Rhonda Fleming turns 92

Rhonda Fleming in a screencap from Inferno (1953)

Today is the 92nd birthday of actress Rhonda Fleming. Fleming started her career in the mid-1940s, with one of her first credited roles being one of the patients at the sanatorium where Ingrid Bergman works in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound. There's a "Word of Mouth" piece that appears on TCM from time to time in which Fleming talks about getting the part, which is as a nymphomaniac, a word she and her mother didn't know. Learning what it mean was apparently an interesting experience for them.

Fleming had flaming red hair, but didn't get to show it off in all that many movies when she was younger since so many of them where in black and white. One that is in color is Inferno, which looks like it finally has received a home video release, at least over in Europe.

TCM had a night of Fleming's films last December, and I think I'll post that link here since it includes the links to several other of her films that I've blogged about and were shown that night.