of the Foster Stage Company through frontier territory.
bee
Something to Shout About
Title: Something to Shout About
Character: Show Girl
Released: February 25, 1943
Type: Movie
A press agent, a composer and a landlord of a theatrical boardinghouse revive vaudeville on Broadway.
bee
Perils of Nyoka
Title: Perils of Nyoka
Character: Nyoka Gordon
Released: June 27, 1942
Type: Movie
Professor Campbell's expedition into the hills of Libya obtains a papyrus which might reveal the hiding place of the Golden Tablets of Hippocrates, containing lost medical secrets. Also in the region is intrepid Nyoka Gordon, still seeking her father, lost on a previous expedition. She alone can translate the papyrus, which directs our heroes through deadly perils (including the Tunnel of Bubbling Death) into the land of the Tuaregs. Opposing them are Vultura, Queen of the Desert, and her Arab ally Cassib, both greedy for the treasure...
bee
Louisiana Purchase
Title: Louisiana Purchase
Character: Louisiana Belle
Released: December 31, 1941
Type: Movie
A bumbling senator investigating graft in Louisiana is the target of a scheme involving a Viennese beauty.
bee
You're in the Army Now
Title: You're in the Army Now
Character: Navy Blues Sextette Member
Released: December 25, 1941
Type: Movie
Incompetent door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesmen become enlisted without their knowledge.
bee
Navy Blues
Title: Navy Blues
Character: Navy Blues Sextet Member (as Katharine Aldridge)
Released: September 13, 1941
Type: Movie
On a layover in Hawaii two conniving Navy seamen borrow money to lay down bets that their ship will win the upcoming gunnery practice trophy, having found out that the current gunnery champ has just transferred aboard their ship. What they haven't learned, however, is that the marksman's enlistment is up before the contest is supposed to take place.
bee
Dead Men Tell
Title: Dead Men Tell
Character: (as Katharine Aldridge) Laura Parks aka Laura Thursday
Released: March 28, 1941
Type: Movie
When the elderly woman sponsoring a treasure hunt is murdered on board her docked ship, Charlie Chan must deal with a treasure map in four pieces, the ghost of a hanged pirate, a talking parrot, a recalcitrant sea captain and several suspicious passengers - and a second murder.
bee
Golden Hoofs
Title: Golden Hoofs
Character: Cornelia Hunt
Released: February 14, 1941
Type: Movie
A teenage horse trainer fears she'll lose her beloved horses when the stables where she works is sold.
bee
Down Argentine Way
Title: Down Argentine Way
Character: Helen Carson
Released: October 11, 1940
Type: Movie
The story—in which an American heiress on holiday in South America falls in love with an Argentine horse breeder against the wishes of their families—takes a backseat to the spectacular location shooting and parade of extravagant musical numbers, which include the larger-than-life Carmen Miranda singing the hit “South American Way” and a showstopping dance routine by the always amazing Nicholas Brothers.
bee
The Girl from Avenue A
Title: The Girl from Avenue A
Character: Lucy
Released: August 9, 1940
Type: Movie
A tough girl raised in the streets finds that her dialect and manners are helpful as source material for a playwright.
bee
Sailor's Lady
Title: Sailor's Lady
Character: Georgine (as Katharine Aldridge)
Released: July 5, 1940
Type: Movie
Sailor is going to marry his girlfriend when he returns, but she becomes foster mother to baby whose parents are accidentally killed. The baby is accidentally left on board a visiting battleship.
bee
Girl in 313
Title: Girl in 313
Character: Sarah Sorrell (as Katherine Aldridge)
Released: May 31, 1940
Type: Movie
A priceless necklace goes missing at a plush party. Police close in on the jewel thieves but is one cop getting too close to one of the crooks?
bee
Shooting High
Title: Shooting High
Character: Evelyn Trent
Released: April 25, 1940
Type: Movie
A movie company making a film about a famous sheriff hires his grandson as a stand-in for the lead.
bee
Free, Blonde and 21
Title: Free, Blonde and 21
Character: Adelaide Sinclair (as Katherine Aldridge)
Released: March 28, 1940
Type: Movie
Stories of women who live in an all-women hotel. One (Bari) works hard and marries a millionaire; another (Hughes) cheats and goes to jail.
bee
Here I Am a Stranger
Title: Here I Am a Stranger
Character: Lillian Bennett
Released: September 29, 1939
Type: Movie
The story of a young man's discovery of his father.
bee
Rosalie
Title: Rosalie
Character: Lady in Waiting (uncredited)
Released: December 24, 1937
Type: Movie
West Point cadet Dick Thorpe falls in love with a girl, who turns out to be a princess from an European kingdom.
bee
Vogues of 1938
Title: Vogues of 1938
Character: Katherine - a Model
Released: August 18, 1937
Type: Movie
An early Technicolor musical that concentrates on the fashions of the late 1930s, this film was reissued under the title All This and Glamour Too. The top models of the era, including several who are advertising household products, are in the cast. The plot centers around a chic boutique, whose owner, George Curson (Warner Baxter), tries hard to please his customers while keeping peace with his unhappy wife. A wealthy young woman, Wendy Van Klettering (Joan Bennett), decides to take a job as a model at the fashion house, just to amuse herself, but her presence annoys Curson, who must put together the best possible show to compete with rival fashion houses at the Seven Arts Ball. The film includes several hit songs, including the Oscar-nominated "That Old Feeling" by Sammy Fain and Lew Brown.