Wanda Hendrix
{{short description|American actress (1928–1981)}}
{{More citations needed |date=May 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Wanda Hendrix
| image = File:Wanda Hendrix 1958.jpg
| imagesize =
| caption = in Wagon Train, 1958
| birth_name = Dixie Wanda Hendrix
| birth_date = {{birth date|1928|11|3}}
| birth_place = Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1981|02|1|1928|11|3}}
| death_place = Burbank, California, U.S.
| burial_place = Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills, California, U.S.
| occupation = Actress
| yearsactive = 1945–1972
| spouse = {{marriage|Audie Murphy|1949|1951|end=divorced}}
{{marriage|Jim Stack|1954|1958|end=divorced}}
{{marriage|Steve LaMonte|1969|1980|end=divorced}}
}}
Dixie Wanda Hendrix (November 3, 1928 – February 1, 1981) was an American film and television actress.Obituary Variety, February 11, 1981.{{Cite news|title=Wanda Hendrix, Actress Of 40's and 50's, Dead|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/12/obituaries/wanda-hendrix-actress-of-40-s-and-50-s-dead.html|date=February 12, 1981|work=The New York Times}}
Early life
Hendrix's father was a logging foreman,{{cite news |last1=Heyn |first1=Howard C. |title=Little Wanda Finds Love s Thrilling as Movie Fame |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/110498974/wanda-hendrix/ |access-date=October 1, 2022 |work=Fort Worth Star-Telegram |agency=Associated Press |date=August 23, 1948 |page=14|via = Newspapers.com}} and she was born in Jacksonville, Florida.{{cite book |last1=Ellenberger |first1=Allan R. |title=Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries: A Directory |date=1 May 2001 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-5019-0 |pages=88–89 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZraJCgAAQBAJ&dq=%22Wanda+Hendrix%22+actress&pg=PA88 |access-date=October 1, 2022 |language=en}} She was performing in a school play in Jacksonville when she was seen by a talent agent who took her to Warner Bros. Her parents moved with her to California, buying a ranch there. She graduated from University High School.{{cite news |last1=Parsons |first1=Louella |title=Little Wanda Hendrix Gets Big Break |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/110544904/wanda-hendrix/ |access-date=October 1, 2022 |work=The Knoxville Journal |agency=International News Service |date=October 26, 1947 |page=5-D|via = Newspapers.com}}
Career and marriages
Hendrix made her first film, Confidential Agent, in 1945 at the age of 16, and for the first few years of her career was consistently cast in B movies. By the late 1940s, she was being included in more prestigious films, such as Ride the Pink Horse (1947) and Miss Tatlock's Millions (1948). She starred with Tyrone Power in Prince of Foxes (1949).
From 1946, she dated Audie Murphy{{cite book|last=Graham|first=Don|title=No Name on the Bullet |publisher=Viking |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-670-81511-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/nonameonbulletbi00grah |pages=142, 174}} and her agent got him an early small film role.{{sfn|Graham|1989|pp=145–46}} They married in 1949,{{sfn|Graham|1989|p=174}} but divorced in 1951.{{cite journal|title=Divorces|journal=The Billboard|date=28 April 1951|page=48|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jh8EAAAAMBAJ&q=wanda+hendrix+divorce+1951+billboard+%22audie+murphy%22&pg=PA48|publisher=Nielsen Business Media}}
On June 26, 1954, Hendrix married wealthy sportsman James Langford Stack, Jr., the brother of actor Robert Stack, and essentially retired from films, though she worked in live television dramatic anthology shows such as Pulitzer Prize Playhouse, Robert Montgomery Presents, The Plymouth Playhouse, The Ford Television Theatre, The Revlon Mirror Theater, and Schlitz Playhouse, and occasionally appeared in later series such as Bat Masterson, My Three Sons, Wagon Train, and Bewitched. Stack and she divorced on November 3, 1958.{{cite web |url=http://www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com/show/129/Wanda+Hendrix/index.html |title=Wanda Hendrix |website=Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen}}
She married Italian financier and oil company executive Steven LaMonte on June 7, 1969; they divorced on November 17, 1980.
Death
Hendrix died on February 1, 1981, in Burbank, California from double pneumonia, aged 52, and was interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery.
Partial filmography
{{div col|colwidth=26em}}
- Confidential Agent (1945) as Else
- Nora Prentiss (1947) as Bonita Talbot
- Welcome Stranger (1947) as Emily Walters
- Hollywood Wonderland (1947 short) as Tour Guide (uncredited)
- Variety Girl (1947) (uncredited)
- Ride the Pink Horse (1947) as Pila
- My Own True Love (1948) as Sheila Heath
- Miss Tatlock's Millions (1948) as Nan Tatlock
- Song of Surrender (1949) as Abigail Hunt
- Prince of Foxes (1949) as Camilla
- Captain Carey, U.S.A. (1950) as Giulia [de Cresci] de Greffi
- Sierra (1950) as Riley Martin
- The Admiral Was a Lady (1950) as Jean Madison
- Saddle Tramp (1950) as Della
- The Highwayman (1951) as Bess Forsythe
- My Outlaw Brother (1951) as Señorita Carmelita Alvarado
- Montana Territory (1952) as Clair Enoch
- South of Algiers (1953) as Anne Burnet
- The Last Posse (1953) as Deborah Morley
- Sea of Lost Ships (1953) as Pat Kirby
- Highway Dragnet (1954) as Susan
- The Black Dakotas (1954) as Ruth Lawrence
- The Boy Who Caught a Crook (1961) as Laura
- Johnny Cool (1963) as Miss Connolly
- Stage to Thunder Rock (1964) as Mrs. Swope
- The Oval Portrait (1972) as Lisa Buckingham
{{div col end}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Portal|Biography}}
- {{IMDb name|0376905}}
- {{Find a Grave|2043}}
- [http://www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com/show/129/Wanda++Hendrix/ Wanda Hendrix at Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hendrix, Wanda}}
Category:American film actresses
Category:American television actresses
Category:Actresses from Jacksonville, Florida
Category:Deaths from pneumonia in California
Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)