Coleen Gray

Coleen Gray

Birth : 1922-10-23, Staplehurst, Nebraska, U.S.

Death : 2015-08-06

History

Coleen Gray (born Doris Bernice Jensen; October 23, 1922 – August 3, 2015) was born in Staplehurst, Nebraska. After graduating from high school she studied dramatics at Hamline University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree, she then decided to see America and traveled to California, stopping off at La Jolla where she worked as a waitress. After several weeks there, she moved to L.A. and enrolled in a drama school. Her performances attracted a talent scout from 20th Century-Fox, with whom she signed a contract after a screen test. Although Fox put her in several good pictures (Kiss of Death (1947), Nightmare Alley (1947), The Razor's Edge (1946) in which she acquitted herself well, many of the roles they gave her were not worthy of her talent and she never became as big a star as many thought she should have. Still, she has an extensive list of credits in films, TV, radio and on the stage.  

Profile

Coleen Gray

Movies

Western Legenden - Made in Hollywood
Herself
Cry from the Mountain
Marian Rissman
The film centers on an emotional kayaking trip between a father and a son. The father has taken his boy into the deep Alaskan wilderness to tell him that he is divorcing the boy's mother, who is pregnant and waiting for them back home. While on the trip, the father and son get involved in a potentially fatal accident. Fortunately, an enigmatic mountain man appears to save them. Later he helps the troubled twosome find hope and salvation through God. Meanwhile, the wife, also finds a new life through old-time religion and happiness ensues all around.
The Best Place to Be
Dottie Parker
A widow's life is thrown into turmoil by her hippie daughter, her rebellious teenage son, and an ill-starred love affair she is having with a much younger man -- and then a former suitor comes back into the picture.
Ellery Queen: Don't Look Behind You
Mrs. Cazalis
Detective Ellery Queen has to solve a series of murders where the victims were killed in numerically descending ages, the male victims were strangled with blue cords and the female victims with pink ones.
The Late Liz
Sue Webb
Religion changes a woman's attitude towards alcohol.
P.J.
Betty Orbison
Reluctant New York City private eye P.J. Detweiler is hired as a bodyguard to protect Maureen Preble, the mistress of shady millionaire William Orbison. In truth, Orbison plans a deadly intrigue in which P.J. is to play a central part. Meanwhile, complications ensue as P.J. gradually falls in love with Maureen. (Wikipedia)
Town Tamer
Carol Rosser
A gunfighter is hired to clean up a wild frontier town, but there are forces afoot who want to keep the town as wide-open as it is. Lyle Bettger, Bruce Cabot and Richard Jaeckel co-star as the lawless bad guys in this Western based on a novel by Frank Gruber.
The Phantom Planet
Liara
After an asteroid draws an astronaut and his ship to its surface, he is miniaturized by the phantom planet's exotic atmosphere.
The Leech Woman
June Talbot
An endocrinologist in a dysfunctional marriage with an aging, alcoholic wife journeys to Africa seeking a drug that will restore youth.
Johnny Rocco
Lois Mayfield, Teacher
Gangster and police look for a gangster's son who witnessed a murder.
Hell's Five Hours
Nancy Brand
The manager (Stephen McNally) of a rocket-fuel plant deals with a worker (Vic Morrow) threatening to blow himself up.
Copper Sky
Nora Hayes
Alcoholic former cavalryman Hack Williams is arrested for killing an Indian, something he did not do. The townspeople, fearful of Apache reprisals, plan to hang Williams in hopes of heading off an attack. But the attack comes and Hack, locked in his jail cell, is the only survivor as a massacre occurs. Into the scene of carnage arrives schoolteacher Nora Haynes. Together she and Williams must find a way to reach safety before another Indian attack. But the pair are by no means well-matched, and their trip alone across the desert is not destined to be an easy one.
The Vampire
Carol Butler
A small town doctor mistakenly ingests an experimental drug made from the blood of vampire bats which transforms the kindly medic into a bloodthirsty monster.
