Noreen Nash

Nash was born Norabelle Jean Roth on April 4, 1924, in Wenatchee, Washington. Her parents were Albert, who was in the beverage industry, and Gail Roth, a teacher.{{cite news|url=https://www.wenatcheeworld.com/go/once-a-queen-noreen-nash-remembers-queen-norabelle/article_6ad9a47c-4247-5252-b268-e914b62a9c53.html&prev=search|title=Once A Queen: "Noreen Nash" Remembers Queen Norabelle|newspaper=Wenatchee World|date=May 2, 2012|accessdate=February 2, 2020}} Gail died in 1998, at the age of 99.{{cite news|title=Roth, Gayle U|newspaper=The Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43771855/the_los_angeles_times/|agency=The Los Angeles Times|date=February 4, 1998|page=245|via=Newspapers.com|accessdate=February 7, 2020}} {{Open access}}

Nash's career started in 1942, when she was crowned ”Apple Blossom Queen” in her home town.{{cite news|title=Movies Beckon Apple Queen|newspaper=The Capital Journal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3425903/daily_capital_journal/|agency=Daily Capital Journal|date=March 17, 1943|page=12|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = October 16, 2015}} {{Open access}} With help from Louis Shurr, Bob Hope’s agent, she entered showbusiness and eventually got a contract with MGM as a showgirl.{{cite web|url=http://www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com/show/358/| title=Noreen Nash| publisher=Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen| accessdate=June 21, 2013}} She initially declined, since she had planned to attend Stanford University. She had previously tested for Warner Brothers, but wasn't signed.{{cite book |last1=Parla |first1=Paul |last2=Mitchell |first2=Charles P. |title=Screen Sirens Sceam!: Interviews with 20 Actresses from Science Fiction, Horror, Film Noir and Mystery Movies, 1930s to 1960s |date=October 11, 2009 |publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0786445875|pages=175–187|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VVNpvvU6A0EC&q=%22noreen+nash%22+%22stanford%22&pg=PA177|accessdate=November 30, 2019}} In 1942, she worked as a model alongside Marilyn Monroe.{{cite news|url=https://blogs.sydneysbuzz.com/a-look-back-noreen-nash-d52f129339a9|title=A Look Back: Noreen Nash|newspaper=Sydney's Buzz|date=June 6, 2019|accessdate=July 17, 2020}} Her screen debut came in the 1943 musical film Girl Crazy, which starred Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. Her MGM contract lapsed in 1944, having had mostly bit parts and appearing as a showgirl.

A 1945 newspaper article reported Nash being helped by actress Paulette Goddard. Goddard, the article said, was "sponsoring the career of shapely, brunette, blue-eyed and very beautiful Noreen Nash." The article added that her screen tests at Paramount Pictures were "arranged through the instigation of Paulette". As a result, Noreen was signed to a term contract.{{cite news|title=Goddard Protege Gets A Break|newspaper=The Brownsville Herald |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3425947/the_brownsville_herald/|agency=The Brownsville Herald|date=July 1, 1945|page=6|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = October 16, 2015}} {{Open access}}

Uncredited in her first movies, Nash eventually landed a role in director Jean Renoir's 1945 film The Southerner as farmer Henry's daughter Becky Devers. The film was nominated in three categories at the 18th Academy Awards in 1946.[http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1946 "The 18th Academy Awards|1946"], "Winners & Nominees" presented at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Los Angeles, California, March 7, 1946. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), Beverly Hills, California. Retrieved July 7, 2017. During this time, she changed her screen surname to Nash, inspired by her father in the film, J. Carroll Naish. She and Renoir remained friends for the rest of his life.{{cite web|url=http://www.westernclippings.com/interview/noreennash_interview.shtml|title=Noreen Nash Interview|publisher=Western Clippings|accessdate=June 21, 2013}}

In 1947, Nash started having significant roles in poverty row films. She played Judge Roger Tanner's daughter Sue in the Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC) low-budget street racing cautionary tale The Devil on Wheels, which starred Darryl Hickman. She and Terry Moore are believed to be the first actresses to wear bikini tops on screen.{{Citation needed|date=November 2022}} Later that year, she had one of the leading roles in The Big Fix (1947) as Ann Taylor, about gamblers trying to rig a basketball game. It featured Sheila Ryan and James Brown, and was director James Flood's penultimate film before his death in 1953. She was the leading lady in the Eagle-Lion Films Western Cinecolor film The Red Stallion (1947). She played horse trainer Ellen Reynolds, with Ted Donaldson and Robert Paige as the other top-billed actors.

Nash played the role of Linda in the 20th Century Fox Joe E. Brown drama The Tender Years (1948). It was set in the 19th century. She played Zanetta in the American-Mexican Eagle-Lion historical adventure film Adventures of Casanova (1948). It also featured Arturo de Córdova, Lucille Bremer, and Turhan Bey. She was cast as the leading lady in the Eagle-Lion film noir Assigned to Danger (1948), where she played criminal Nip's sister Bonnie Powers, opposite Gene Raymond.

File:Noreen Nash in Phantom from Space (1953).jpg (1953)]]

Although the film was described by writer Robert Nott as one of Budd Boetticher's worst, Nash considered him to be "the best director [she] ever worked with", praising the way he worked with the actors on set.{{cite book |last1=Nott|first1=Robert|title=The Films of Budd Boetticher|date=September 18, 2018|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-1476667072|pages=37–40|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A3JuDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22noreen+nash%22&pg=PA40|accessdate=October 31, 2022}} She was the leading lady in the 20th Century Fox drama The Checkered Coat (1948), playing psychiatrist Dr. Michael Madden's (played by Tom Conway) wife Betty.

