Claire Carleton

 Claire Carleton (September 28, 1913 – December 11, 1979)

She appeared in over a hundred films, the majority of them features, and on numerous television shows, including several recurring roles. In addition to her screen acting, she also had a successful stage career. She made her first appearance in a feature film in 1940's Millionaire Playboy, starring Joe Penner, Linda Hayes, and Russ Brown. During her film career she was often cast as the "other woman", or in a sexually promiscuous role. She had featured supporting roles in numerous films, among the most notable being: the lead of Kay Stevens in the 1941 western mystery The Great Train Robbery; as Ruby LaRue in A Night of Adventure (1944), as Belle Townley in the 1946 western, Gun Town, in one of The Shadow films, The Missing Lady (1946), in the role of Rose Dawson, and Grace in 1949's It's a Great Feeling, starring Doris Day, Jack Carson, and Dennis Morgan. With the advent of television, Carleton transitioned to the small screen in the 1950s, and by the 1960s she worked almost solely in that medium. Her final big screen appearance was in 1961's The Devil's Partner, in the featured role of Ida. She appeared as a guest on dozens of television shows, including Hopalong Cassidy (1952), The Abbott and Costello Show (1953), Mr. & Mrs. North (1953), The Gene Autry Show (1954), Treasury Men in Action (1954-5), Studio 57, The Millionaire (1955-6), The Lone Ranger, several appearances on Schlitz Playhouse, Maverick (1958), Perry Mason (1959), several appearances on M Squad (1959), Leave It to Beaver (1959), and Make Room for Daddy, among others. She died from cancer on December 11, 1979 in Northridge, California, and was interred next to her husband Fred Sherman at Forest Lawn- Hollywood Hills.