Lili Gentle

Last updated
Lili Gentle
Born
Lillie Charlene Gentle

(1940-03-04) March 4, 1940 (age 83)
OccupationActress
Years active1956–1962
Spouses
(m. 1958;div. 1968)
Thomas P. Richardson
(m. 1970;div. 1971)
Timothy W. Guerry
(m. 1975,died 2018)
Children3

Lili Gentle (born Lillie Charlene Gentle; March 4, 1940) is a former American film and television actress.

Contents

Biography

Born Lillie Charlene Gentle in Montgomery, Alabama, [1] she later changed the spelling of her first name to "Lili". As a child, both she and her sister Janet were stricken with polio.

Gentle made her film debut in an uncredited role in Carousel (1956). In 1956, she had bit parts in Teenage Rebel and The Girl Can't Help It , starring Jayne Mansfield. In 1957, she earned a supporting role opposite Mansfield in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? . In 1958, she starred with Tommy Sands in the dramatic-musical, Sing, Boy, Sing . Her last film role was in 1962, in Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation . [2]

She frequently acted on television in shows such as The 20th Century Fox Hour (1956); Matinee Theatre (1957); and Playhouse 90 (1957).

In 1958, just before her 18th birthday, she married future film producer Richard D. Zanuck, then 23 years old, who was then employed in the 20th Century-Fox story department. With Zanuck, she had two children, Virginia (born October 1959), and Janet (born September 1960), through whom she has five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. She adopted her daughter Virginia's first born child, Laura, in 1988. [3]

After divorcing Zanuck in 1968, Gentle remarried twice; her second marriage, to Thomas P. Richardson, ended in divorce in 1971. She married her third husband, Timothy W. Guerry, in 1975 and remained together 42 years, until his death in 2018.

Filmography

Film
YearTitleRoleNotes
1956 Carousel Young Girl #1Uncredited
1956 Teenage Rebel Gloria
1956 The Girl Can't Help It Uncredited
1957 Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? April Hunter
1957 Young and Dangerous Rosemary Clinton(billed as: Lilli Gentle)
1958 Sing, Boy, Sing Leora Easton
1962 Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation Janie Grant(final film role)
Television
YearTitleRoleNotes
1956 The 20th Century Fox Hour Lenore Age 171 episode, (as Lily Gentle)
1956 Matinee Theatre 1 episode
1957 Playhouse 90 Marilyn Flood1 episode

Related Research Articles

<i>Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?</i> 1957 film by Frank Tashlin

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? is a 1957 American satirical comedy film starring Jayne Mansfield and Tony Randall, with Betsy Drake, Joan Blondell, John Williams, Henry Jones, Lili Gentle, and Mickey Hargitay, and with a cameo by Groucho Marx. The film is a satire on popular fan culture, Hollywood hype, and the advertising industry, which was profiting from commercials on the relatively new medium of television. It also takes aim at the reduction television caused to the size of movie theater audiences in the 1950s. The film was known as Oh! For a Man! in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeanne Crain</span> American actress (1925–2003)

Jeanne Elizabeth Crain was an American actress. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her title role in Pinky (1949). She also starred in the films In the Meantime, Darling (1944), State Fair (1945), Leave Her to Heaven (1945), Centennial Summer (1946), Margie (1946), Apartment for Peggy (1948), A Letter to Three Wives (1949), Cheaper by the Dozen (1950), People Will Talk (1951), Man Without a Star (1955), Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955), The Fastest Gun Alive (1956), and The Joker Is Wild (1957).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darryl F. Zanuck</span> American film producer (1902–1979)

Darryl Francis Zanuck was an American film producer and studio executive; he earlier contributed stories for films starting in the silent era. He played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors. He produced three films that won the Academy Award for Best Picture during his tenure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jayne Mansfield</span> American actress and Playmate (1933–1967)

Jayne Mansfield was an American actress, singer, nightclub entertainer, and Playboy Playmate. A sex symbol of the 1950s and early 1960s, Mansfield was known for her publicity stunts and well-publicized personal life. Although her film career was short-lived, she had several box-office successes, and won a Theatre World Award and Golden Globe Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linda Darnell</span> American actress

Linda Darnell was an American actress. Darnell progressed from modeling as a child to acting in theater and film. At the encouragement of her mother, she made her first film in 1939, and appeared in supporting roles in big-budget films for 20th Century Fox throughout the 1940s. She co-starred with Tyrone Power in adventure films, and established a main character career after her role in Forever Amber (1947). She won critical acclaim for her work in Unfaithfully Yours (1948) and A Letter to Three Wives (1949).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mickey Hargitay</span> Hungarian-American actor and bodybuilder

