Name
Lila Leeds
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1928-01-28
Deathday
1999-09-15 (71 years old)
Place of Birth
Dodge City, Kansas, USA
Biography
Lila Leeds (born Lila Lee Wilkinson, January 28, 1928 – September 15, 1999) was an American film actress. She signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and began appearing in small roles in the Red Skelton film The Show-Off (1946); Lady in the Lake (1947), based on a Raymond Chandler story; and in the Lana Turner vehicle Green Dolphin Street. She had a small part in So You Want to Be a Detective, which was part of the Joe McDoakes series of comedy shorts, the film being a reworking of the subjective camera style used in Lady in the Lake, in which Leeds had previously appeared.
Leeds was producer Harold Hecht's top choice to star in Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, the first film by Hecht and co-star Burt Lancaster's production company Norma Productions. Leeds was ultimately replaced by Joan Fontaine, who was already under contract with the movie's financer and distributor Universal-International Pictures.
On September 1, 1948, Leeds gained notoriety for being arrested together with actor Robert Mitchum on charges of marijuana possession. She subsequently spent sixty days in jail. Considered a Lana Turner look-alike, Leeds was 20 years old and engaged to Turner's ex-husband Stephen Crane at the time of her arrest. Although she starred in the Reefer Madness–style film She Shoulda Said No! (1949) following her release from jail, her acting career, unlike Mitchum's, never recovered from the scandal. She died of a heart attack at age 71 in Los Angeles.
Known For
6.069
Private eye Phillip Marlowe wants to get out of the detective racket and into crime writin...
6.3
Sophie loved Edmund, but he left town when her parents forced her to marry wealthy Octaviu...
6.85
Joe McDoakes imagines himself as a private detective on a murder case. Throughout the film...
- 1946 Lady in the Lake as Receptionist
- 1947 Green Dolphin Street as Eurasian Girl (uncredited)
- 1949 The House Across the Street as Billie Martin (uncredited)
- 1948 April Showers as Society Girl (uncredited)
- 1949 Wild Weed as Anne Lester
- 1948 Moonrise as Julie
- 1946 The Show-Off as Flo
- 1946 I Love My Husband, But! as Blonde Trying on Hat (uncredited)
- 1947 Always Together as Blonde (uncredited)
- 1948 So You Want to Be a Detective as Veronica Vacuum (uncredited)
- 1948 So You Want to Be a Gambler as Blonde at Dice Table (uncredited)
