Jean Gillie | |
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| Born | Jean Mabel Coomber (1915-10-14)14 October 1915 London, England |
| Died | 19 February 1949(1949-02-19) (aged 33) London, England |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1935–1947 |
| Spouse | Jack Bernhard (1944–47; divorced) |
Jean Gillie (14 October 1915 – 19 February 1949) was an English film actress of the 1930s and 1940s. Gillie appeared in 20 British and two American films before her career was cut short by her early death.
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Gillie broke into films in 1935 inWhile Parents Sleep.[1] She quickly chalked up a number of credits inquota quickie productions. Most of these were comedic in nature, and Gillie's good looks and apparent aptitude for comedy attracted the attention of stage starJack Buchanan, who pushed for her to be cast in the 1936screen version ofThis'll Make You Whistle in which he was to star.
She acquitted herself well in the film, showing a natural talent for playing comedy, and over the next few years went on to appear in a series of madcap roles in films such asThe Girl in the Taxi (1937),Sweet Devil (1938) andTilly of Bloomsbury (1940).[citation needed]
Gillie made no films in 1941 or 1942, but returned to the screen in 1943 in a straight dramatic role as one of the lead players inLeslie Howard's wartime propaganda pieceThe Gentle Sex. This was followed byThe Saint Meets the Tiger, notable as the first time her characterPatricia Holm (the love interest ofSimon Templar akaThe Saint) was ever featured on screen in any film adaptation of a novel from theLeslie CharterisThe Saint canon. 1944 saw Gillie starring in the whimsical propaganda dramaTawny Pipit, while her last British filmFlight from Folly (1945) marked a return to comedy.[citation needed]
During the war, Gillie met American film directorJack Bernhard while he was on military service and stationed in Britain. The couple married on 5 May 1944,[2] and after the end of the war went to live in the United States. Gillie made her American screen debut in 1946 in the cultfilm noirDecoy, directed by Bernhard.[3]
This was a radical departure from any role she had played before, casting her as a devious—femme fatale. A contemporary reviewer commented: "It's been a long time since the screen has seen a more sinister feminine character than the one which Jean Gillie plays inDecoy"[4]
The film was aPoverty Row production fromMonogram Pictures, fading from view after its original cinema run and remaining little-known and largely unseen for many years. Later, however, it has gained an appreciative new audience among film noir aficionados after being included in Volume 4 of the Warner Bros. issued DVD seriesFilm Noir Classics Collection, released in the US in 2007, when it was described inEntertainment Weekly as a "weird but transfixing tale".[5]
In 1947 Gillie appeared in theGregory Peck vehicleThe Macomber Affair, which turned out to be her final film. Her marriage to Bernhard had quickly run into trouble, and the couple divorced.[citation needed]
Gillie returned to Britain in 1948 but had no time to revive her British career, as she died ofpneumonia on 19 February 1949, aged 33.[6]
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