- Born
- Died
- Birth nameGladys Timmons
- Actress, singer, comedienne and dancer. Gladys Blake left home at age 14 to join a stock company in Reading, Pennsylvania, and after two years she had developed her own vaudeville act, Gresham and Blake, with Lee Gresham. Coming to California, they were booked into the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Los Angeles where she was spotted by film agent Edward Small. Her first small film roles were mostly for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Director Richard Thorpe personally offered Gladys her small role in "The Earl of Chicago" in which only her legs were seen.- IMDb mini biography by: Louis Rugani
- Born Gladys Timmons, 12 Jan 1910 in Shawnee, Frederick Co. VA. Her mother Ada E. Timmons(nee Ritenour) died 11 weeks after her birth. Two Aunts, Bessie Farinholt and Georgianna Farinholt helped to raise her. At age 9, 1920, she lived in Baltimore City, MD with her Aunt and Uncle Farinholt. She ran away from this home at age 14 to join a circus. During a visit with family in PA, around 1926 she displayed trunks of glitzy circus costumes she wore while riding elephants and on the trapeze. She left from this visit to join the troupe in Redding, PA She met and later married Lee Gresham. They had a successful vaudeville act.- IMDb mini biography by: Susan Law
- Spouse
- In 1939, Gladys Blake's home was ransacked of jewelry and furs worth $12.000. She appealed to the burglars to return one inexpensive locket which contained a portrait of her mother, who died when Gladys was 11 months old. The burglary occurred the night after she got her first movie role with Robert Taylor and Myrna Loy in "Lucky Night".
- As a vaudeville comedienne in the team Gresham and Blake, Gladys came to Hollywood and tried for eight months to get into pictures before finally succeeding.
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