Gilda Gray
Gilda Gray was born in Krakow, Poland, Oct. 24, 1897.
She was adopted by an American couple and raised in Milwaukee.
Reportedly, she was forced into a marriage at age twelve, and
bore a son one year later. Gray was best known for her dancing
ability, and came to the attention of Sophie Tucker in 1919 who
gave her her name. She appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies in 1922,
and was featured as a dancer as early as 1923 in the feature "Lawful
Larceny." Her first starring role was as a South Seas dancer
in "South Seas Aloma" (1926) with Warner Baxter, William
Powell and Percy Marmont. Directed by Maurice Tourneur, the picture
did well at the box office, and Gray starred in two more features
in 1927 "Cabaret" and "The Devil Dancer"
both films obviously starring her as a dancer. She went
to England in 1928 and made "Picadilly." She made was
given a part in the Nelson Eddy-Jeannette MacDonald feature "Rose-Marie"
in 1936, but her career failed to do much, and she filed for bankruptcy
in 1941. Her last association with the movies was as "sex
appeal consultant" on the 1954 film "Kiss Me Deadly."
She was living in a small apartment on Hollywood Boulevard when
she died Dec. 22, 1959.
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