Pamela Blake | |
---|---|
![]() Blake in The Utah Trail (1938) | |
Born | Adele Pearce August 6, 1915 Oakland, California, U.S. |
Died | October 6, 2009 94) Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. | (aged
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1934–1954 |
Spouses | Malcolm 'Bud' McTaggart (m. 1936;div. 1940)Mike Stokey (m. 1943;div. 1948)John Canavan (m. 1983;died 1996) |
Children | 2 |
Pamela Blake (August 6, 1915 – October 6, 2009) [1] was an American film actress who acted in almost 50 films. She is known primarily for her roles in Western films and serials. [2]
Blake was born in Oakland, California as Adele Pearce, [3] and performed under that name until 1942. [4] Following her mother's death when Blake was 3 years old, she went to live with an uncle and aunt, [2] William Bojorques and Gertrude Biddle-Bojorques in Petaluma, California. Her secondary education came at schools in Petaluma and San Francisco. [5]
She went to Hollywood at age 17 after she won a beauty contest. [1]
Blake's film career lasted for around 20 years, with her starring mostly in B-movies. Her first film role was uncredited, playing a bit part in the 1934 film Eight Girls on a Boat. However, in 1938 she starred in the Western The Utah Trail [4] alongside Tex Ritter. ("It was terrible!" she said in later years. "I never saw it and never wanted to.") [2] She also starred opposite John Wayne in the 1939 film Wyoming Outlaw . This helped her to secure several other Western acting roles, many times as the lead heroine. [6] A major break came when she was cast as the second female lead in This Gun for Hire (1942). [7]
In 1939 she starred in five films, one of which was a crime drama, one a mystery, and one a Western. In total she had roles in some 54 films, as well as a number of starring roles in certain television series. In 1946 she starred in Chick Carter, Detective . Toward the end of her career, she mostly played parts in Western genre films and television episodes, such as The Range Rider .
Waco (1952) was Blake's last feature film, and her last role was in the 1954 television pilot, The Adventures of the Texas Kid: Border Ambush, which was later released as a film. [4]
In 1935, Blake was injured in an automobile wreck that might have ended her career. A newspaper article in The Petaluma Argus-Courier in 1940 described her as having emerged from the wrecked car "with a neck badly torn and both eyes and cheeks badly mutilated." [5] Plastic surgery helped her to return to acting. [5]
Blake married three times. In 1936, she eloped to Yuma, Arizona, with actor Malcolm "Bud" Taggert. They divorced in 1940. [8] Her second marriage, in 1943, was to actor, television producer and writer Mike Stokey; it ended in divorce in 1948. [2] They had one son, Mike Stokey II, and a daughter, Barbara. Their son served as a 1st Marine Division combat correspondent during the Vietnam War, and who then began working in the film industry as a military technical advisor, having worked with, among others, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.
In 1953, Blake moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, to retire and raise her two children. [9] She married John Canavan, an Air Force master sergeant, in 1983. [1] Blake died of natural causes in a Las Vegas, Nevada care facility in 2009, at age 94. [1]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1934 | Eight Girls in a Boat | School Girl | Uncredited |
1934 | Autumn Crocus | Lenchen | |
1936 | One in a Million | Dancer | Uncredited |
1937 | Stage Door | Actress | Uncredited |
1938 | Island in the Sky | Hatcheck Girl | Uncredited |
1938 | The Utah Trail | Sally Jeffers | |
1939 | Sorority House | Merle Scott | |
1939 | Wyoming Outlaw | Irene Parker | |
1939 | Girl from Rio | Annette Templeton | |
1939 | Full Confession | Laura Mahoney | |
1939 | Three Sons | Mamie Donaldson | |
1940 | Married and in Love | Minor Role | (scenes deleted) |
1940 | Millionaire Playboy | Eleanor | |
1940 | Pop Always Pays | Edna Brewster | |
1940 | One Crowded Night | Ruth | |
1940 | Men Against the Sky | Nurse | Uncredited |
1940 | Too Many Girls | Coed | Uncredited |
1941 | Mr. & Mrs. Smith | Lily | |
1941 | No Greater Sin | Betty James later Betty Thorne | |
1942 | This Gun for Hire | Annie | |
1942 | Maisie Gets Her Man | Elsie | |
1942 | The Omaha Trail | Julie Santley | |
1942 | Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant | Jimmy James | Uncredited |
1943 | Kid Dynamite | Ivy McGinnis | |
1943 | Slightly Dangerous | Mitzi | |
1943 | Swing Shift Maisie | Billie | |
1943 | The Unknown Guest | Julie | |
1943 | Swing Fever | Lois | |
1945 | Three's a Crowd | Diane Whipple | |
1945 | Why Girls Leave Home | Diana Leslie | |
1945 | Captain Tugboat Annie | Marion Graves | |
1946 | Live Wires | Mary Mahoney | |
1946 | Partners in Time | Elizabeth Meadows | |
1946 | Mysterious Intruder | Elora Lund | |
1946 | The Runaround | Coffee Shop Waitress | Uncredited |
1946 | Chick Carter, Detective | Ellen Dale | Serial |
1946 | The Mysterious Mr. M | Shirley Clinton | |
1946 | Rolling Home | Pamela Crawford | |
1947 | The Sea Hound | Ann Whitney | Serial |
1947 | The Hat Box Mystery | Susan Hart | |
1948 | Stage Struck | Janet Winters | |
1948 | Son of God's Country | Cathy Thornton | |
1948 | Highway 13 | Doris Lacy | |
1949 | Ghost of Zorro | Rita White | |
1949 | Sky Liner | Carol, TWA Stewardess | |
1950 | Joe Palooka Meets Humphrey | Anne Howe Palooka | |
1950 | The Daltons' Women | Joan Talbot | |
1950 | Federal Man | Mrs. Judith Palmer | |
1950 | Gunfire | Cynthy | |
1950 | Border Rangers | Ellen Reed | |
1951 | Danger Zone | Vicki Jason | (2nd episode) |
1952 | Waco | Kathy Clark | |
1954 | Adventures of the Texas Kid: Border Ambush | Betty Johnson |
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