Sally Forrest

Sally Forrest, born Katherine Feeney on May 28, 1928, in San Diego, California, was an American actress and dancer whose career spanned film, stage, and television across the 1940s and 1950s. She died on March 15, 2015, at her home in Beverly Hills at the age of 86.

Forrest was the daughter of Michael and Marguerite Feeney. Her father served as a career officer in the U.S. Navy, a profession that required the family to relocate frequently among naval bases before eventually settling in San Diego. Both of her parents later became ballroom dancers and operated dance classes, and it was through this environment that Forrest began her training in dance from an early age. She went on to study jazz and ballet, disciplines that would shape much of her early professional work.

Shortly after finishing high school, Forrest was signed to a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where she began her film career in the 1940s as a chorus dancer in MGM musicals. Her dancing background earned her roles in MGM productions including Excuse My Dust and The Strip, films that represented the later period of the studio's celebrated musical output. Her transition into dramatic acting came with Not Wanted in 1949, a film written and produced by Ida Lupino that addressed the subject of unwed motherhood. Forrest went on to appear in two additional Lupino-directed projects, Never Fear in 1949 and Hard, Fast and Beautiful in 1951. She also appeared in the film noir Mystery Street in 1950, directed by John Sturges. Her final film was While the City Sleeps in 1956, directed by Fritz Lang and featuring a cast that included Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, Vincent Price, and Lupino, produced at RKO.

Forrest married writer and producer Milo Frank in 1951. When Frank was hired as head of casting for CBS, the couple relocated to New York in 1953, and Forrest's career shifted toward theater and television. On Broadway, she appeared in The Seven Year Itch in 1952, and subsequently took part in stage productions of Damn Yankees, Bus Stop, As You Like It, and No No Nanette. She later returned to Hollywood and continued working at RKO and Columbia Pictures.

Forrest and Frank owned a home in Benedict Canyon in Beverly Hills that had previously belonged to Jean Harlow and Paul Bern. The couple rented the property to Jay Sebring before his murder at the nearby home of Sharon Tate. Forrest and Frank remained married until his death in 2004. They had no children. Forrest died of cancer in Beverly Hills on March 15, 2015.