Karen Morley

Karen Morley
Promotional photograph of Morley in 1930s
Born	Mildred Linton (1909-12-12)December 12, 1909 Ottumwa, Iowa, U.S.
Died	March 8, 2003(2003-03-08) (aged 93) Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Education	Hollywood High School
Alma mater	UCLA Pasadena Playhouse
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1929–1975
Known for	Mata Hari Scarface The Phantom of Crestwood Pride and Prejudice
Spouses	Charles Vidor ​ ​ (m. 1932; div. 1943)​ Lloyd Gough ​ ​ (m. 1943; died 1984)​
Children	2

Karen Morley (born Mildred Linton; December 12, 1909 – March 8, 2003) was an American film actress.

Life and career

Born Mildred Linton in Ottumwa, Iowa, Morley lived there until she was 13 years old. When she moved to Hollywood, she attended Hollywood High School. She went on to attend the University of California, but she dropped out to join the Los Angeles Civic Repertory Theatre and the Pasadena Playhouse.

After working at the Pasadena Playhouse, she came to the attention of the director Clarence Brown, at a time when he had been looking for an actress to stand in for Greta Garbo in screen tests. This led to a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and roles in films such as Mata Hari (1931), Scarface (1932), The Phantom of Crestwood (1932), The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), Arsene Lupin (1933), Gabriel Over the White House (1933), and Dinner at Eight (1933).

In 1934, Morley left MGM. Her first film after leaving the studio was Our Daily Bread (1934), directed by King Vidor. She continued to work as a freelance performer and appeared in Michael Curtiz's Black Fury, and The Littlest Rebel with Shirley Temple. Without the support of a studio, her roles became less frequent; however, she did play Mr. Collins' wife Charlotte Lucas in Pride and Prejudice (1940), which was produced by MGM. The film was critically well-received, but it did not advance her career; as a result, Morley turned her attention to stage plays.

In the early 1940s, she appeared in several plays on Broadway, including the role of Gerda in the original production of The Walrus and The Carpenter.

Her career came to an end in 1947 (November 1952) when she testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee and refused to answer questions about her alleged American Communist Party membership. She maintained her political activism for the rest of her life. In 1954, she ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor of New York on the American Labor Party ticket.

After being blacklisted in Hollywood by the studio bosses, she never rebuilt her film acting career.

In the early 1970s, Karen Morley briefly resumed her acting career with guest roles in television series such as Kojak, Kung Fu, and Police Woman.

In 1993, she appeared in The Great Depression, a documentary TV series produced by Henry Hampton's Blackside Productions in association with BBC2 and WGBH. In the series, she talked about how helpless she felt as a privileged Hollywood actress in the face of all the poverty and suffering that surrounded her. She also spoke of her experience making Our Daily Bread and working for King Vidor, whom she described as a conservative who thought that people should willingly help each other without government interference.

In December 1999, at the age of 90, she appeared in Vanity Fair in an article about blacklist survivors, and she was honored at the San Francisco Film Festival.

Personal life

In November 1932, Morley married director Charles Vidor in Santa Ana, California. They were divorced on March 2, 1943. Vidor and Morley had a son, Michael Charles Vidor.

Death

Morley lived in Santa Monica, California during her later years. She died of pneumonia at the age of 93 in Woodland Hills, California.

Partial filmography

• Thru Different Eyes (1929) as bit part (uncredited)
• Inspiration (1931) as Liane Latour
• Daybreak (1931) as Emily Kessner
• Never the Twain Shall Meet (1931) as Maisie
• Politics (1931) as Myrtle Burns
• High Stakes (1931) as Anne Cornwall
• The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931) as Alice
• The Cuban Love Song (1931) as Crystal
• Mata Hari (1931) as Carlotta
• Arsene Lupin (1932) as Sonia
• Are You Listening? (1932) as Alice Grimes
• Scarface (1932) as Poppy
• The Man About Town (1932) as Helena
• The Washington Masquerade (1932) as Consuela Fairbanks
• Downstairs (1932) as Karl's New Employer (uncredited)
• The Phantom of Crestwood (1932) as Jenny Wren
• The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) as Sheila Barton
• Flesh (1932) as Laura Nash
• Gabriel Over the White House (1933) as Pendola Molloy
• Dinner at Eight (1933) as Mrs. Lucy Talbot
• The Crime Doctor (1934) as Andra
• Our Daily Bread (1934) as Mary Sims
• Straight Is the Way (1934) as Bertha
• Wednesday's Child (1934) as Kathryn Phillips
• Black Fury (1935) as Anna Novak
• $10 Raise (1935) as Emily Converse
• The Healer (1935) as Evelyn Allen
• Thunder in the Night (1935) as Madalaine
• The Littlest Rebel (1935) as Mrs. Cary
• Devil's Squadron (1936) as Martha Dawson
• Beloved Enemy (1936) as Cathleen O'Brien
• Outcast (1937) as Margaret Stevens
• The Girl from Scotland Yard (1937) as Linda Beech
• The Last Train from Madrid (1937) as Baroness Helene Rafitte
• On Such a Night (1937) as Gail Stanley
• Kentucky (1938) as Mrs. Goodwin - 1861
• Pride and Prejudice (1940) as Mrs. Collins
• Jealousy (1945) as Dr. Monica Anderson
• The Unknown (1946) as Rachel Martin Arnold
• The Thirteenth Hour (1947) as Eileen Blair
• Framed (1947) as Beth
• Samson and Delilah (1949) (uncredited)
• M (1951) as Mrs. Coster
• Born to the Saddle (1953) as Kate Daggett

Further reading

• The Gettysburg Times, "Discovered", November 3, 1932, Page 7.
• Los Angeles Times, "Karen Morley, 93, A Movie Star Until a Congressional Hearing", April 27, 2003, Page N47.
• McGilligan, Patrick and Paul Buhle (1997). Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-17046-7.
• Oakland Tribune, "One Star's Family", September 9, 1935, Page 68.

External links

• Karen Morley at IMDb
• Karen Morley at the Internet Broadway Database
• Photographs of Karen Morley