Patricia Dane

Resembling Hedy Lamarr with her brunette sultry looks beautiful secondstring actress Patricia Dane possessed a rough and rowdy exterior which worked much better for her in front of the camera than off of it Born Thelma Patricia Ann Pippen in Jacksonville Florida her father died shortly after her birth and the infant was placed in the care for a time of her grandparents When her mother remarried a man named Byrnes young Thelma went back to live with her and was raised with the new name of Thelma Byrnes Following graduation from Andrew Jackson High School in Jacksonville Patricia entered the University of Alabama She moved to New York in 1938 to be a fashion designer but her darkeyed beauty instead led her to instant money with modeling jobs This opened a few doors and she quickly got caught up in the New York whirlwind high life becoming known around town as a feisty party girl Casted in her first role as a wellendowed Ziegfeld Girl in MGMs splashy musical aptly named Ziegfeld Girl 1941 the studio immediately signed her up She made minor impressions in Life Begins for Andy Hardy 1941 and as gangster Robert Taylors girl in Johnny Eager 1941 which led to costar billing in the B films Grand Central Murder 1942 as a volatile coldhearted actress who meets a nasty end Northwest Rangers 1942 and Manhattan Melodrama 1942 Patricia was squired about town with several eligible bachelors but on April 8 1943 she became Mrs Tommy Dorsey Following a role in the Red Skelton vehicle I Dood It 1943 she left films per the renowned bandleaders insistence The marriage was stormy to say the least with some grand knockout fights that made headlines as both were pretty wild tipplers she would often refer to themselves as The New Battling Bogarts This marriage had little chance for survival and on August 26 1947 it was finished She never remarried Patricia could now return to films and did so with the minor entries Joe Palooka in Fighting Mad 1948 and Are You with It 1948 Nothing came of it She made more unattractive news in 1949 when she and MGM actor Robert Walker were arrested for driving erratically public drunkenness and resisting arrest After this all she could find were unbilled parts in Road to Bali 1952 and A Life of Her Own 1950 Moving to Blountstown Florida Patricias life quieted down considerably becoming of all things a librarian in town She died completely out of the limelight of lung cancer on June 5 1995