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Nancy Guild

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Nancy Guild
Nancy Guild in the trailer for The Brasher Doubloon (1947)
Born
Nancy Joan Guild

(1925-10-11)October 11, 1925
DiedAugust 16, 1999(1999-08-16) (aged 73)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Arizona
OccupationActress
Years active1946–1971
Spouse(s)John Bryson (1978-1995; divorced)
Ernest H. Martin (1951-1975; divorced); 2 children
Charles Russell (1947-1950; divorced); 1 child
Children3[1][2]

Nancy Joan Guild (October 11, 1925 – August 16, 1999) was an American film actress of the 1940s and 1950s. She appeared in Somewhere in the Night (1946), The Brasher Doubloon (1947), and the comedy Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951). Although appearing in major films, Guild never achieved as much fame at 20th Century Fox, the studio that had signed her to a seven-year contract, as she had hoped, and eventually stopped acting.

Career

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Guild was a freshman at the University of Arizona[3] when a photographer at Life magazine noticed her. After her picture was published in a spread on campus fashions, Guild received screen tests at five Hollywood studios, and she was signed by 20th Century Fox. The studio's publicity writers declared "Guild rhymes with wild!" when hyping her in Somewhere in the Night, her first film, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.[2]

On the rebound from an engagement with producer Edward Lasker, Guild married fellow Fox contract player Charles Russell in 1947. The following year, they appeared together in the musical Give My Regards to Broadway (1948). They had a daughter, Elizabeth, in 1949.[citation needed]

Nancy Guild and John Hodiak in Somewhere in the Night (1946)

Guild played a dual role as Marie Antoinette and the hypnotized love interest of Orson Welles in the 1949 adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ historical novel about Count Cagliostro and the Affair of the Diamond Necklace. After leaving Fox, she appeared in movies as a freelance and as a contract star at Universal-International, where she appeared in Little Egypt, Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man picture and the Francis the Talking Mule movie Francis Covers the Big Town (1953), her last picture.

Guild was a panelist on the DuMont network's Where Was I?, a game show, in 1952-1953.[4] She appeared occasionally on television and briefly returned to the movies in Otto Preminger's Such Good Friends (1971).

Personal life

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On August 16, 1951, Guild married Broadway impresario Ernest H. Martin.[5] In 1975, she divorced Martin and married photojournalist John Bryson in 1978. She divorced Bryson in 1995.[citation needed]

Death

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On August 16, 1999, Guild died of emphysema in East Hampton, New York at the age of 73.[6]

Filmography

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Year Title Role Notes
1946 Somewhere in the Night Christy Smith
1947 The Brasher Doubloon Merle Davis
1948 Give My Regards to Broadway Helen Wallace
1949 Black Magic Marie Antoinette / Lorenza
1951 Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man Helen Gray
1951 Little Egypt Sylvia Graydon
1953 Francis Covers the Big Town Alberta Ames
1971 Such Good Friends Molly

References

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  1. ^ "Nancy Guild - The Private Life and Times of Nancy Guild. Nancy Guild Pictures". www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com.
  2. ^ a b "Nancy Guild, 73, Insouciant 40's Actress". The New York Times. Retrieved 31 January 2012.
  3. ^ Parsons, Louella O. (June 17, 1945). "Life Magazine Model Paged For 'Concerto' Test". Tampa Bay Times. Florida, St. Petersburg. International News Service. p. 34. Retrieved December 4, 2018 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  4. ^ Terrace, Vincent (2011). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010 (2nd ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. p. 1170. ISBN 978-0-7864-6477-7.
  5. ^ "Marriages". Billboard. September 1, 1951. p. 42. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  6. ^ Lentz, Harris M. III (2008). Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 1999: Film, Television, Radio, Theatre, Dance, Music, Cartoons and Pop Culture. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-5204-0. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
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