Evelyn Venable

 Evelyn Venable (October 18, 1913 – November 15, 1993)

In addition to starring in several films in the 1930s and 1940s, she was also the voice and model for the Blue Fairy in Walt Disney's Pinocchio (1940). She was the original model for the personification of Columbia in the Columbia Pictures logo. She attended Vassar College for a short time before returning to the University of Cincinnati. She performed in Walter Hampden's touring productions, including Roxane in Cyrano de Bergerac and Ophelia in Hamlet. During a performance in Los Angeles, she was recognized and offered several film contracts. After initially turning down the offers, she signed a contract with Paramount in 1932. Her contract was unique in that she would not have to cut her hair, pose for leg art, or perform in bit parts. She appeared in Death Takes a Holiday (1934), in which she falls in love with Fredric March, and The Little Colonel (1935), in which she played Shirley Temple's mother. She met cinematographer Hal Mohr on the set of the Will Rogers film David Harum (1934). They married on December 7, 1934, and had two daughters, Dolores and Rosalia. Her husband, Hal Mohr, died on May 10, 1974. Venable later died of cancer in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, on Monday, November 15, 1993. She was 80 years old.