Anecdotes

Was a former Miss Utah.

Often cast as an adulterous wife, slutty girlfriend, female gang leader or gun moll, she proved so convincing in those roles that she often received Bibles in the mail with passages underlined that covered the "sins" she had committed onscreen, warning her that she would go to hell if she didn't reform. Several of those types of letters dwelt so much on her "immorality" and "evil ways" that, unnerved, she turned them over to the police.

One of her earliest jobs in the film industry was as a stand-in for Bette Davis at Warner Bros. in the mid-'40s.

Served as a director of the Screen Actors Guild for 25 years.

Was one of the 500 stars nominated by the American Film Institute to become one of the 50 greatest American screen legends. The winners were revealed on a June 15, 1999, three-hour TV special on CBS, AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars: America's Greatest Screen Legends (1999) .

Prior to entering the film industry she had been a cigarette girl at the famous Mocambo nightclub in Hollywood.

Husband Jack is the son of silent screen actor/writer/director Earle Rodney.

Worked for several years as a telephone operator.

Stated she had her first marriage annulled because her husband was still in love with his first wife, and so they rarely lived together.

Died the day before her 81st birthday.

Stated she had a nose job in 1959 because she felt her nose was "too prominent." She later questioned this decision, wondering whether she would have gotten more-sympathetic roles with her original nose.

Profiled in "Killer Tomatoes: Fifteen Tough Film Dames" by Ray Hagen and Laura Wagner (McFarland, 2004).

In the first decade of her career she had steady work on radio while, at the same time, she began her film work with walk-ons, appearances as an extra and bit parts until she finally built up to credited roles.

She was a lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

First child of Etta and Lane Bertelsen, she was christened Emily Marie. She was 11 when brother Jerry was born and 17 when her sister Louise arrived, by which time, Emily Marie was already in her first year at Brigham Young University.

Once described as "looking like Loretta Young (I) with touches of Edmond O'Brien".

Has a stepson, Chris, from husband Jack's first marriage. He lived with them starting at age 13. Son Richard Rodney was born January 11, 1963. She said having Chris around was a big help in raising Ricky.

In 1963 and 1964 she joined fellow actresses Joan Caulfield, Ruth Hussey, Yvonne De Carlo, Laraine Day, Virginia Mayo, and Maidie Norman, in making appearances on behalf of U.S. Sen. Barry M. Goldwater, the Republican nominee in the campaign against U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Mentioned in She-Wolf in Hollywood: The Story of Maria Ouspenskaya (2024) as one of Ouspenskaya's acting students.

In her later years, she suffered from arthritis.

Buried at Mountain View Cemetery, Marysvale, Piute County, Utah. Plot 410.

On September 23, 2018, she was honored with a pencil caricature on the website, "Star Portraits".