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Lola Albright

 
Artist: Lola Albright

Similar Artists:

  • Active: '50s, '60s
  • Genres: Vocal Music
  • Instrument: Vocals, Performer, Main Performer
  • Representative Albums: "Dreamsville," "Lola Wants You," "Soft Sounds"

Biography

Lola Albright is much better known as an actress than a vocalist. She enjoyed her greatest fame in the late-'50s and early-'60s television series Peter Gunn, playing Edie, the private detective's on-again, off-again love interest. Albright also appeared briefly in the '60s primetime soap opera Peyton Place, temporarily replacing the lead star Dorothy Malone for a few months when Malone became ill in the fall of 1965. Though Albright portrayed a nightclub singer on Peter Gunn, she was never a notable vocalist. Her delivery and style were in the "torch" and light pop mode, somewhat similiar to Julie London though not as effective. Her commercial appeal was directly linked to the popularity of Peter Gunn. ~ Ron Wynn, All Music Guide
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Actor: Lola Albright
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  • Born: Jul 20, 1925 in Akron, Ohio
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '40s-'60s
  • Major Genres: Western, Comedy
  • Career Highlights: Lord Love a Duck, A Cold Wind in August, Joy House
  • First Major Screen Credit: Beauty on Parade (1950)

Biography

Lola Albright's meat-and-potatoes job as switchboard operator of an Ohio radio station led to on-the-air work in minor roles. She then worked as a model before travelling to Hollywood in 1948. Impressed by Lola's hands-on-hips self-assuredness, producer Stanley Kramer cast her opposite Kirk Douglas in 1949's Champion. The film should have secured Lola's stardom, but didn't; for nearly a year after its release she couldn't get an acting job, and for a long period she subsisted on peanut-butter sandwiches. After marrying her Good Humor Man (1950) co-star Jack Carson, Lola found that her husband preferred her at home rather than in the studio. She acceded to his wishes, taking film and TV work only sporadically; still, by 1958 the marriage dissolved due to the very career conflicts that both Lola and Jack had tried to avoid. From 1958 through 1961, Lola played sultry nightclub songstress Edie Hart on the TV private eye series Peter Gunn. Lola's post-Gunn film roles have alternated between fascinating (especially her over-the-hill stripper in Cold Wind in August [1964]) and merely rent-paying (David Niven's antiseptic spouse in The Impossible Years [1968]). In 1966, Lola Albright briefly replaced a seriously ill Dorothy Malone in the role of Constance McKenzie on the prime time TV serial Peyton Place. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Wikipedia: Lola Albright
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Lola Albright
Born July 20, 1924 (1924-07-20) (age 85)[1]
Akron, Ohio
Other name(s) Lois Jean Albright
Occupation US film/TV actress, singer, model
Years active 1948-1984
Spouse(s) Bill Chadney (1961–1975)
Jack Carson (1952–1958)

Lola Jean Albright (born July 20, 1924, Akron, Ohio) is an American singer and actress.

Albright worked as a model before moving to Hollywood. She began her motion picture with a bit part in the 1948 film The Pirate, and followed it with important role in the acclaimed 1949 hit Champion. For the next ten years, she appeared in secondary roles in over twenty films, including several 'B' Westerns. Albright also acted in guest roles on several television series.

In 1958, she gained the part of Edie Hart in the trend-setting Peter Gunn, a television detective series produced by Blake Edwards and directed by Robert Altman, with the theme music that made Henry Mancini famous. Albright played a nightclub singer who was the romantic interest of Peter Gunn, played by Craig Stevens. In 1959 she was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress (Continuing Character) in a Dramatic Series. Her role required singing and led to the 1957 release of her music album Lola Wants You, as well as her album 1959 Dreamsville, in which her songs were accompanied by Henry Mancini and his orchestra.

Albright's popularity led to several major film roles, including Elvis Presley's 1962 film, Kid Galahad, with Alain Delon, Jane Fonda's in the 1964 French film Les Felins by director René Clément, and the epic western The Way West. She appeared as Duff Daniels in the episode "Sticks and Stones Can Break My Bones" with her former Peter Gunn co-star Craig Stevens in his short-lived 1967 CBS drama Mr. Broadway.

In 1968, Albright appeared in The Impossible Years, with David Niven and Christina Ferrare, and in Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? with Doris Day. She also appeared in the NBC medical drama The Eleventh Hour.

Albright temporarily replaced Dorothy Malone as Constance Mackenzie on the hit primetime soap opera Peyton Place, when Malone unexpectedly underwent emergency life-saving surgery. She continued to perform both in films and as a television guest actor until her retirement in the early 1980s.

Family life

Albright married three times. The name of her first husband is unknown. Her second husband was actor Jack Carson from 1951 to 1958. That marriage ended in divorce. Her third and final marriage was to Bill Chadney (1960-75), which also ended in divorce. She has no children.

References

  1. ^ 1924 year of birth as she was 5 years old in the 1930 United States census (in April 1930; her 6th birthday would have been three months later); also: 85 years old in 2009 as per Intelius

External links


 
 
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Lola Wants You (2004 Album by Lola Albright)
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Copyrights:

Artist. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Actor. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Lola Albright" Read more