Coleen Gray (born October 23, 1922) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in the films Nightmare Alley (1947), Red River (1948), and Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956). Gray was born Doris Jensen on October 23, 1922 in Staplehurst, Nebraska. She was the daughter of a farmer. After graduating from high school, she studied dramatics at Hamline University, from which she received a Bachelor of Arts. She then decided to travel to California. When she reached La Jolla she obtained employment as a waitress in a restaurant. After several weeks there, she moved to Los Angeles and enrolled in a drama school. She had leading roles in the Los Angeles stage productions Letters to Lucerne and Brief Music, which won her a 20th Century Fox contract in 1944. After initially playing a bit part in State Fair (1945), she became pregnant and briefly stopped working, only to return a year later as the love interest of the character played by John Wayne in Red River (1948), which was shot in 1946 but held for release until 1948, by which time she had already graduated to leading roles in films noir such as Kiss of Death (1947) opposite Victor Mature and Nightmare Alley (1947) opposite Tyrone Power Gray married Rodney Amateau, a screenwriter, on August 10, 1945; they divorced on February 11, 1949, and had one daughter, Susan (born 1946). Her second husband was William Clymer Bidlack, an aviation executive. They were married from July 14, 1953, until his death in 1978. The union produced a son, Bruce Robin Bidlack (born 1954). In 1979, Gray married Fritz Zeiser; they remained together until his death in March 2012. They were active with the non-profit organization, Prison Fellowship, founded in 1976 by Chuck Colson, a convicted felon in the Watergate scandal. Prison Fellowship assists the church in ministering to prisoners and their families and victims
Gallery for vintage actress Coleen Gray
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