Adrienne Ames

The stage led her to Columbia University literature classes and to posing for photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston. Hollywood followed, and she worked briefly as a stand-in for Pola Negri. Her film debut came in 1929's musical Sally, and that same year she married producer Stephen M. Ames. A Paramount contract in 1931 proved to be her big break. As a brunette with a glamorous look, she often played society girls in pictures like Husband's Holiday, Sinners In The Sun, and Guilty As Hell. She also costarred with W. C. Fields in You're Telling Me and with Rudy Vallee in George White's Scandal's.

Her private life was less stable than her career. The marriage to Ames soured, and she began an affair with actor Bruce Cabot. They married on Halloween 1933, but tragedy struck a month later when her younger sister, actress Gladys MacClure, died in a car accident. Adrienne and Bruce separated repeatedly and divorced in 1937, with her describing him as a violent drunk. By 1939 she was starring in low budget dramas like The Zero Hour and Panama Patrol, but she disliked the roles. Her final film was the 1940 romance I Take This Woman, and every scene she shot ended up cut. So she quit acting and returned to New York, where she hosted a popular radio show. During World War 2 she volunteered with Bundles For Bluejackets and appeared in Chesterfield cigarette ads. Her last stage role was in the 1945 Broadway show Beggars Are Coming To Town. She died of lung cancer on May 31, 1947, at age 43, with her daughter and mother at her bedside. She is buried in Ft. Worth's Oakwood Cemetery.