Vera Marshe

Vera Marshe, born Vera Merle Marsh on July 15, 1905, in Sacred Heart, Minnesota, was an American actress whose career spanned stage, film, and television. She was the daughter of Marie Stensrud and Harry Theodore Marsh, and grew up in Minneapolis, where she attended Madison and Clinton elementary schools before graduating from Central High School.

Marshe established herself in multiple performance mediums beginning in the early 1930s. Her stage work included appearances alongside Al Jolson in The Wonder Bar and a role opposite Fred Astaire in The Band Wagon, which she joined after Adele Astaire departed the production to marry in 1932. Her Broadway career ran from 1932 to 1935 and included credits in Good Men and True, the musical Ballyhoo of 1932, and Parade.

Her transition to film coincided with a change in her professional name, from Marsh to Marshe. Her first starring film role came opposite Eddie Foy Jr. in Nearly Naked in 1933, a credit that marked this shift. She also appeared in a number of short films during the decade. Among her notable screen credits are Way Out West (1930), Those Endearing Young Charms (1945), The Crimson Key (1947), and Tormented (1960).

In the 1950s and 1960s, Marshe concentrated primarily on television work. Her final screen appearance came in the television series Perry Mason, on which she appeared between 1959 and 1966. Vera Marshe died on March 25, 1984, at the age of 78.