Gloria DeHaven born 23 July 1925

Gloria Mildred DeHaven (July 23, 1925 – July 30, 2016) was an American actress and singer who was a contract star for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Gloria Mildred DeHaven was born in Los Angeles, California, to vaudeville headliners Carter and Flora DeHaven. Her parents made sure their daughter would be educated at the very best private schools. They also indulged her ambition to be in show business by packing her off to the Mar-Ken Professional School in Hollywood (1940-42). Diminutive of stature and dark-haired, budding musical star Gloria (her nickname then was "Glo") 

enjoyed collecting perfume, reading (her favourite book being Daphne Du Maurier) and listening to the big bands (particularly Tommy Dorsey).

With her father's help (who was assistant director and a friend of Charles Chaplin), she finagled her first movie appearance -- an un-credited  bit part in Modern Times (1936). Her first visible role was in the George Cukor-directed Susan and God (1940). A contemporary newspaper article quipped that the winsome lass was "a backstage baby, never a child star". Always a popular pin-up with American servicemen in World War II, Gloria was featured on the cover of 'Yank' magazine in June 1944.

In the first place, Gloria concentrated on her singing career. She developed her own nightclub act over the years and also enjoyed considerable success as a solo vocalist with the orchestras of Bob Crosby, Jan Savitt and Muzzy Marcellino. It was her singing which prompted Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to sign her under contract in 1940. During the following decade, she made decent strides as a soubrette and was regularly featured as second lead in cheerful light musicals. The pick of the bunch were Thousands Cheer (1943), Step Lively (1944) (on loan to RKO, giving Frank Sinatra his first screen kiss), Two Girls and a Sailor (1944), Summer Stock (1950) and Three Little Words (1950).  

                               

She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard on Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960. Also during the early 1960s, DeHaven recorded for the small Seeco label, where she appeared on the 1962 compilation album

Gloria Lynne and Her Friends. She was also heard on four of the Revisited compilations produced by Ben Bagley.

Gloria never quite managed to get first tier assignments and her career waned as musicals ceased to be a bankable commodity. In the early 1950s, she attempted stronger dramatic roles but with only moderate success. By 1955, she had wisely turned to the stage for occasional appearances on Broadway. She played Diane opposite Ricardo Montalban in the musical version of Seventh Heaven. She also toured in a summer stock production of No, No, Nanette.

As late as 1989, she sang in cabaret at the Rainbow & Stars in New York. There was also a screen comeback of sorts with recurring roles in the soap operas Ryan's Hope (1975), As the World Turns (1956) and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976).

She was one of the numerous celebrities who appeared in box office bomb Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976), and guest-starred on television series, such as Gunsmoke (1955), Mannix (1967), Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969), The Love Boat (1977), Fantasy Island (1977), Hart to Hart (1979), Murder, She Wrote (1984) and Touched by an Angel (1994).

After a long absence from the screen, DeHaven appeared as the love interest of Jack Lemmon in the comedy Out to Sea (1997), also starring Walter Matthau. She moved to Las Vegas in 2003 from Beverly Hills to be closer to family.

Gloria died of a stroke in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 30, 2016, one week after her 91st birthday.

DeHaven was married four times to three men. Her first husband was actor John Payne, star of The Restless Gun, whom she married in 1944 and divorced in 1950. Her second husband was real estate developer Martin Kimmel. They were married in 1953 and divorced the following year. 

She was married to Richard Fincher, son of a Miami Oldsmobile dealer, from 1957 until 1963. They remarried in 1965 and divorced again in 1969.  She had two children with Payne, daughter Kathleen Hope (born 1945) and son Thomas John (born 1947) as well as two children with Fincher, son Harry (born 1958) and daughter Faith (born 1962).

(Edited mainly from IMDb bio by I.S.Mowis & Wikipedia)