Cleo Moore
{{Short description|American actress (1920s – 1973)}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Cleo Moore
| image = Cleo Moore Sexy Lips Vintage Photo c. 1953.jpg
| caption = Moore at the peak of her career, c. 1953
| birth_name = Cleouna Moore
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1924|10|31}}
| death_date = {{Death date and age |1973|10|25|1924|10|31}}
| birth_place = Galvez, Louisiana, U.S.
| death_place = Inglewood, California, U.S.
| resting_place = Inglewood Park Cemetery
| occupation = Actress
| years_active = 1948–1957
| spouse = {{plainlist|
- {{marriage|Palmer Long|1944|1944|end=divorced}}
- {{marriage|Herbert Heftler|1961}}
}}
}}
Cleo Una Moore{{efn|Many published sources state that her first name was "Cleouna", but this seems to be a probable mangling of her first and middle names since the 1940 Federal Census has her name as "Cleo U. Moore" and her mother's first name was "Una".{{cite web |title=1940 Federal Census for Ascension, Louisiana |url=https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/M-T0627-01380-00498?pId=122278114 |publisher=United States Census Bureau |access-date=February 26, 2025}} }}(October 31, 1924"[https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-no90006711 Moore, Cleo 1924-1973]". WorldCat.{{cite web|url=http://www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com/show/196/Cleo+Moore/index.html|title=The Private Life and Times of Cleo Moore|website=GlamorGirlsoftheSilverScreen.com}} – October 25, 1973) was an American actress, usually featured in the role of a blonde bombshell in Hollywood films of the 1950s, including seven films with Hugo Haas. She also became a well-known pin-up girl.
Early life
Cleo Moore was born in in Galvez, Louisiana, and raised in nearby Gonzales. Her father ran a grocery store. She was educated in Gonzales public schools and took a secretarial course at Pope's Commercial College in Baton Rouge.{{cite news |last1=Alexander |first1=Pericles |title=Rita's Studio Gives Us Film Siren From Louisiana |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22474000/cleo_moore/ |work=The Times |date=September 14, 1952 |location=Louisiana, Shreveport |page=14a|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = August 3, 2018}} {{Open access}}
She married Palmer Long, the youngest child of Huey Long, the former governor of Louisiana who was assassinated while a Senator for Louisiana, but the marriage ended in six weeks.{{cite news |last1=Bacon |first1=James |title=Curvaceous Cleo Moore Intends To Produce Movie In Near Future |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22475439/cleo_moore/ |work=The Plain Speaker |agency=Associated Press |date=September 17, 1953 |location=Pennsylvania, Hazleton |page=7|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = August 3, 2018}} {{Open access}}
Moore was named Miss Van Nuys for 1947{{cite news |title=Piper Cub Round-the-World Flyers Return |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22475870/st_louis_postdispatch/ |work=St. Louis Post-Dispatch |date=November 28, 1947 |location=Missouri, St. Louis |page=55|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = August 3, 2018}} {{Open access}}–1948.{{cite news |title=New Hartfields Store |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22475982/the_van_nuys_news/ |work=The Van Nuys News |date=December 13, 1948 |location=California, Van Nuys |page=2|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = August 3, 2018}} {{Open access}}
Career
{{More citations needed section|date=February 2025}}
She made her film debut in 1948 in Embraceable You.{{cite news |title=Southern Drawl Vital, After All |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22476397/cleo_moore/ |work=The Los Angeles Times |date=June 12, 1949 |location=California, Los Angeles |page=Part IV - 1|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = August 3, 2018}} {{Open access}} She also played the leading lady in the film serial Congo Bill{{cite news |title=New Serial Queen |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22476243/cleo_moore/ |work=The Cincinnati Enquirer |date=January 16, 1949 |location=Ohio, Cincinnati |page=84|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = August 3, 2018}} {{Open access}} and worked for Warner Brothers briefly in 1950. She worked for RKO Radio Pictures from 1950 to 1952, making such films as Hunt the Man Down and Gambling House.
