Name
Shirley Ross
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1913-01-07
Deathday
1975-03-09 (62 years old)
Place of Birth
Omaha, Nebraska, USA
Biography
Blonde, vivacious and obviously talented, Shirley Ross had the promisings of a big musical film star, but her career remained strictly second-string throughout her fairly short career. She is best remembered through her pairing with an entertainment legend: Shirley was afforded the opportunity of duetting with Bob Hope on the song "Thanks for the Memory" in the splashy musical The Big Broadcast of 1938. The song, of course, became Bob's beloved signature tune.
Shirley was born Bernice Gaunt in Omaha, Nebraska in 1913. Her family moved west and she attended Hollywood High School, later studying at UCLA. Blessed with a gorgeous musical instrument, and an adept piano player as well, Shirley went on to sing with Gus Arnheim's band on the west coast, appearing at all the swanky clubs of the day, including the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, while making a decent name for herself on radio. She also appeared in a west coast production of "Anything Goes".
MGM initially scooped her up, making her unbilled debut in the Jean Harlow starrer Blonde Bombshell (1933). She continued on just as obscurely in the films Hollywood Party (1934), Manhattan Melodrama (1934), The Girl from Missouri (1934), The Merry Widow (1934), and Age of Indiscretion (1935), but was finally promoted to a minor featured role in the classic earthquake epic San Francisco (1936) with Clark Gable and Jeanette MacDonald, in which Shirley sang "Happy New Year".
In 1936, she found more visible work over at Paramount and spent the next few years there paired up vocally and romantically with either Bing Crosby or Bob Hope in their popular vehicles - The Big Broadcast of 1937 (1936), Waikiki Wedding (1937), Thanks for the Memory (1938), Paris Honeymoon (1939), and Some Like It Hot (1939). Though most were trifling, insignificant time fillers, she was a diverting beauty and quite serviceable in them. She was even given the chance to topline a few of her own movies such as Prison Farm (1938), Sailors on Leave (1941), and A Song for Miss Julie (1945), which was her swan song.
After leaving pictures, Shirley Ross was little heard or seen. Married first to agent John Kenneth 'Ken' Dolan, then to Everett S. 'Eddie' Blum, she had three children - two sons and a daughter. She died in Menlo Park, California of cancer in 1975.
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- 1933 Bombshell as Singer (uncredited)
- 1938 The Big Broadcast of 1938 as Cleo Fielding
- 1934 What Price Jazz as Singer
- 1937 Waikiki Wedding as Georgia Smith
- 1935 Buried Loot as Girl in Apartment (uncredited)
- 1939 Some Like It Hot as Lily Racquel
- 1941 Kisses for Breakfast as Juliet Marsden
- 1938 Thanks for the Memory as Anne Merrick
- 1937 Blossoms On Broadway as Sally Shea
- 1936 The Big Broadcast of 1937 as Gwen Holmes
- 1935 Age of Indiscretion as Dotty
- 1939 Paris Honeymoon as Barbara Wayne
- 1945 A Song for Miss Julie as Valerie Kimbro
- 1934 Manhattan Melodrama as Singer in Cotton Club
- 1935 Calm Yourself as Ruth Rockwell
- 1935 Two Hearts in Wax Time as Mannequin Shirley (uncredited)
- 1938 Prison Farm as Jean Forest
- 1939 Cafe Society as Bells Browne
- 1936 Devil's Squadron as Eunice
- 1941 Sailors on Leave as Linda Hall
- 1939 Unexpected Father as Dianna Donovan
- 1935 It's in the Air as Cigar Stand Clerk (uncredited)
- 1935 La Fiesta de Santa Barbara as Self
- 1935 I Live My Life as Vi (Uncredited)
- 1941 Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 2
- 1936 Hideaway Girl as Toni Ainsworth
- 1936 San Francisco as Trixie
- 1934 Jail Birds of Paradise as Herself
- 1955 Matinee Theater ( 1 episode )
