Gail Patrick, 1911-1980

Actress Gail Patrick was born on this day in 1911. You might recognize the name; that's because she played the second woman in quite a few great movies in the 1930s and early 1940s. Among the ones that I've recommended before are My Man Godfrey, where she plays Carole Lombard's sister; and Love Crazy, in which she plays the woman who gets stuck in an elevator who causes William Powell so many problems. (Note Patrick's name down the credits, in much smaller letters than William Powell or Myrna Loy gets.) There are quite a few nice photos of Patrick over at the Hollywood Dreamland blog which were posted in a series of posts about a year ago, and which you might like to visit.

Patrick retired from acting fairly young, after getting married for the third time, but under her married name became a producer, getting into TV and producing Perry Mason, which became wildly popular.