Arlene Dahl

Arlene Carol Dahl was an American actress, entrepreneur, and author born on August 11, 1925, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Idelle and Rudolph Dahl, a Ford Motor dealer and executive of Norwegian descent. Though Dahl cited her birth year as 1928, her birth record held by the Minnesota Historical Society confirms 1925. She died on November 29, 2021.

As a child in Minneapolis, Dahl took elocution and dancing lessons and participated in theatrical activities at Margaret Fuller Elementary School, Ramsey Junior High School, and Washburn Senior High School. Her mother was involved in local amateur theatre. After graduating, Dahl performed with a local drama group, briefly modeled for department stores, and attended the University of Minnesota for a short period. She subsequently moved to Chicago, where she worked as a buyer for Marshall and Brown, before relocating to New York City to model for the Walter Thornton Model Agency.

Dahl's Broadway career began in 1945 when she auditioned for and won a part in the musical Mr. Strauss Goes to Boston. That role led to her being cast in the lead of Questionable Ladies, a production attended by a Hollywood talent scout. In 1953, she played Roxanne in a revival of Cyrano de Bergerac opposite Jose Ferrer. She returned to Broadway in the early 1970s, replacing Lauren Bacall in the role of Margo Channing in Applause. Her Broadway appearances spanned from 1945 to 1970.

Her film career began with an uncredited part in Life with Father in 1947, followed by a prominent role in My Wild Irish Rose that same year alongside Dennis Morgan. The film's success earned her a long-term contract with MGM, where she appeared in The Bride Goes Wild (1948) with Van Johnson and June Allyson, and A Southern Yankee (1948) with Red Skelton. She went on to appear opposite Van Johnson in Scene of the Crime (1949), Robert Taylor in Ambush (1950), Joel McCrea in The Outriders (1950), and Fred Astaire and Skelton in Three Little Words (1950), in which she played Eileen Percy.

Pine-Thomas Productions signed Dahl to a multiple-picture contract, leading to roles in the swashbuckler Caribbean Gold (1952) with John Payne and Jamaica Run (1953). She co-starred with Alan Ladd in Desert Legion (1953) at Universal-International and appeared in Sangaree (1953) alongside Fernando Lamas, whom she later married. Additional credits from this period include Woman's World (1954) at Fox, Bengal Brigade (1954) with Rock Hudson, and Slightly Scarlet (1956) with John Payne and Rhonda Fleming. She also made two films in England for Columbia, Wicked as They Come (1956) and Fortune Is a Woman (1957), and starred in the adventure film Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) opposite James Mason and Pat Boone.

Alongside her acting work, Dahl began writing a syndicated beauty column in 1952 and founded Arlene Dahl Enterprises in 1954, marketing cosmetics and designer lingerie. She closed that company in 1967 and became vice president at the advertising agency Kenyon and Eckhardt that same year. She later founded Dahlia, a fragrance company. In 1981, Dahl declared personal bankruptcy, with liabilities of nearly one million dollars and assets of $623,970; her primary creditor was the U.S. Small Business Administration, which had guaranteed a $450,000 loan connected to her work in a cosmetics firm. During the 1980s she entered the field of astrology, writing a syndicated column and operating a premium phoneline company, and she authored more than two dozen books on beauty and astrology.

On television, Dahl appeared in episodes of Lux Video Theatre, The Ford Television Theatre, and Burke's Law, hosted the short-lived series Opening Night in 1958, and had a role on the soap opera One Life to Live from 1981 to 1984, playing Lucinda Schenck Wilson. She also guest-starred on Love, American Style, Jigsaw John, Fantasy Island, and The Love Boat, and appeared in the television film The Deadly Dream in 1971. Her final feature film role came in Night of the Warrior (1991), which co-starred her son Lorenzo Lamas.

In her personal life, Dahl was married six times, with husbands including actors Lex Barker and Fernando Lamas. She had three children, the eldest of whom is actor Lorenzo Lamas. She divided her time between New York City and West Palm Beach, Florida, until her death in 2021.