Claire Carleton (September 28, 1913 – December 11, 1979) was an American actress whose career spanned four decades from the 1930s through the 1960s. She appeared in over 100 films, the majority of them features, and on numerous television shows, including several recurring roles. In addition to her screen acting, she had a successful stage career.
Early life
Carleton was born in New York City. She began acting on the stage, eventually making it to Broadway, where she made her debut as Lucy in the short-lived play, Blue Monday in June, 1932.[1]
Career
Although she made her film debut in a small role in a 1933 film short, Seasoned Greetings, and continued to occasionally make shorts for the remainder of the decade, she concentrated on her stage career during the 1930s.[2] She made her first appearance in a feature film in 1940's Millionaire Playboy, starring Joe Penner, Linda Hayes, and Russ Brown.[3] During her film career she was often cast as the "other woman", or in a sexually promiscuous role.[4]
Her career ran the gamut of roles, from small, uncredited, unnamed roles, such as a nightclub patron in the 1949 musical, On the Town,[5] to small supporting roles such as Vicki Vale in 1948's If You Knew Susie,[6]
to small featured roles such as Miss Francis in the classic drama Death of a Salesman (1951),[7] and leading roles such as in Girl from Havana (1940), in which "Havana" was her character's name, and Gildersleeve on Broadway (1943), where she played Francine Gray.[8] She had featured supporting roles in numerous films, among the most notable being: the lead of Kay Stevens in the 1941 Western mystery The Great Train Robbery;[9] as Ruby LaRue in A Night of Adventure (1944), starring Tom Conway;[10] as Belle Townley in the 1946 western, Gun Town, starring Kirby Grant;[11] in one of The Shadow films, The Missing Lady (1946), in the role of Rose Dawson;[12] and Grace in 1949's It's a Great Feeling, starring Doris Day, Jack Carson, and Dennis Morgan.[13] During the mid-1940s she also starred in a series of two-reelers with Leon Errol, such as 1946's Poppa Knows Worst.[4][14]
Carleton married Fred E. Sherman, to whom she remained married until his death in 1969. She died from cancer on December 11, 1979, aged 66, in Northridge, Los Angeles, California, and was interred next to her husband at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California.
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