Rhonda Fleming

Rhonda Fleming (born Marilyn Louis; August 10, 1923 – October 14, 2020) was an American film and television actress and singer. She acted most glamorous actresses of her day, nicknamed the "Queen of Technicolor" because she photographed so well in that medium.

She received her first substantial role in the thriller Spellbound (1945), produced by Selznick and directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Fleming's first leading role came in Adventure Island (1947), a low-budget action film made for Pine-Thomas Productions at Paramount in the two-color Cinecolor process and co-starring fellow Selznick contractee Rory Calhoun.

The film was popular and Selznick gave her another good role in a thriller, The Spiral Staircase (1946), directed by Robert Siodmak.

Selznick then leant her out to appear in supporting parts in the Randolph Scott western Abilene Town (1946) at United Artists, and the film noir classic Out of the Past (1947) with Robert Mitchum, at RKO.

Fleming was lent to RKO to play a femme fatale opposite Dick Powell in Cry Danger (1951), a film noir.

Fleming was reunited with Payne and fellow redhead Arlene Dahl in a noir at RKO, Slightly Scarlet (1956). She did other thrillers that year: The Killer Is Loose (1956) with Joseph Cotten, and Fritz Lang's While the City Sleeps (1956), co-starring Dana Andrews, at RKO. Fleming was top billed in an adventure movie for Warwick Films, Odongo (1956).

Personal life and death

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 married six times:

* Thomas Wade Lane, interior decorator, (1940–1942; divorced), one son

* Dr. Lewis V. Morrill, Hollywood physician, (July 11, 1952 – 1954; divorced)

* Lang Jeffries, actor, (April 3, 1960 – January 11, 1962; divorced)

* Hall Bartlett, producer (March 27, 1966 – 1972; divorced)

* Ted Mann, producer, (March 11, 1977 – January 15, 2001; his death)

*Darol Wayne Carlson (2003 – October 31, 2017; his death)

Through her son Kent Lane (b. 1941), Rhonda also had two granddaughters (Kimberly and Kelly), four great-grandchildren (Wagner, Page, Lane, and Cole), and two great-great-grandchildren.

She was a Presbyterian However she may’ve embraced the Jewish faith of 5th husband, producer Ted Mann, as she was eventually interred in his plot at the Jewish Hillside Memorial park upon her death.

Fleming died on October 14, 2020, in Saint John's Health Center, Santa Monica, California, at the age of 97. She is interred at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, California.

Fleming has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2007, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to her.