Evelyn Keyes (November 20, 1916 – July 4, 2008) was an American actress.
Film career
A chorus girl by age 18, Keyes was put under contract by Cecil B. DeMille. After a handful of B movies at Paramount Pictures, she landed her most notable role, that of Scarlett O’Hara’s sister Suellen in Gone with the Wind (1939). Keyes’ last important film role was a small part as Tom Ewell’s vacationing wife in The Seven Year Itch (1955), which starred Marilyn Monroe. Keyes officially retired in 1956, but continued to act.
Death of Evelyn Keyes
She died of uterine cancer on July 4, 2008 at her home in Montecito, near Santa Barbara
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Evelyn Keyes as Helen: Janos and Helen "If I Never Knew You"
Personal life
She was married to Barton Bainbridge from 1938 until his death in 1940. Later she married and divorced director Charles Vidor (1943 – 1945), actor/director John Huston (23 July 1946 – 1950), and bandleader Artie Shaw (1957 – 1985). Keyes said of her many relationships, "I was always interested in the man of the moment, and there were many such moments". While married to Huston, the couple adopted a Mexican child, Pablo, whom Huston had discovered while on the set of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
In her 1977 biography she writes of the personal cost she paid having an abortion just before Gone with the Wind was to begin filming. The experience left her unable to have children.
Her autobiography, Scarlett O’Hara’s Younger Sister: My Lively Life in and Out of Hollywood, was published in 1977. Keyes has expressed her opinion that Mrs. Mike was her best film.
Filmography
The Buccaneer (1938) as Madeleine
Dangerous to Know (1938) (uncredited)
Men with Wings (1938) (uncredited) Nurse
Sons of the Legion (1938) as Linda Lee
Artists and Models Abroad (1938) aka Stranded in Paris (UK) (uncredited)
Paris Honeymoon (1939) (uncredited) as Village Girl
Sudden Money (1939) as Mary Patterson
Union Pacific (1939) as Mrs. Calvin
Gone with the Wind (1939) as Suellen O’Hara
Slightly Honorable (1940) as Miss Vlissingen
The Lady in Question (1940) as Francois Morestan
Before I Hang (1940) as Martha Garth
Beyond the Sacramento (1940) aka Power of Justice (UK) as Lynn Perry
The Face Behind the Mask (1941) aka Behind the Mask (UK) as Helen Williams
Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) as Bette Logan
Ladies in Retirement (1941) as Lucy
The Adventures of Martin Eden (1942) aka High Seas (USA reissue title) as Ruth Morley
Flight Lieutenant (1942) as Susie Thompson
The Desperadoes (1943) as Allison McLeod
Dangerous Blondes (1943) as Jane Craig
There’s Something About a Soldier (1943) as Carol Harkness
Nine Girls (1944) as Mary O’Ryan
Strange Affair (1944) as Jacqueline Harrison
A Thousand and One Nights (1945) aka 1001 Nights as the Genie
Renegades (1946) as Hannah Brockway
The Thrill of Brazil (1946) as Vicki Dean
The Jolson Story (1946) as Julie Benson
Johnny O’Clock (1947) as Nancy Hobson
The Mating of Millie (1948) as Millie McGonigle
Enchantment (1948) as Grizel Dane
Mr. Soft Touch (1949) aka House of Settlement (UK) as Jenny Jones
Mrs. Mike (1949) as Kathy Flannigan
The Killer That Stalked New York (1950) aka Frightened City (UK) (USA copyright title) as Sheila Bennet
Smuggler’s Island (1951) as Vivian Craig
The Prowler (1951) as Susan Gilvray
Iron Man (1951) as Rose Warren
One Big Affair (1952) as Jean Harper
C’est arrivé à Paris (1953) aka It Happened in Paris (USA) as Patricia Moran
Rough Shoot (1953) aka Shoot First (USA) as Cecily Paine
99 River Street (1953) aka Crosstown as Linda James
Hell’s Half Acre (1954) as Donna Williams
The Seven Year Itch (1955) as Helen Sherman
Top of the World (1955) as Virgie Rayne (Mrs. Gannon)
Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) as The Flirt
Across 110th Street (1972) cameo
A Return to Salem’s Lot (1987) as Mrs. Axel
Wicked Stepmother (1989) as Witch Instructor