by Conan Simmons – October 17, 2020 – 5:03 am
Classic film star dubbed Queen of Technicolor due to her red hair, Rhonda Fleming passed away Wednesday, October 14 in Santa Monica, California aged 97.
Born in Hollywood, California on August 10, 1923 she would break into the movie business in the early 1940’s during the height of the studio era. Her first feature film credit was in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1945 psychological suspense thriller, ‘Spellbound’.
She made several movies over the next couple of decades working with director Jacques Tourneur on the classic film noir ‘Out of the Past. In the 1950’s she starred in four films alongside future president Ronald Reagan: ‘The Last Outpost’, ‘Hong Kong’, ‘Tropic Zone’ and ‘Tennessee’s Partner’.
Other film credits include classic films in various genres from the musical ‘A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court’, the crime noir ‘While the City Sleeps’ and the western ‘Gunfight at the O.K. Corral’.
Later in her career in the 1970’s she mostly guest starred on television shows, something she began doing in the late 1950’s on ‘Wagon Train’. Other television series she appeared in were ‘Kung Fu’, ‘Police Woman’ and ‘The Love Boat’.
Her final film role came in the 1980 comedy ‘The Nude Bomb’, executive produced by Ted Mann whom she had married in 1978. He was the fifth of her six husbands, having been divorced from the first four. Ted Mann was a producer and chairman of Mann Theatres. Their marriage lasted until his death in January 2001.