Mickey Hargitay, born Miklós Karoly Hargitay, was a Hungarian-American actor and the 1955 Mr. Universe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tyrone Power</span> American actor (1914–1958)

Tyrone Edmund Power III was an American actor. From the 1930s to the 1950s, Power appeared in dozens of films, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads. His better-known films include Jesse James, The Mark of Zorro, Marie Antoinette, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan, Prince of Foxes, Witness for the Prosecution, The Black Rose, and Captain from Castile. Power's own favorite film among those that he starred in was Nightmare Alley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard D. Zanuck</span> American film producer (1934-2012)

Richard Darryl Zanuck was an American film producer. His 1989 film Driving Miss Daisy won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Zanuck was also instrumental in launching the career of director Steven Spielberg, who described Zanuck as a "director's producer" and "one of the most honorable and loyal men of our profession."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virginia Fox</span> American silent films actress in 1910s and 1920s

Virginia Oglesby Zanuck was an American actress who starred in many silent films of the 1910s and 1920s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virginia Dale</span> American actress

Virginia Dale was an American actress and dancer.

<i>Island in the Sun</i> (film) 1957 American film

Island in the Sun is a 1957 drama film produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and directed by Robert Rossen. It features an ensemble cast including James Mason, Harry Belafonte, Joan Fontaine, Joan Collins, Dorothy Dandridge, Michael Rennie, Stephen Boyd, Patricia Owens, John Justin, Diana Wynyard, John Williams, and Basil Sydney. The film is about race relations and interracial romance set in the fictitious island of Santa Marta. Barbados and Grenada were selected as the sites for the movie based on the 1955 novel by Alec Waugh. The film was controversial at the time of its release for its on-screen portrayal of interracial romance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Debra Paget</span> American actress and entertainer (born 1933)

Debra Paget is an American retired actress and entertainer. She is perhaps best known for her performances in Cecil B. DeMille's epic The Ten Commandments (1956) and in Elvis Presley's film debut, Love Me Tender (1956), as well as for the risqué snake dance scene in The Indian Tomb (1959).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheree North</span> American actress, dancer, and singer (1932–2005)

Sheree North was an American actress, dancer, and singer, known for being one of 20th Century-Fox's intended successors to Marilyn Monroe.

<i>Daddy Long Legs</i> (1955 film) 1955 film by Jean Negulesco

Daddy Long Legs (1955) is a Hollywood musical comedy film set in France, New York City, and the fictional college town of Walston, Massachusetts. The film was directed by Jean Negulesco, and stars Fred Astaire, Leslie Caron, Terry Moore, Fred Clark, and Thelma Ritter, with music and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. The screenplay was written by Phoebe Ephron and Henry Ephron, loosely based on the 1912 novel Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dana Wynter</span> German-born English actress (1931–2011)

Dana Wynter was a German-born British actress, who was raised in the United Kingdom and southern Africa. She appeared in film and television for more than 40 years, beginning in the 1950s. Her best-known film performance was in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). A tall, dark, elegant beauty, she played both victim and villain. Her characters both in film and on television sometimes faced horrific dangers, which they often did not survive, but she also played scheming, manipulative women on television mysteries and crime procedural dramas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bella Darvi</span> Polish actress (1928–1971)

Bella Darvi was a Polish film actress and stage performer who was active in France and the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Merry Anders</span> American actress (1934–2012)

Merry Anders was an American actress who appeared in a number of television programs and films from the 1950s until her retirement from the screen in 1972.

<i>The Sun Also Rises</i> (1957 film) 1957 film by Henry King

The Sun Also Rises is a 1957 American drama film adaptation of the 1926 Ernest Hemingway novel of the same name directed by Henry King. The screenplay was written by Peter Viertel and it starred Tyrone Power, Ava Gardner, Mel Ferrer, and Errol Flynn. Much of it was filmed on location in France and Spain as well as Mexico in Cinemascope and color by Deluxe. A highlight of the film is the famous "running of the bulls" in Pamplona, Spain and two bullfights.

<i>Teenage Rebel</i> 1956 film

Teenage Rebel is a 1956 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Ginger Rogers, Michael Rennie and Mildred Natwick. It was nominated for two Academy Awards; Best Costume Design and Best Art Direction.

<i>Sing Boy Sing</i> (film) 1958 American film

Sing Boy Sing is a 1958 American musical drama film released by 20th Century-Fox and starring newcomers Tommy Sands and Lili Gentle.

References

  1. "Montgomery Advertiser, January 12, 1958, page 3". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2019-04-20.
  2. "Lili Gentle Filmography". Online Database. IMDB. Retrieved 2011-11-02.
  3. "Lili Gentle". IMDb. Retrieved 2019-04-04.