Alice Faye

Born Alice Leppert on May 5, 1915, in New York City, Alice Faye rose to prominence as a Hollywood actress and singer throughout the 1930s and 1940s. She entered professional performance by age 14, singing and dancing on stage, and by 1931 she had secured a position as a chorus girl in the Broadway production George White's Scandals. Rudy Vallée noticed her there and immediately hired her as a vocalist for his touring band. When the show transferred to Hollywood for filming, Vallée demanded she receive the lead part. A bleached blonde styled after Jean Harlow, she soon established herself as a regular presence in screen musicals, with credits that included On the Avenue in 1937 and both Alexander's Ragtime Band and In Old Chicago the following year. She also enjoyed success as a radio performer.

Frequent conflicts with Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck began to stall her momentum in the early 1940s. After barring her from additional broadcast work, Zanuck brought in Betty Grable, who soon eclipsed Faye as the studio's leading musical attraction. Following her role in the 1945 release Fallen Angel, Faye stepped away from film for two decades, returning only for State Fair in 1962. She then remained outside Hollywood for another fourteen years, concluding her career instead with stage work on Broadway and in touring productions. She died on May 9, 1998, at the age of 83.