Veronica Lake

Veronica Lake
Born	Constance Frances Marie Ockelman (1922-11-14)November 14, 1922 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	July 7, 1973(1973-07-07) (aged 50) Burlington, Vermont, U.S.
Cause of death	Hepatitis and acute renal failure
Nationality	American
Other names	Constance Keane Connie Keane
Education	St. Bernard's School Villa Maria Miami High School
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1939–1954; 1966; 1970
Spouse(s)	John S. Detlie (m.1940–1943) André De Toth (m.1944–1952) Joseph A. McCarthy (m.1955–1959) Robert Carleton-Munro (m.1972–1973)
Children	4

Veronica Lake (November 14, 1922 – July 7, 1973) was an American film actress.

Lake won both popular and critical acclaim, most notably for her role in Sullivan's Travels and for her femme fatale roles in film noir with Alan Ladd, during the 1940s. She was also well known for her peek-a-boo hairstyle. By the late 1940s, Lake's career had begun to decline in part due to her struggles with mental illness and alcoholism. She made only one film in the 1950s but appeared in several guest-starring roles on television. She returned to the screen in 1966 with a role in the film Footsteps In the Snow, but the role failed to revitalize her career.

Lake released her memoirs, Veronica: The Autobiography of Veronica Lake, in 1970. She used the money she made from the book to finance a low-budget horror film Flesh Feast. It was her final onscreen role. Lake died in July 1973 from hepatitis and acute renal failure at the age of 50.

Early life

Lake was born Constance Frances Marie Ockelman in Brooklyn, New York. Her father, Harry E. Ockelman, of German-Dutch descent, worked for an oil company aboard a ship. Her father died in an industrial explosion in Philadelphia in 1932 when she was ten. Her mother, Constance Charlotta (née Trimble; 1902–1992), of Irish descent, married Anthony Keane, a newspaper staff artist, also of Irish descent, in 1933, and Lake began using his last name.

Lake lived in Saranac Lake, New York, and went to St. Bernard's School for a time. She was sent to Villa Maria, an all-girls Catholic boarding school in Montreal, Canada, from which she was expelled. The Keane family later moved to Miami, Florida. Lake attended Miami High School, where she was known for her beauty. She had a troubled childhood and was diagnosed as schizophrenic, according to her mother.

Career

In 1938 Lake moved with her mother and stepfather to Beverly Hills, where her mother enrolled her in the Bliss-Hayden School of Acting. Her first appearance on screen was for RKO, playing a small role among several coeds in the 1939 film, Sorority House. Similar roles followed, including All Women Have Secrets and Dancing Co-Ed. During the making of Sorority House, director John Farrow first noticed how her hair always covered her right eye, creating an air of mystery about her and enhancing her natural beauty. She was then introduced, while still a teenager, to the Paramount producer Arthur Hornblow, Jr. He changed her name to Veronica Lake because the surname suited her blue eyes.

RKO subsequently dropped her contract. A small role in the comedy Forty Little Mothers brought unexpected attention. In 1941 she was signed to a long-term contract with Paramount Pictures.

1940s icon

Lake in her first starring role, opposite Joel McCrea in Sullivan's Travels (1941)

Her breakthrough film was I Wanted Wings in 1941, a major hit in which Lake played the second female lead and was said to have stolen scene after scene from the rest of the cast. She had starring roles in more popular movies, including Sullivan's Travels, This Gun for Hire, I Married a Witch, The Glass Key, and So Proudly We Hail!. René Clair, the director of I Married a Witch, said of Lake "She was a very gifted girl, but she didn't believe she was gifted."

For a short time during the early 1940s, Lake was considered one of the most reliable box office draws in Hollywood. She became known for onscreen pairings with actor Alan Ladd. At first, the couple was teamed together merely out of physical necessity: Ladd was just 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m) tall and the only actress then on the Paramount lot short enough to pair with him was Lake, who stood just 4 feet 11+¹⁄₂ inches (1.51 m). They made four films together.

A stray lock of her shoulder-length, blonde hair during a publicity photo shoot led to her iconic "peekaboo" hairstyle, which was widely imitated. During World War II, Lake changed her trademark image to encourage women working in war industry factories to adopt more practical, safer hairstyles, although doing so may have damaged her career.