Nash played ranch owner Chris Marvin in the RKO Pictures Western Storm Over Wyoming (1950). The film also starred Tim Holt and Richard Martin. She worked with both of them a couple of years later in the same genre in Road Agent (1952). She played Cora Drew, daughter of rancher George Drew. She played scientist Barbara Randall in the 1953 independent science fiction Phantom from Space. One of her most noted films was one about a ranch owner, Giant (1956), in which she played the film star Lona Lane.

Some of the television series in which Nash appeared include Hopalong Cassidy, The Lone Ranger,The Abbott and Costello Show and 77 Sunset Strip''.

Nash retired from acting in 1962, having been encouraged to do so by her youngest son. She attended UCLA, majoring in history, and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in 1971.

Nash published the novel By Love Fulfilled in 1980, which was about a doctor in the 16th century. It was partly based on the Flemish anatomist and physician Vesalius. In 2013, she published another book, titled Agnes Sorèl, Mistress of Beauty. In 2015, she and Jeanne Rejaunier published Titans of The Muses: When Henry Miller Met Jean Renoir; she had worked with Renoir on The Southerner, and she was also friends with the American novelist Henry Miller.

Nash married Dr. Lee Siegel on December 12, 1942, in Las Vegas, after only having known each other for little over a month.{{cite news|last1=Manners|first1=Dorothy|title=George C. Scott Gives Hint On Academy Award Feeling|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/18533638/?terms=%22Noreen%2BNash%22%2B%22Lee%2BSiegel%22|agency=Anderson Daily Bulletin|date=December 15, 1970|page=9|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate=October 16, 2015}} {{Open access}} They had two sons, Lee Siegel Jr.,{{cite news|title=(Photo caption)|newspaper=Southern Illinoisan |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3426132/southern_illinoisan/|agency=Southern Illinoisan|date=September 19, 1949|page=4 |via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = October 16, 2015}} {{Open access}} a novelist and religion professor, and Robert James Siegel, a cardiologist.{{cite news|title=Stork Has Banner Year in Filmland - Stingy with Twins|newspaper=The Daily Times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3426050/the_daily_times/|agency=cdt|date=December 24, 1945|page=2|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate=October 16, 2015}} {{Open access}} Dr. Siegel worked as a medical director at the film studio 20th Century Fox. He died on May 7, 1990.{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-05-10-mn-1480-story.html|title=Lee E. Siegel; Beverly Hills Internist|newspaper=The Los Angeles Times|date=May 10, 1990|accessdate=February 2, 2020}} In 2001, she married actor James Whitmore, who died in 2009. Nash was Jewish and was a frequent visitor at the Jewish Home for the Aged in Boyle Heights, California.{{cite web | url=https://scalar.usc.edu/hc/jewish-histories-boyle-heights/media/booth-and-nash-at-the-jewish-home-for-the-aged-ca-1942.meta?versions=1 | title=Jewish Histories in Multiethnic Boyle Heights: Booth and Nash at the Jewish Home for the Aged (Ca. 1942) }}

Nash's brother Albert was married to actress Susan Hart's sister. According to Hart, it was Nash's beauty that inspired her to become an actress as well.{{cite book|last1=Weaver|first1=Tom|title=Double Feature Creature Attack: A Monster Merger of Two More Volumes of Classic Interviews|date=February 19, 2003|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0786413669|page=128|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=esCnTSqGtUYC&dq=%22noreen+nash%22&pg=PA128|accessdate=October 31, 2022}} She supported the campaign of Democrat Adlai Stevenson during the 1952 presidential election.Motion Picture and Television Magazine, November 1952, page 33, Ideal Publishers

File:Noreen Nash The Southerner.jpg (1945)]]

Nash died at her home in Beverly Hills, California, on June 6, 2023, at the age of 99.{{cite web |last1=Barnes |first1=Mike |title=Noreen Nash, Actress in 'Giant' and 'The Southerner,' Dies at 99 |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/noreen-nash-dead-giant-southerner-1235510640/ |website=The Hollywood Reporter |date=8 June 2023 |access-date=June 8, 2023}} Her home was put on the market at $16.5 million in January 2025.{{cite web |last1=Lee |first1=Sabrina |title=Old Hollywood Actress's Beverly Hills Estate Hits the Market for the First Time in 72 Years |url=https://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/old-hollywood-actresss-beverly-hills-estate-hits-the-market-for-the-first-time-in-72-years-3ce4ee2d |website=Mansion Global |date=29 January 2025 |publisher=Wall Street Journal |access-date=31 January 2025}}

• By Love Fulfilled (1980)
• Agnès Sorel, Mistress of Beauty (2013)
• The Paris Diet (2015)
• Titans of the Muses: When Henry Miller Met Jean Renoir (2015)

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Category:1924 births

Category:2023 deaths

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:21st-century American women

Category:American film actresses

Category:American television actresses

Category:American writers

Category:People from Wenatchee, Washington

Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players

Category:California Democrats

Category:Washington (state) Democrats

Category:Paramount Pictures contract players

Category:Jewish American actresses