Constance Moore

Constance Moore, born Mary Constance Moore on January 18, 1920 or 1921, in Sioux City, Iowa, was an American singer and actress whose career spanned film, radio, television, and Broadway. Her family relocated from Sioux City before she reached her first birthday, and she spent the majority of her early years in Dallas. She had two sisters, both of whom outlived her.

Moore launched her professional career as a singer with CBS radio during the 1930s, work that attracted the attention of a scout from Universal Studios and led to a studio contract. One of her early film appearances paired her with W. C. Fields in You Can't Cheat an Honest Man in 1939. That same year she took on the role of Wilma Deering in the movie serial Buck Rogers, the only female character in the production. She went on to appear in wartime musical films including Show Business and Atlantic City.

Her stage work brought her to Broadway in 1942, where she appeared in the musical By Jupiter. On radio, beginning in mid-1945, Moore starred alongside Dennis O'Keefe in Hollywood Mystery Time, broadcast on ABC. She retired from film work in 1947, though she continued to make occasional appearances in subsequent decades. In 1951 she joined a USO tour alongside Bob Hope and the Nicholas Brothers.

Moore's television credits included a guest role as Doris in the 1960 episode "Just a Housewife" on the ABC sitcom The Donna Reed Show. During the 1961–1962 season she appeared in ten episodes of the CBS series Window on Main Street, co-starring as Robert Young's romantic interest in the short-lived nostalgia program. Outside of entertainment, Moore was an active Republican who campaigned for Thomas Dewey in 1944, painted still lifes, and served in 1976 as chairwoman for the Braille Institute Auxiliary in Beverly Hills, California.

At age 18, Moore married her agent, John Maschio, who died in 1998. The couple had a son, Michael, and a daughter, Gina, as well as two grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Moore died on September 16, 2005, of heart failure following a prolonged illness and was interred at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.