Nancy Drexel(1910-1989)

Brunette silent screen actress and tap/ballet dancer, the daughter of a fireman. On the New York variety stage since childhood, she came to Hollywood by virtue of winning a beauty contest in 1925. As an expert horsewoman, she was immediately signed by Universal to appear in two-reel western comedies. For the remainder of the 1920s, she continued to appear primarily in horse operas (with occasional forays into romantic melodramas and slapstick farce), opposite stalwarts like Tom Mix and Bob Steele. She retired from acting in 1932, following her marriage to Thomas H. Ince Jr..