Destination 60,000
Mary Ellen
The Black Whip
Jeannie
A gang of renegade Civil War soldiers terrorize four women and the owners of an inn as they plot to kidnap the new governor of the state. If all goes according to plan, the outlaws will murder their hostage after collecting a hefty ransom.
Death of a Scoundrel
Mrs. Edith Van Renasslear
A Czech refugee uses women to advance his business interest.
Frontier Gambler
Sylvia Melbourne
A deputy marshal arrives in the small western town of Fairweather to investigate the death of a beautiful gambler known as "The Princess".
Star in the Dust
Nellie Mason
The sheriff of Gunlock is planning to hang Sam Hall, who shot three farmers found on cattle land, at sundown. At the casino, betting is 8 to 3 he won't make it. The cattlemen are set to rescue Sam; the farmers hope to lynch him before he can be rescued; and Hall schemes for escape with his girl Nellie. But Sheriff Jorden is most concerned with finding out who hired Hall: a leading suspect is the sheriff's future brother-in-law.
The Killing
Fay
Career criminal Johnny Clay recruits a sharpshooter, a crooked police officer, a bartender and a betting teller named George, among others, for one last job before he goes straight and gets married. But when George tells his restless wife about the scheme to steal millions from the racetrack where he works, she hatches a plot of her own.
The Wild Dakotas
Sue 'Lucky' Duneen
When Aaron Baring (Jim Davis) signs on as wagon master for a group of settlers headed to Montana's Powder River Valley, his dictatorial style soon creates problems. When the settlers reach their destination, Baring unwisely declares war on the local Indians. When savvy frontier scout Jim Henry (Bill Williams) tries to promote cooperation between the natives and the newly arrived settlers, Baring responds by having Williams whipped.
The Twinkle In God's Eye
Laura
A new parson arrives in the mining town of Lodestone and attempts to build a church. Western.
Tennessee's Partner
Goldie Slater
A tough, womanizing high-stakes gambler known only as Tennessee has an uneasy relationship with Duchess, madam of a thinly-disguised bordello, and no other friends at all. But he's saved from murder by a lonesome cowpoke ('My friends call me Cowpoke'), in town to meet his fiancée Goldie on the steamboat. When she arrives, there's a mysterious undercurrent between Goldie and Tennessee, whose newfound friendship with Cowpoke is destined to be severely tried...
Las Vegas Shakedown
Julie Rae
A teacher writing a book about gambling meets a hotel/casino owner threatened by a gangster.
Arrow In The Dust
Christella Burke
Director Lesley Selander's 1954 western stars Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Keith Larsen, Tom Tully, Lee Van Cleef and Jimmy Wakely.
The Fake
Mary Mason
Someone is stealing priceless paintings from the great museums of the world and replacing them with nearly flawless forgeries. Leonardo da Vinci's "Madonna and Child" is being shipped to London's Tate Gallery for a special exhibition, and Paul Mitchell is assigned to protect it. Upon the painting's arrival, Paul realizes it has been switched. Eager to collect the museum's $50,000 reward, he teams up with Mary Mason, a Tate employee, to recover the original.
Sabre Jet
Mrs. Gil Manton nee Jane Carter
The story of jet pilots flying over Korea by day, from their Itazuke Air Base in Japan, and of their wives, on station with them, who have dinner ready when they return. Jane Carter (Coleen Gray), a reporter for a large newspaper syndicate arrives... she's also the estranged wife of the assistant squadron commander, Colonel Gil Manton (Robert Stack.) At first, she goes at her assignment of getting a story on the pilots wives with the same ruthlessness and persistence that broke up her marriage - but a mirror isn't needed to peek around the corner to where this one is headed.
The Vanquished
Jane Colfax
A man returns to his home -- a post Civil-War village -- and finds the law is in the hands of a few scrupulous people.
Kansas City Confidential
Helen Foster
