Kathleen Hughes(1928-2025)
- Actress
Hollywood born and bred Kathleen Hughes posed for one of the most iconic publicity stills in show biz history. It depicts her wide-eyed, screaming and throwing up her hands in terror. This image has since been used on countless occasions and for diverse purposes ranging from birthday cards to the sale of hummus. It also became emblematic of the many alluring scream queens and femmes fatale portrayed by this blonde bombshell during her heyday as a B-movie star in the 1950s.
Kathleen was born Elizabeth Margaret von Gerkan of German ancestry. She attended Fairfax High School, City College and then studied at UCLA. She was instantly bitten by the acting bug after watching a movie with Donald O'Connor when she was thirteen years old. Moreover, her famous uncle, the playwright F. Hugh Herbert (author of The Moon is Blue) often took her along when visiting film sets which added to her fascination with Hollywood. Betty, as she was then called, went on to study drama at the Stella Adler School of Acting. In 1948, she was spotted by 20th Century Fox talent scout and producer Myron Selznick during a Little Theater stage production and signed to a seven year contract at $135 a week. Since producers at Fox deemed her birth name to be unsuitable for marquees, Betty took on the stage moniker Kathleen Hughes, an amalgam of her mother's first name and her uncle's surname.
As a starlet, her contract with Fox required her to be little more than ornamental. After a series of lackluster bit parts and no-name roles, Kathleen -- feeling very much underused -- left the studio after just three years. She was, however, fortunate to soon find a mentor in Paul Henreid, who gave her career a kick-start by casting her as a captivating blonde in his independently produced drama Entre hommes (1952). Writer/producer Don McGuire saw the picture and helped her secure a new contract with Universal-International in 1952. Wanting to work "as much as possible", Kathleen accepted a small, but (as it turned out to be) famous role in the 3D cult sci-fi feature Le météore de la nuit (1953). She got on well with the director Jack Arnold (whose first foray into the genre this was) and already knew her co-star Richard Carlson, the Carlsons having been long-standing friends of her uncle.
In her next outing, the adventure film La légende de l'épée magique (1953), Kathleen (playing a handmaiden in ancient Baghdad) gave her co-star Rock Hudson his first on-screen kiss. Her build-up gained further momentum with the publicity generated by being named 'First 3D Cheesecake Girl' by Hollywood press correspondents and then 'Miss Cheesecake of 1953' by the Army publication Stars and Stripes.
Kathleen received third billing in arguably her most important film (and her own personal favorite), Le crime de la semaine (1953) (also directed by Arnold). This minor film noir with a TV studio setting had Kathleen playing an actress who just happened to be bad to the bone, blackmailing one guy (philanderer John Forsythe) and stringing along another (Edward G. Robinson, as an infatuated TV writer). Her character is unsurprisingly bumped off by Nr.2, who then implicates Nr.1 and concocts a seemingly clever script based on the crime. The Glass Web garnered mixed reviews, though Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrily commented: "Kathleen Hughes, who plays the blonde number, makes a dainty dish of poison". In very similar vein, she next chewed up the scenery as a seriously unhinged dame and the 'baddest 'of Three Bad Sisters (1956) (in one scene merrily horsewhipping one of her siblings). Kathleen commented in her later interviews that she had quite relished being typed as shady ladies, sirens and women of mystery.
The 1970s and 80s saw her steadily employed in television, albeit in smaller roles, often as secretaries or nurses. She made recurring appearances in NBC's Bracken's World (1969) (as Mitch) and in Madame et son fantôme (1968) (Mrs. Coburn), both produced by her husband. Kathleen was also briefly glimpsed in a home movie sent to Korea as Henry Blake's wife Lorraine in an episode of M.A.S.H. (1972). Her final screen credit was in 2018.
During her later years, Kathleen involved herself in a wide range of philanthropic endeavours, supporting research into cancer and Alzheimer's disease, helping to fund children's hospitals and donating to educational organizations, such as the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.
