Shirley Ulmer(1914-2000)
- Script and Continuity Department
- Writer
- Actress
Born in New York, teenage Shirley Ulmer came out to the movie capital
for the first time in the early 1930s, after her banker-father was
wiped out in the Crash. While her dad tried to make a new start in
California, Shirley met picture people and began working as a script
supervisor. She was married to independent producer Max Alexander when
she met and instantly fell in love with director Edgar G. Ulmer, eventually
divorcing Alexander--nephew of Universal president Carl Laemmle. Hollywood
outcasts, Ulmer and his new missus Shirley were subsequently forced to
work in the East, on Poverty Row and at other small indie studios,
where the indomitable Ulmer forged a remarkable career as a master of
minimalism. Shirley is also a writer of screenplays, teleplays
(The Lone Ranger (1949), Batman (1966), Section 4 (1975), Chips (1977), more) and the book "The Role of
Script Supervision in Film and Television"; in recent years, she and
daughter Arianne have maintained a high profile keeping alive the
memory of Ulmer and his highly personal films. They are currently
collaborating on the documentary "The Edgar G. Ulmer
Story."
