Marie Windsor Biography

Fast Facts

• Won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for Best Actress for "The Bar Off Melrose" in 1987
• Studied Drama at Brigham Young University and trained in acting with Maria Ouspenskaya in 1940
• Began taking acting lessons when she was 11 years old and won local beauty pageants
• Got her first role in "All-American Co-Ed" in 1941 after producer Arthur Hornblow Jr․ overheard her dismay about being unable to pay rent at the Mocambo nightclub, where she worked as a cigarette girl
• Quote: "One of the reasons film noir is so popular today is that it left so much to the imagination, in contrast to today when everything is so explicit․ Film noir engaged the audience, let them use the gray matter between their ears․"
• Quote: "(On being labeled "Queen of the Bs"): "It's better to be queen of something than nothing at all․""
• Best known as "The Queen of the Bs" who appeared in several B-movies like "The Killing" and "The Narrow Margin․"
• Acted in more than 300 radio dramas while living in New York, and also appeared on Broadway as a femme fatale in "Follow the Girls․"
• In addition to her 76 feature film roles, she made guest appearances on more than 100 television series, including "Gunsmoke" and "Murder, She Wrote․"
• Was the director of the Screen Actors Guild for 25 years