Although popular with the public, Lake had a complex personality and acquired a reputation for being difficult to work with. Eddie Bracken, her co-star in Star Spangled Rhythm, was quoted as saying, "She was known as 'The Bitch' and she deserved the title." In that movie, Lake took part in a song lampooning her hair style, "A Sweater, A Sarong and a Peekaboo Bang", performed with Paulette Goddard and Dorothy Lamour. Joel McCrea, her co-star in Sullivan's Travels, reportedly turned down the co-starring role in I Married a Witch, saying, "Life's too short for two films with Veronica Lake."

Decline

Lake's career stumbled with her unsympathetic role as Nazi spy Dora Bruckman in 1944's The Hour Before the Dawn. Scathing reviews of The Hour Before Dawn included criticism of her unconvincing German accent. Nonetheless, Lake was earning $4,500 per week under her contract with Paramount. She had begun drinking more heavily during this period and people began refusing to work with her. Paramount cast Lake in a string of mostly forgotten films. A notable exception was The Blue Dahlia (1946), in which she again co-starred with Ladd. During filming, screenplay writer Raymond Chandler referred to her as "Moronica Lake". Paramount decided not to renew her contract in 1948. Looking back at her career years later, Lake remarked, "I never did cheesecake; I just used my hair."

After a single film for 20th Century Fox, Slattery's Hurricane (1949), her career collapsed. By the end of 1951 she had appeared in one last film Stronghold (which she later described as "a dog"). Lake and her second husband, Andre De Toth, filed for bankruptcy that same year. The IRS later seized their home for unpaid taxes. Lake turned to television and stage work.

Personal life

Lake earned her pilot's license in 1946 and later flew solo between Los Angeles and New York.

Marriages and children

Lake's first marriage was to art director John S. Detlie, in 1940. They had a daughter, Elaine (born in 1941), and a son Anthony (born July 8, 1943). Anthony was born prematurely a week after Lake fell over a cable while filming. Anthony died on July 15, 1943. Lake and Detile separated in August 1943 and divorced in December 1943.

She married film director Andre De Toth in 1944 with whom she had a son, Andre Anthony Michael III (known as Michael De Toth), and a daughter, Diana (born October 1948). Days before Diana's birth, Lake's mother sued her for support payments. Lake and De Toth divorced in 1952.

In September 1955, she married songwriter Joseph Allan McCarthy. They were divorced in 1959. Lake's fourth and final marriage was to Royal Navy captain Robert Carleton-Munro in June 1972. Lake divorced Carleton-Munro after one year.

Later years

After her third divorce, Lake drifted between cheap hotels in New York City, and was arrested several times for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct. A New York Post reporter found her working as a barmaid at the all-women's Martha Washington Hotel in Manhattan. The reporter's widely distributed story led to some television and stage appearances, most notably in the off-Broadway revival of the musical Best Foot Forward. (Her contract overlapped with the departing Liza Minnelli and the two briefly co-starred together.) In 1966, she had a brief stint as a TV hostess in Baltimore, Maryland, along with a largely ignored film role in Footsteps in the Snow.^{[citation needed]}

Her memoirs, Veronica: The Autobiography of Veronica Lake, were released in the United Kingdom in 1969, and in the United States the following year. In the book, Lake discusses her career, her failed marriages, her alcoholism, and her guilt over not spending enough time with her children. With the proceeds from her autobiography, she co-produced and starred in her last film, Flesh Feast (1970), a very low-budget horror movie with a Nazi-myth storyline.

Lake then moved to Ipswich, England, where she met and married Royal Navy captain Robert Carleton-Munro, in June 1972. The marriage lasted just one year and Lake returned to the United States in June 1973. Upon her return, she was immediately hospitalized.

Death

Lake died on July 7, 1973, of hepatitis and acute renal failure (complications of her alcoholism) in Burlington, Vermont's Fletcher Allen Hospital. Her son, Michael, claimed her body. Lake's memorial service was held at the Universal Chapel in New York City on July 11.

Lake was cremated and, according to her wishes, her ashes were scattered off the coast of the Virgin Islands. In 2004, some of Lake's ashes were reportedly found in a New York antique store.

