Gail Patrick

Graceful Gail Patrick captured in a 1935 glamour study for Paramount Studios. She was born Margaret LaVelle Fitzpatrick on June 20, 1911, in Birmingham, Alabama. She was studying pre-law at the University of Alabama at the time she, by happenstance, became a finalist in a nationwide contest for a Paramount film role (which she did not get). This led her to go to Hollywood and, despite her loss, the studio wound up offering her a studio contract at $50 a week. She made her film debut in the 1932 film “If I Had A Million”, starring Gary Cooper. After the usual grooming in bit parts, Patrick moved stealthily up the ladder to featured roles in a wide assortment of genres including the fantasy "Death Takes a Holiday" (1934), the melodramatic thriller "The Crime of Helen Stanley" (1934), the musical "Mississippi" (1935) and the romantic comedy "Early to Bed" (1936). She was most identified in manipulative second leads, usually as the "other woman," haughty socialite or scheming villainess. She participated grandly in three well-known film classics. In the screwball comedy "My Man Godfrey" (1936), she was at odds with Carole Lombard as a spoiled, treacherous sister; in "Stage Door" (1937), she engaged in some marvelous cat-fights with Ginger Rogers, and in "My Favorite Wife" (1940) she played Cary Grant's exacting second wife who must contend with the reappearance of his first, supposedly dead wife Irene Dunne. Patrick exuded wit, confidence, assertiveness and elegance in all her characters. After retiring from acting she became president of Paisano Productions and executive producer of the Perry Mason television series (1957–66). She was one of the first women producers, and the only female executive producer in prime time during the nine years Perry Mason was on the air. Gail Patrick passed away from leukemia on July 6, 1980, aged 69, at her Hollywood home of more than 30 years.

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