Ellen Drew

Missouri-born Ellen Drew was born Esther Loretta Ray in 1914, the daughter of an Irish-born barber. After her parents separated when she was 15 years old, she worked various jobs (accountant, salesgirl) to support her mother and younger brother. Her fresh-faced good looks and high-wattage smile earned her a couple of beauty pageant trophies. Encouraged to try her luck in Hollywood, she was discovered in somewhat typical Lana Turner fashion. While working at an ice cream parlor, customer William Demarest took notice of her and was instrumental in having her put under contract at Paramount Studios in 1936, aged 21.Initially billed as Terry Ray, she was groomed in starlet bits for two years until finally given a role she could sink her teeth into in the Bing Crosby musical Les bébés turbulents (1938). Her hair was changed from brunette to auburn (sometimes blonde) and her moniker changed from Terry Ray to Ellen Drew, after briefly being known as Erin Drew. Brighter roles came her way with Le roi des gueux (1938) (which clinched her celebrity), Women Without Names (1940) and Buck Benny Rides Again (1940), but she never quite managed to distinguish herself among the bevy of Hollywood beauties on display and so remained on the outer fringes for most her career. Despite fine roles in fine movies, notably the Preston Sturges classic, Le gros lot (1940), and the Dick Powell starrer, L'Heure du crime (1947), her film career went into decline. In the 1950s she transferred her talents to television before retiring the following decade. Married four times, including to writer/producer Sy Bartlett, she was survived by her son and five grandchildren when she passed away in 2003, aged 89, in Palm Desert, California. Show less «