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Veronica Lake has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6918 Hollywood Boulevard.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1939	Sorority House	Coed	Uncredited, alternative title: That Girl from College
1939	Wrong Room, TheThe Wrong Room	The Attorney's New Bride	Credited as Connie Keane
1939	Dancing Co-Ed	One of Couple on Motorcycle	Uncredited Alternative title: Every Other Inch a Lady
1939	All Women Have Secrets	Jane	Credited as Constance Keane
1940	Young as You Feel	Bit part	Credited as Constance Keane
1940	Forty Little Mothers	Granville girl	Uncredited
1941	I Wanted Wings	Sally Vaughn
1941	Hold Back the Dawn	Movie Actress	Uncredited
1941	Sullivan's Travels	The Girl
1942	This Gun for Hire	Ellen Graham
1942	Glass Key, TheThe Glass Key	Janet Henry
1942	I Married a Witch	Jennifer
1942	Star Spangled Rhythm	Herself
1943	So Proudly We Hail!	Lt. Olivia D'Arcy
1944	Hour Before the Dawn, TheThe Hour Before the Dawn	Dora Bruckmann
1945	Bring on the Girls	Teddy Collins
1945	Out of This World	Dorothy Dodge
1945	Duffy's Tavern	Herself
1945	Hold That Blonde	Sally Martin
1946	Miss Susie Slagle's	Nan Rogers
1946	Blue Dahlia, TheThe Blue Dahlia	Joyce Harwood
1947	Ramrod	Connie Dickason
1947	Variety Girl	Herself
1948	Saigon	Susan Cleaver
1948	Sainted Sisters, TheThe Sainted Sisters	Letty Stanton
1948	Isn't It Romantic?	Candy Cameron
1949	Slattery's Hurricane	Dolores Greaves
1951	Stronghold	Mary Stevens
1966	Footsteps In the Snow
1970	Flesh Feast	Dr. Elaine Frederick	Alternative title: Time is Terror

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1950	Your Show of Shows	Herself - Guest Performer	Episode #2.11
1950	Lights Out	Mercy Device	Episode: "Beware This Woman"
1950–1953	Lux Video Theatre	Various	3 episodes
1951	Somerset Maugham TV Theatre	Valerie	Episode: "The Facts of Life"
1952	Celanese Theatre	Abby Fane	Episode: "Brief Moment"
1952	Tales of Tomorrow	Paula	Episode: "Flight Overdue"
1952	Goodyear Television Playhouse	Judy "Leni" Howard	Episode: "Better Than Walking"
1953	Danger		Episode: "Inside Straight"
1954	Broadway Television Theatre	Nancy Willard	Episode: "The Gramercy Ghost"

In popular culture

Lake was one of the models for the animated character of Jessica Rabbit in the 1988 film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", especially for her hairstyle.

In the 1997 film L.A. Confidential (based on James Ellroy's 1990 novel), Kim Basinger won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of a prostitute who is a Veronica Lake look-alike, and who is complimented by a police officer who tells her, "You look better than Veronica Lake".

Footnotes

Sources

• Bloomfield, Gary L.; Shain, Stacie L.; Davidson, Arlen C. (2004). Duty, Honor, Applause: America's Entertainers in World War II. Globe Pequot. p. 409. ISBN 1-59228-550-3
• Burroughs Hannsberry, Karen (2009). Femme Noir: Bad Girls of Film. McFarland. ISBN 0-786-44682-X
• Chierichetti, David (2004). Edith Head: The Life and Times of Hollywood's Celebrated Costume. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-056740-6
• Donnelley, Paul (2003). Fade To Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries. Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-9512-5.
• Hare, William (2008). L.A. Noir: Nine Dark Visions of the City of Angels. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0786437405
• Hiney, Tom (1999). Raymond Chandler: A Biography. Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-3637-0
• Hischak, Thomas S. (2011). Disney Voice Actors: A Biographical Dictionary. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0786462711
• Parish, Robert James (2001). The Hollywood Book of Death: The Bizarre, Often Sordid, Passings of More than 125 American Movie and TV Idols. Contemporary Books. ISBN 0-8092-2227-2
• Parish, James Robert; Pitts, Michael R. (2003). Hollywood Songsters: Singers Who Act and Actors Who Sing: A Biographical Dictionary. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-415-94333-7
• Starr, Kevin (2003). Embattled Dreams: California in War and Peace, 1940-1950. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-516897-6
• Terkel, Studs (1999). The Spectator: Talk About Movies and Plays With Those Who Made Them. The New Press. ISBN 1-565-84553-6

Further reading

• Lake, Veronica; Bain, Donald (1970). Veronica: The Autobiography of Veronica Lake. Citadel Press. ISBN 0-806-50225-8
• Lenburg, Jeff, Peekaboo: The Story of Veronica Lake. iUniverse, 2001. ISBN 978-0-595-19239-7.
• Oderman, Stuart, Talking to the Piano Player 2. BearManor Media, 2009. ISBN 978-1-59393-320-3.

External links

• Veronica Lake at the Internet Movie Database
• Veronica Lake at the TCM Movie Database
• Veronica Lake at AllRovi
• Veronica Lake at Find a Grave