Arlene Dahl

Arlene Carol Dahl (born August 11, 1928)^[1] is an American movie actress and former MGM contract star, who achieved notability during the 1950s. She is the mother of actor Lorenzo Lamas.

Early years

Dahl was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the daughter of Idelle (née Swan) and Rudolph S. Dahl, a Ford motor dealer and executive.^[2] She is of Norwegian descent. After graduating from Washburn High School, she held various jobs, including performing in a local drama group and briefly working as a model for department stores. Dahl's mother was involved in the theater. As a child she took elocution and dancing lessons and acted in local amateur theater. She was active in theatrical events at Margaret Fuller Elementary School, Ramsey Junior High School and Washburn Senior High School. Dahl briefly attended the University of Minnesota.

Career

Dahl was voted the Rheingold Beer Girl of 1946. She began her acting career in 1947. She reached the peak of her popularity and success in the 1950s. Some of her best films include: Reign of Terror (1949), Three Little Words (1950), Woman's World (1954), Slightly Scarlet (1956), and Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959).

Personal life

Dahl met actor Lex Barker in the early 1950s, and on April 16, 1951, Dahl and Barker wed. A year later she and Barker divorced, and Dahl would go on to marry another matinee idol, Fernando Lamas. Barker went on to marry Lana Turner. In 1958 Dahl and Lamas had their only son, Lorenzo Lamas. Shortly after giving birth to Lorenzo, Dahl slowed and eventually ended her career as an actress, although she still appeared in movies and on television occasionally. Dahl would go on to work as a beauty columnist and as a writer.

She also founded her own business, Arlene Dahl Enterprises, which marketed lingerie and cosmetics. She eventually became an astrologer and wrote a syndicated column on the subject.^[3]

Family

Dahl and Lamas divorced in 1960, and Dahl later remarried. She has had two children from other marriages: a daughter Christina (born August 3, 1961) by third husband Christian R. Holmes and a second son, Rousevelle Andreas (born December 8, 1970), by fifth husband Rousevelle W. Schaum. She has 6 grandchildren and resides in New York City and West Palm Beach.

Television

Arlene Dahl was both a mystery guest and a panelist on the TV Game show "What's My Line". She appeared on the ABC television network's soap opera One Life to Live as Lucinda Schenck Wilson from 1981 to 1984. Lucinda was planned to be a short-termed role, but she was later offered a one-year contract to appear on the show. The last movie she appeared in was the 1991 film Night of the Warrior, starring her son, Lorenzo. Before that, the last movie she had appeared in had been in the 1960s.

Filmography

Television work

• The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse (host from 1953-1954)
• Opening Night (1958) (canceled after a few weeks)
• Deadly Dream (1971)
• One Life to Live (cast member from 1981-1984)
• All My Children (cast member in 1995)

Writing

• Dahl, Arlene (1965). Always Ask a Man: Arlene Dahl's Key to Femininity. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. OCLC 4511224. 

References

External links

• Arlene Dahl at the Internet Movie Database
• Arlene Dahl at Brian's Drive-In Theatre
• Photographs and literature at Virtual-History.com