Rhonda Fleming

Ravishing redhead Rhonda Fleming in a 1946 kodachrome siting. She was born "Marilyn Louis" on August 10, 1923 in Hollywood, California, and began working as a film actress while attending Beverly Hills High School. She received her first substantial role in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller, "Spellbound" (1945), which was so popular that she was given another good role in the "The Spiral Staircase" (1946). Following this she appeared in supporting parts, in the western "Abilene Town" (1946) and the film noir classic "Out of the Past" (1947). Her first leading role came in "Adventure Island" (1947), a low-budget action film made in the two-color Cinecolor process. A string of further starring roles followed, including "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" (1948), "The Great Lover" (1949), "The Eagle and the Hawk" (1950), "Serpent of the Nile" (1953), "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" (1957), "Home Before Dark" (1958), "Pony Express" (1953), "Slightly Scarlet" (1956), and "The Big Circus" (1959). In the 1960s, Fleming branched out into other businesses and began performing regularly on stage and in Las Vegas. Some of her later film appearances included a bit-role in the 1980 comedy "The Nude Bomb" and also in "Waiting for the Wind" (1990). Over the years, Fleming worked for several charities, especially in the field of cancer care, and served on the committees of many related organizations. In 1991, her fifth husband, Ted Mann, and she established the Rhonda Fleming Mann Clinic for Women's Comprehensive Care at the UCLA Medical Center. Fleming passed away on October 14, 2020, in Saint John's Health Center, Santa Monica, California, at the age of 97. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and, in 2007, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to her.

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