Ramsay Ames (born Ramsay Phillips,[1] March 30, 1919 – March 30, 1998) was a leading 1940s American B movie actress,[2][3] model, dancer,[4]pin-up girl and television hostess. As a dancer, she was billed as Ramsay D'el Rico.
Of Spanish/English descent,[1] Ames was born on Long Island.[6] Athletic in high school, she excelled as a swimmer. Ames first was recognized as a dancer/singer before moving into sultry-eyed 1940s film roles.[7][8]
Ames became part of a dance team under the name Ramsay D'el Rico[1] and appeared as a model at the Eastman Kodak-sponsored fashion show at the 1939 New York World's Fair. An injury forced her to alter her dance career plans. She took up singing and became the vocalist with a top rhumba band.[9]
During a trip to California to visit her mother, Ramsay had a chance meeting at the airport with Columbia Pictures President Harry Cohn. The meeting resulted in a screen test and then her movie debut in Two Señoritas from Chicago (1943).[9] I
After her career subsided in the 1940s, Ames and her husband lived in Spain, where she had her own television interview show and occasionally took on support roles in films produced in Europe.[12]
According to director William Witney, some of Republic Pictures' stuntmen suffered more injuries running on rooftops to get a better look at Ramsay Ames walking across the backlot than were hurt performing dangerous action sequences in the studio's westerns.[13]
