Lila Leeds

Blonde bombshell Lila Leeds in a dazzling 1948 glamour sitting by photographer Bert Six. Of Irish and Swedish descent, she was born Lila Lee Wilkinson on January 28, 1928 in Dodge City, Kansas. After taking an acting course at the Bliss-Hayden School of Acting, Leeds signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and began appearing in small roles. She appeared in the Red Skelton film “The Show-Off” (1946), “Lady in the Lake” (1947), and in the Lana Turner vehicle “Green Dolphin Street” (1948), where she played a Eurasian who drugs the leading man and rolls him for his money. She had a small part in “So You Want to Be a Detective” (1948), which was part of the Joe McDoakes series of theatrical shorts. On September 1, 1948, Leeds gained notoriety for being arrested together with actor Robert Mitchum on charges of marijuana possession. She subsequently spent sixty days in jail. Although she starred in the “Reefer Madness”–style film “She Shoulda Said No!” (1949) following her release from jail, her acting career, unlike Mitchum's, never recovered from the scandal. Unable to find more work in films, Leeds left California in 1949. She moved around the Midwest where she worked in nightclubs, married and divorced twice, and had three children. In the 1970s, she received renewed press attention when it was discovered that she had returned to Los Angeles in the mid-1960s, where she had studied religion and become a dedicated volunteer at local missions and helping to raise money for the Shriners. She kept her distance from the movie business, and passed away without fanfare in 1999, aged 71.

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