Actors - Veronica Lake

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	Actors - Veronica Lake

Veronica Lake, born Constance Frances Marie Ockleman, also known as Constance Keane (14 November 1919, Brooklyn, New York – 7 July 1973, Colchester, Vermont) was a popular American film actress and pin-up model who achieved wide fame and critical praise, especially for her film noir roles during the 1940s. Described by Bette Davis as "the most beautiful person who ever came to Hollywood," her success was fleeting and after a string of broken marriages and long struggles with mental illness and alcoholism she died almost destitute.

Early life and career

Constance's father worked on a ship for an oil company. When she was about a year old the family moved to Florida but had returned to Brooklyn before she was five. According to some accounts she was beaten as a child. Her father died in an industrial explosion when she was 12. Her mother married Anthony Keane a year later and Constance began using his last name. They are said to have lived in Canada, New York state and Miami, Florida where she graduated from high school. A troubled teenager, she had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic during her childhood at a time when therapy for such conditions was usually limited to long-term institutionalization. Having already achieved minor celebrity in Miami for her beauty, in 1938 Constance moved with her mother and step-father to Beverly Hills, California where Mrs. Keane enrolled her daughter in Hollywood's Bliss Hayden School of Acting.

Her first appearance on screen was for RKO, playing a small a role among several coeds in Sorority House (1939). Similar roles followed, including All Women Have Secrets and Dancing Co-Ed. However her contract was dropped by RKO. She married art director John Detlie in 1940. Another small role in the comedy movie 40 Little Mothers brought unexpected attention and in 1941 she was signed to a long term contract by Paramount Pictures, was given her stage name Veronica Lake and on August 21 gave birth to a daughter, Elaine Detlie.

An icon of the 1940s

Her breakthrough film was I Wanted Wings (1941), a major hit in which she had the second female lead and was said to have stolen scene after scene from the rest of the cast. This success was followed by another, Hold Back the Dawn
(1941). She was soon noted as a witty, intelligent and trend-setting actress and had starring roles in more popular movies including Sullivan's Travels
(1941), This Gun for Hire
(1942), I Married a Witch
(1942, later used as a basis for the 1960s hit television series Bewitched), The Glass Key
(1942) and So Proudly We Hail!
(1943).

For a short time during the early 1940s Veronica Lake was considered one of the most reliable box office draws in Hollywood and was also known for her onscreen pairings with actor Alan Ladd. A stray lock of hair during a publicity photo shoot led to her iconic peekaboo hairstyle which hid one eye with her shoulder-length blonde hair and was widely imitated. During World War II she changed her trademark image as a publicity move to encourage women working in war industry factories to adopt more practical hairstyles. Some critics have speculated that the loss of her peekaboo look diminished the mystery and allure of her on screen image, damaging her box office appeal. Given the fickle nature of movie audiences there could have been some truth to this initially but other factors were at work.

Although widely popular with the public, Lake had a complex personality and professionally she had developed a reputation for being difficult to work with. Eddie Bracken, her co-star in Star Spangled Rhythm (1942), was quoted as saying "She was known as The Bitch and she deserved the title." However, in that same movie Lake took part in a song lampooning her own hair style, "A Sweater, A Sarong and a Peekaboo Bang" performed with Dorothy Lamour and Paulette Goddard although part of Lake's "vocals" were dubbed.

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Actors - Veronica Lake

Early life and career

An icon of the 1940s

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