Carmelita Pope

Carmelita Pope (April 15, 1924 – April 3, 2019) was an American actress whose career spanned Broadway, film, television, radio, and soap operas. Born in Chicago, Illinois, she was the younger of two daughters of Nicholas Papa, an Italian immigrant from Senerchia, Campania, who later became a lawyer after a career in vaudeville, and his Italian-American wife Marie. Her older sister, Clarissa Pope Mancuso, also pursued acting. Pope completed her secondary education at Providence High School before studying at the Goodman School of Drama and Marycrest College.

During her formative years in Chicago, Pope developed a friendship with aspiring actress Jocelyn Brando, through whom she also became close with Jocelyn's brother, Marlon Brando. The two maintained a strong bond, and Brando was a frequent guest at Pope's home, where the pair played bocce ball together.

Pope's professional breakthrough came when director George Abbott cast her as the lead, Corliss Archer, initially as a replacement in the Chicago production of Kiss and Tell and subsequently in the USO touring production of the play, which traveled to Italy and Northern Africa in 1945. Following her return to the United States, she replaced Cecily De Lucas in the role of Daisy Belle in the Broadway comedy Maid in the Ozarks at the Belasco Theatre.

Her performance as Mother Cabrini in the 1947 film Citizen Saint, for which she used the stage name Carla Dare, attracted the attention of director Elia Kazan, who cast her as the understudy to Kim Hunter in the Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire. The role reunited Pope with Marlon Brando, who was playing Stanley Kowalski. When producers announced in 1949 that a significant portion of the original cast, including Hunter, would be departing the production, a casting call was issued for replacements. Hunter, who had not missed a single performance during the run, told Pope she would feign illness to allow Pope to perform for the producers. Hunter did call out sick, Pope went on, and she signed a contract to play Stella the following day, remaining with the production until it closed.

In April 1949, Pope married Chicago advertising executive Howard Charles Ballenger II, and the couple relocated to Chicago, where they raised two sons. Her subsequent career included a regular panelist role on the television program Down You Go in the 1950s, extensive radio work, and a position as spokeswoman for Pam Cooking Spray. She also appeared in the soap operas General Hospital and Days of Our Lives.

After the death of her husband in 1975, Pope moved to Los Angeles, where she served as director of the Hollywood office of the American Humane Association. She remarried in 1988 and later retired to Stuart, Florida. In her final years, Pope lived in Boise, Idaho, where she volunteered at the Warhawk Air Museum. She died of heart failure at her home in Boise on April 3, 2019, at the age of 94.