Lorna Gray

Gray was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan.{{cite news|last1=Neill|first1=Frank|title=In Hollywood|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5326066/long_beach_independent/|work=Long Beach Independent|agency=International News Service|date=February 9, 1950|location=California, Long Beach|page=24|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = May 20, 2016}} {{Open access}} After her father's millinery business was a victim of the Great Depression, the family split up. Before appearing in films, Gray sang with a group in Cleveland called Ben Yost's Varsity Co-eds, who performed primarily in movie theaters before the movie began.{{cite book|last1=Magers|first1=Boyd|last2=Fitzgerald|first2=Michael G.|title=Westerns Women: Interviews with 50 Leading Ladies of Movie and Television Westerns from the 1930s to the 1960s|date=2004|publisher=McFarland|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|isbn=9780786420285|pages=45–52|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E2YvBhX8CZ0C&q=Adrian+Booth|language=en}}

Although she had a film test at Universal Studios and a brief contract with Paramount Pictures, she made her first big film for Columbia Pictures.

As a Columbia contract player she appeared in the studio's shorts and serials, including Flying G-Men (starring Robert Paige), Pest from the West (starring Buster Keaton), and You Nazty Spy! (starring The Three Stooges). When her Columbia contract lapsed, she found work at Monogram Pictures, where she worked with action star Frankie Darro.{{cite web | url=http://www.republicpictures75th.com/celebs/bios/booth/bio2_adrianbooth.html | title=Adrian Booth biography | publisher=Republic Pictures 75th | access-date=May 2, 2014}}

Gray also starred opposite John Wayne in Red River Range (1938) and appeared in the title role in O, My Darling Clementine (1943), a country music film starring Roy Acuff as a singing sheriff.{{cite web | url=http://www.b-westerns.com/ladies28.htm | title=Lorna Gray/Adrian Booth | publisher=B-Westerns | access-date=May 2, 2014}}

In her Paramount films, such as Hold 'Em Navy, she was credited as Virginia Pound, but she was given the name Lorna Gray by Columbia and she used it from 1938 until 1945, when she left Columbia and moved to Republic Pictures. She appeared as Lorna Gray in Republic's Federal Operator 99, but subsequently adopted the name Adrian Booth.[http://blogs.commercialappeal.com/beifuss/archives/2007/06/adrian_booth.html "Yo, Adrian! Adrian Booth at the Memphis Film Festival" The Blood-shot Eye (2007)] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20080719183458/http://blogs.commercialappeal.com/beifuss/archives/2007/06/adrian_booth.html |date=July 19, 2008 }}

At Republic, she often received co-star billing in Westerns, the only woman other than Dale Evans to be billed so highly at that studio. She also starred in Republic's serial about the comic book superhero Captain America.

In 1945, shortly after signing a contract with Republic Pictures, she and the stunt performer Ruel F. Taylor were arrested for "suspicion of possessing marijuana in Los Angeles." A $1,000 bail set her free.{{cite web | url=https://newspaperarchive.com/us/michigan/benton-harbor/benton-harbor-news-palladium/1945/03-06?tag=virginia+pound&rtserp=tags/?ndt=by&py=1943&pey=1949&pep=virginia-pound/ | title=Virginia Pound, 1936 Bud Queen, Arrested On Marijuana Charge | publisher=Benton Harbor News Palladium | date=March 6, 1945 | access-date=January 22, 2016 | pages=1}} She was later exonerated after Taylor testified at his preliminary hearing that Gray had not used the marijuana and was not aware of it.{{cite news|title=Actress Exonerated in Marijuana Case|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5326319/the_bakersfield_californian/|work=The Bakersfield Californian|agency=Associated Press|date=March 7, 1945|location=California, Bakersfield|page=1|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = May 20, 2016}} {{Open access}}

She married actor David Brian{{cite news|last1=Fidler|first1=Jimmie|title=In Hollywood With Jimmie Fidler|newspaper=Monroe Morning World |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4871092/monroe_morning_world/|agency=Monroe Morning World|date=October 2, 1949|location=Louisiana, Monroe|page=4|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = May 20, 2016}} {{Open access}} on July 19, 1949, and retired from motion pictures in 1951. As Adrian Booth, she was awarded the Golden Boot Award in 1998 and attended film festivals into her nineties. She appeared as a guest at the annual Three Stooges convention held in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, on April 30, 2011.

Gray died in Sherman Oaks, California on April 30, 2017, aged 99.{{cite magazine |url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/lorna-gray-dead-queen-columbia-republic-pictures-shorts-serials-was-99-999014 |title=Lorna Gray, Queen of Shorts and Serials at Columbia and Republic Pictures, Dies at 99 |first=Mike |last=Barnes |magazine=The Hollywood Reporter |date=May 3, 2017 |issn=0018-3660}}

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• {{IMDb name|0336790}}
• {{tcmdb name|id=984999|name=Lorna Gray}}

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Category:1917 births

Category:2017 deaths

Category:Actresses from Grand Rapids, Michigan

Category:American film actresses

Category:Film serial actresses

Category:Paramount Pictures contract players

Category:Western (genre) film actresses

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:21st-century American women