A down-on-his-luck ex-GI finds himself framed for an armored car robbery. When he's finally released for lack of evidence--after having been beaten up and tortured by the police--he sets out to discover who set him up, and why. The trail leads him into Mexico and a web of hired killers and corrupt cops.
Models Inc.
Rusty Faraday
The wealthy owner of a modeling agency keeps a new student in the high life, unaware that she and a recently released convict share a criminal and personal history.
Apache Drums
Sally
A gambler is thrown out of a western town, but returns when the town is suddenly threatened by a band of marauding Apaches.
I'll Get You for This
Kay Wonderly
Nick, an American gambler, arrives in San Paolo and falls in love with Colleen, an American tourist, after she loses all of her money at the casino. Nick flees with Colleen after they are framed for murder and he tries to track down the real killer.
The Sleeping City
Ann Sebastian
A young doctor taking a break from work is shot in the head, and the police can't find a clue even as to a possible motive. Inspector Al Gordon (John Alexander) decides that he has to put some men on duty at the hospital, and one of them is Fred Rowan (Richard Conte), a detective with experience as an army medic, masquerading as an intern. What Rowan finds is a high-pressure world in which interns are hopelessly squeezed for time, sleep, energy, and -- most of all -- money, and walk a fine line on the edge of personal and professional disaster.
Riding High
Alice 'Princess' Higgins
A horse trainer who has fallen on hard times looks to his horse, Broadway Bill, to finally win the big race.
Father Is a Bachelor
Prudence Millett
Johnny Rutledge is a drifter who comes to and discovers a cabin in the forest where five kids: January, February, March, April, and May are living without parents. Their parents died a while ago, and they want to keep that secret from the townspeople, especially the young school teacher, Prudence Millett, to avoid being sent to a children's home and eventual separation. Johnny moves in with the kids and poses as their uncle to take care of them while romancing Prudence. But in order to keep the children, he has to get married.
Sand
Joan Hartley
Novelist Will James, a specialist in horse stories, wrote the yarn upon which 20th Century-Fox's Sand was based. Mark Stevens plays horse breeder Jeff Keane, who loses his prize stallion in a train accident. While the stallion roams wild and free, Keane enlists the aid of rancher Joan Hartley (Coleen Gray) in searching for the animal. Once the horse is located, it is clear that it has developed a mean streak, the result of various cruelties inflicted upon it by humans. Jeff and Joan combine their efforts to regain the horse's friendship. Veteran Native American actors Iron Eyes Cody and Jay Silverheels make significant supporting appearances. Sand was attractively filmed in Technicolor on location in Colorado.
Red River
Fen
Headstrong Thomas Dunson starts a thriving Texas cattle ranch with the help of his faithful trail hand, Groot, and his protégé, Matthew Garth, an orphan Dunson took under his wing when Matt was a boy. In need of money following the Civil War, Dunson and Matt lead a cattle drive to Missouri, where they will get a better price than locally, but the crotchety older man and his willful young partner begin to butt heads on the exhausting journey.
Fury at Furnace Creek
Molly Baxter
The Arizona wilderness, 1880. Gen. Fletcher Blackwell sends a message telling Capt. Walsh, who is escorting a wagon-train through Apache territory, heading for the fort at Furnace Creek, that he should cancel the escort and rush to another town. Apache leader "Little Dog" is leading the attack on the wagon-train and massacring everyone at the poorly manned fort. As a result the treaty is broken with the Indians and the white settlers take over the territory with the help of the cavalry, as the Apaches are wiped out and only "Little Dog" remains at large. Gen. Fletcher Blackwell is court-martial-led for treason.
Nightmare Alley
Molly Carlisle
Stanton Carlisle joins a seedy carnival, working with "Mademoiselle Zeena" and her alcoholic husband, Pete.
Kiss of Death
Nettie Cavallo
An ex-con trying to go straight must face a crazed criminal out for revenge.