Nancy Gates

Biography

Nancy Gates (February 1, 1926 – March 24, 2019) was an American actress who worked in film and television. Her career in Hollywood spanned from the early 1940s until her retirement in 1969.

Born in Dallas and raised in nearby Denton, Texas, she was performing on local stages and had her own radio show on WFAA in Dallas while still in high school. At fifteen she signed with RKO, a contract that needed court approval because she was a minor. Orson Welles screen-tested her for The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), though the part went to Anne Baxter; the test nonetheless helped open the door to films. Her early credits were mostly B-movies, many of them westerns or science fiction, and she eventually won leads in several. She also took supporting parts in two Frank Sinatra films, Suddenly and Some Came Running, and in westerns such as Comanche Station.

She worked steadily on radio and television too, appearing often in anthology series and playing several defendants on Perry Mason. In total she starred or co-starred in 34 films and serials and made 55 television appearances. She retired in 1969 to be nearer her family. Her reputation rests on a dependable career built from character and supporting work rather than on stardom.

Key films

• The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), the screen test that led to her RKO contract
• This Land Is Mine (1943), with Charles Laughton, directed by Jean Renoir
• Suddenly (1954), opposite Frank Sinatra, as Ellen Benson
• Some Came Running (1958), also with Sinatra
• Comanche Station (1960), the Budd Boetticher western with Randolph Scott
• World Without End (1956), science fiction, as Garnet