Coleen Gray

Coleen Gray, born Doris Jensen on October 23, 1922, in Staplehurst, Nebraska, was an American actress whose career spanned film, television, and stage. She died on August 3, 2015, at age 92, at her home in Bel Air, Los Angeles.

Gray was raised on a farm in Nebraska by Danish parents. After completing her secondary education at Hutchinson High School, she attended Hamline University, where she studied art, literature, and music, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude. She subsequently traveled to California, spending time in La Jolla working as a waitress before relocating to Los Angeles, where she enrolled at UCLA and held jobs in the university library and at a YWCA.

Her early stage work in Los Angeles, including leading roles in Letters to Lucerne and Brief Music, earned her a contract with 20th Century Fox in 1944. In 1949, she appeared on Broadway in Leaf and Bough. Fox terminated her contract in 1950.

Gray became widely recognized for her work in Hollywood film noir. In 1947, she appeared in Kiss of Death as the wife of Victor Mature's ex-convict character and a target of Richard Widmark's character, and in Nightmare Alley as Tyrone Power's carnival performer wife, "Electra." She played the love interest opposite John Wayne in Red River, filmed in 1946 and released in 1948. Also in 1947, she sang her role live on camera — rather than having her voice dubbed — opposite Bing Crosby in Riding High, directed by Frank Capra. Her later film credits included The Sleeping City (1950), in which she portrayed a crooked nurse, and Kansas City Confidential (1952). In Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956), she played the devoted girlfriend of a criminal portrayed by Sterling Hayden. Additional film appearances included Father Is a Bachelor (1950), The Vanquished (1953), The Leech Woman (1960), The Phantom Planet (1961), and P.J. (1968). In The Late Liz (1971), Forgotten Lady (1977), and Mother (1978) — the latter co-starring Patsy Ruth Miller and premiering at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City — Gray worked with writer-director-producer Brian Pinette, who wrote both Forgotten Lady and Mother specifically for her. She also appeared in the religious film Cry From the Mountain (1986), directed by James F. Collier.

On television, Gray guest-starred across a wide range of series from the 1950s onward, including Four Star Playhouse, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Maverick, Have Gun Will Travel, Bonanza, Rawhide, 77 Sunset Strip, The Deputy, Lawman, Branded, Ironside, Family Affair, The Name of the Game, The Dakotas, Mr. Ed, Tales of Wells Fargo, and Tales from the Darkside. She made four guest appearances on Perry Mason, among them the title role of defendant Lorraine Kendall in the 1960 episode "The Case of the Wandering Widow." On May 23, 1962, she was cast as Miss Wycliffe in "A Job for Summer," the series finale of the CBS drama Window on Main Street. Gray also served as a regular cast member on the daytime dramas Bright Promise and Days of Our Lives.

Gray married screenwriter Rod Amateau on August 10, 1945; the marriage ended in divorce on February 11, 1949, and produced one daughter, Susan. Her second husband, aviation executive William Clymer Bidlack, married her on July 14, 1953, and remained her husband until his death in 1978; they had a son, Bruce Robin Bidlack. In 1979, Gray married Biblical scholar Joseph Fritz Zeiser, a widower, and the two were active together in Presbyterian causes and in Prison Fellowship, the nonprofit organization founded by Chuck Colson in 1976. Zeiser died in March 2012.

Gray was a Republican who supported Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election. That same year, alongside actors Victor Jory and Susan Seaforth, she testified before the United States Congress as part of "Project Prayer," advocating for a constitutional amendment permitting school prayer. She served on the board of directors at Hamline University and was active in numerous civic and charitable organizations, including WAIF — the child adoption organization, for which she served as president — as well as the March of Dimes, the American Cancer Society, the American Red Cross, the American Mental Health Association, the Los Angeles Epilepsy Society, Junior Blind, the Bel-Air Republican Women's Group, the Boy Scouts of America, and the Girl Scouts of the United States of America.

Gray died of natural causes on August 3, 2015. She was cremated at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, and her ashes were given to her stepson, Rick Zeiser. A memorial service was held at the Bel Air Presbyterian Church, where she and her third husband had been active members.