She signed with Columbia Pictures in 1952. The studio had plans to mold Moore as its next film star, hoping she would bring Columbia the success that 20th Century-Fox was having with Marilyn Monroe. In order to compete with Monroe, Moore had to bleach her hair platinum blonde. Columbia dubbed her "The Next Big Thing" and "The Blonde Rita Hayworth". She first gained attention as a doomed gun moll in Nicholas Ray's film noir On Dangerous Ground in 1952.{{Citation needed |date=June 2023}}
Moore began starring in films in 1952. In 1953, she made One Girl's Confession, opposite Hugo Haas, who directed and appeared with her in several other films. She co-starred in Thy Neighbor's Wife (1953) and Bait (1954), both directed by Haas, the latter co-starring John Agar.
In 1954, she starred in The Other Woman, playing a B-movie bit player who strikes at her movie director for revenge when he declines the offer for her to be in his picture. Upon completing a supporting role in Women's Prison (1955), Moore signed a brief deal with Universal Pictures to play a suicidal prostitute in the low-budget thriller Hold Back Tomorrow (1955), again opposite Agar.
In 1956, she starred as a predatory career girl in Over-Exposed, co-starring Richard Crenna. The following year, Moore made her final film appearance in Hit and Run (1957). After the release of the film, Moore retired from acting.
During this period of 1950s Hollywood, Moore was one of several buxom blondes to achieve notability following Marilyn Monroe's major breakthrough; the others included Jayne Mansfield, Mamie Van Doren, Diana Dors, Sheree North, Anita Ekberg, Barbara Lang, Barbara Nichols, Joi Lansing, Carol Ohmart, Pat Sheehan, and Greta Thyssen.
Post Hollywood
Moore found success as a businesswoman in real estate after her screen career ended.{{Cite book|author=Richard Koper|title="One Girl's Confession" — The Life and Career of Cleo Moore|page=248|publisher=BearManor Media|date=2023|isbn=9798887710563}}
Personal life
After her six-week marriage to Palmer Long, Moore remained single through the 1940s and 1950s. In 1961, Moore married real estate developer Herbert Heftler.{{cite news |title=La.-Born Actress, Cleo Moore, Dead |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22478739/cleo_moore/ |work=The Town Talk |agency=United Press International |date=October 28, 1973 |location=Louisiana, Alexandria |page=4|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = August 3, 2018}} {{Open access}}
Death
Partial filmography
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
- Embraceable You (1948) - Sylvia (uncredited)
- Congo Bill (1948, Serial) - Lureen / Ruth Culver
- Dynamite Pass (1950) - Lulu
- Bright Leaf (1950) - Louise - Cousn (uncredited)
- 711 Ocean Drive (1950) - Mal's Date (uncredited)
- The Great Jewel Robber (1950) - Vivacious Blonde at Airport (uncredited)
- Rio Grande Patrol (1950) - Peppie
- Hunt the Man Down (1950) - Pat Sheldon
- Gambling House (1950) - Sally
- On Dangerous Ground (1951) - Myrna Bowers
- The Pace That Thrills (1952) - Ruby
- Strange Fascination (1952) - Margo
- One Girl's Confession (1953) - Mary Adams
- Thy Neighbor's Wife (1953) - Lita Vojnar
- Bait (1954) - Peggy
- The Other Woman (1954) - Sherry Steward
- Women's Prison (1955) - Mae
- Hold Back Tomorrow (1955) - Dora
- Over-Exposed (1956) - Lila Crane
- Hit and Run (1957) - Julie Hilmer (final film role)
{{div col end}}
Notes
{{notelist}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category}}
{{Portal|Biography|United States|Film}}
- {{IMDb name|0601062}}
- [http://www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com/show/196/Cleo+Moore/index.html The Private Life and Times of Cleo Moore]
- {{Find a Grave|7680090}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Cleo}}
Category:Actresses from Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Category:People from Gonzales, Louisiana
Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:American film actresses