Luella Gear

Luella Gear (September 5, 1897 – April 3, 1980) was an American actress born in New York City whose career spanned stage, film, and television from the 1910s through the 1960s. She attended the Spence School in New York and received additional education in Brussels, Belgium.

Gear made her Broadway debut in 1917 in the musical Love O' Mike, launching a stage career that would continue for four decades. Her subsequent Broadway appearances included The Gold Diggers, A Dangerous Maid, Poppy, The Optimists, Gay Divorce, and Life Begins at 8:40. She took on the role in the musical On Your Toes in 1936 and later appeared in Streets of Paris. During World War II, Gear toured with the wartime comedy Count Me In as part of the USO, performing for troops overseas. Her Broadway work extended into the 1950s, with appearances in the comedy Sabrina Fair, To Be Continued, and Four Winds, with her stage career reaching as late as 1957.

Her film work included roles in Queen High, Carefree, Lady in the Dark, The Perfect Marriage, and Jigsaw, among others. On television, she appeared in episodes of Broadway Television Theatre, The Big Story, The Elgin Hour, Joe and Mabel, and The Defenders, with television credits running into the mid-1960s.

Gear was married three times, to Byron Chandler, aviator Gustave Maurice Heckscher, and Frederick W.A. Engel. She had no children. She died on April 3, 1980, in the Bronx at the age of 82 and was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery.