Maria Palmer

Maria Palmer was an Austrian-born American actress who first took the stage as a child in Max Reinhardt productions, trained as a dancer with the Bodenwieser Ensemble, and studied acting and singing at the Vienna Conservatory before leaving for the United States in 1938. She began in New York theater, notably in The Moon Is Down in 1942, then moved into movies, cast as an exotic foreign woman in war films and film noir. Her screen debut was Catherine de' Medici in Nostradamus and the Queen, a 1942 short, and her first feature was Mission to Moscow (1943), followed by Days of Glory (1944), opposite Gregory Peck, and Lady on a Train (1945). When her film work slowed in the 1950s she moved into radio, television and commercials, founded Maria Palmer Enterprises, and hosted a Los Angeles program, Sincerely, Maria Palmer. She also worked on Perry Mason, Rawhide and Sam Benedict and wrote unproduced television scripts. She died in 1981.