In July 1954, Kathleen had married the producer Stanley Rubin. Their union -- an exceedingly happy one by Hollywood standards -- endured for 59 years, until his death in March 2014 at the age of 96. The couple had four children and resided in the exclusive Bird Streets neighbourhood of Los Angeles in a house built for them by the architect Richard Frazer in 1956.
Kathleen was born Elizabeth Margaret von Gerkan of German ancestry. She attended Fairfax High School, City College and then studied at UCLA. She was instantly bitten by the acting bug after watching a movie with Donald O'Connor when she was thirteen years old. Moreover, her famous uncle, the playwright F. Hugh Herbert (author of The Moon is Blue) often took her along when visiting film sets which added to her fascination with Hollywood. Betty, as she was then called, went on to study drama at the Stella Adler School of Acting. In 1948, she was spotted by 20th Century Fox talent scout and producer Myron Selznick during a Little Theater stage production and signed to a seven year contract at $135 a week. Since producers at Fox deemed her birth name to be unsuitable for marquees, Betty took on the stage moniker Kathleen Hughes, an amalgam of her mother's first name and her uncle's surname.
As a starlet, her contract with Fox required her to be little more than ornamental. After a series of lackluster bit parts and no-name roles, Kathleen -- feeling very much underused -- left the studio after just three years. She was, however, fortunate to soon find a mentor in Paul Henreid, who gave her career a kick-start by casting her as a captivating blonde in his independently produced drama Entre hommes (1952). Writer/producer Don McGuire saw the picture and helped her secure a new contract with Universal-International in 1952. Wanting to work "as much as possible", Kathleen accepted a small, but (as it turned out to be) famous role in the 3D cult sci-fi feature Le météore de la nuit (1953). She got on well with the director Jack Arnold (whose first foray into the genre this was) and already knew her co-star Richard Carlson, the Carlsons having been long-standing friends of her uncle.
In her next outing, the adventure film La légende de l'épée magique (1953), Kathleen (playing a handmaiden in ancient Baghdad) gave her co-star Rock Hudson his first on-screen kiss. Her build-up gained further momentum with the publicity generated by being named 'First 3D Cheesecake Girl' by Hollywood press correspondents and then 'Miss Cheesecake of 1953' by the Army publication Stars and Stripes.
Kathleen received third billing in arguably her most important film (and her own personal favorite), Le crime de la semaine (1953) (also directed by Arnold). This minor film noir with a TV studio setting had Kathleen playing an actress who just happened to be bad to the bone, blackmailing one guy (philanderer John Forsythe) and stringing along another (Edward G. Robinson, as an infatuated TV writer). Her character is unsurprisingly bumped off by Nr.2, who then implicates Nr.1 and concocts a seemingly clever script based on the crime. The Glass Web garnered mixed reviews, though Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrily commented: "Kathleen Hughes, who plays the blonde number, makes a dainty dish of poison". In very similar vein, she next chewed up the scenery as a seriously unhinged dame and the 'baddest 'of Three Bad Sisters (1956) (in one scene merrily horsewhipping one of her siblings). Kathleen commented in her later interviews that she had quite relished being typed as shady ladies, sirens and women of mystery.
The 1970s and 80s saw her steadily employed in television, albeit in smaller roles, often as secretaries or nurses. She made recurring appearances in NBC's Bracken's World (1969) (as Mitch) and in Madame et son fantôme (1968) (Mrs. Coburn), both produced by her husband. Kathleen was also briefly glimpsed in a home movie sent to Korea as Henry Blake's wife Lorraine in an episode of M.A.S.H. (1972). Her final screen credit was in 2018.
During her later years, Kathleen involved herself in a wide range of philanthropic endeavours, supporting research into cancer and Alzheimer's disease, helping to fund children's hospitals and donating to educational organizations, such as the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.
In July 1954, Kathleen had married the producer Stanley Rubin. Their union -- an exceedingly happy one by Hollywood standards -- endured for 59 years, until his death in March 2014 at the age of 96. The couple had four children and resided in the exclusive Bird Streets neighbourhood of Los Angeles in a house built for them by the architect Richard Frazer in 1956.
