Elizabeth Jean Peters

 Elizabeth Jean Peters (October 15, 1926 – October 13, 2000)

She was known as a star of 20th Century Fox in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and as the second wife of Howard Hughes. Although possibly best remembered for her siren role in Pickup on South Street (1953), Peters was known for her resistance to being turned into a sex symbol. She preferred to play unglamorous, down-to-earth women. Peters was selected to replace Linda Darnell as the female lead in Captain from Castile (1947) opposite Tyrone Power, when Darnell was reassigned to save the production of Forever Amber. Although she had not yet made her screen debut, Peters was highly publicized. She received star treatment during the filming. Captain from Castile was a hit. Leonard Maltin wrote that afterwards, Peters spent the new decade playing "sexy spitfires, often in period dramas and Westerns." She was offered a similar role in the western Yellow Sky (1948), but she refused the part, explaining it was "too sexy". As a result, the studio, frustrated by her stubbornness, put her on her first suspension. For her second film, Deep Waters (1948), which Peters filmed in late 1947, she was reunited with her director from Captain from Castile, Henry King. In late 1950, she was cast in a secondary role as a college girl in Take Care of My Little Girl (1951), a Jeanne Crain vehicle. A Long Beach newspaper reported that Peters gained her role by impressing Jean Negulesco with her sewing.She once became famous for playing a simple country girl, but as she grew up, the studio did not find her any more suitable roles. Due to her insistence, Peters was given the title role in Anne of the Indies (1951), which the press declared was the film that finally brought her stardom.

In 1953 the director Samuel Fuller chose Peters over Marilyn Monroe for the part of Candy in Pickup on South Street. Peters was married three times, most notably to Howard Hughes from 1957 until their divorce in 1971. Her third marriage was to Fox executive Stan Hough, which lasted until his death in 1990. Peters died of leukemia on October 13, 2000 in Carlsbad, California, two days before her 74th birthday. She is buried with Hugh at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, CA.