Arleen Whelan

Arleen Whelan was an actress whose career began when a hairdressing job in Hollywood led to a film contract. She was born in Salt Lake City and spent her early childhood in Pueblo, Colorado; she later learned hairdressing and worked in a salon on Hollywood Boulevard, where director H. Bruce Humberstone noticed her and brought her name to Darryl F. Zanuck. Signed by 20th Century Fox in 1937, she soon had a co-starring role opposite Warner Baxter in Kidnapped (1938) and then played Hannah Clay in Young Mr. Lincoln (1939). In 1942 she moved to Broadway for The Doughgirls, though she was not in the 1944 film version. Later credits included The Senator Was Indiscreet (1947), with a performance critic Bosley Crowther called cute, and the John Ford film The Sun Shines Bright (1953), in which she starred opposite Charles Winninger. She also made a B-western before leaving the screen after 1957.