Gloria Jean

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Gloria Jean Schoonover (born April 14, 1926 in Buffalo, New York) is an American singer and actress who used the professional name "Gloria Jean".

Her family moved to Scranton, Pennsylvania, where she sang on radio with Paul Whiteman's band. She was being trained as the world's youngest coloratura soprano, when her operatic coach took her to audition for movie producer Joe Pasternak in 1938. Gloria won the leading role in Universal Pictures' 1939 feature The Under-Pup, and became one of the studio's reliable stars. She co-starred with Bing Crosby, W. C. Fields, Donald O'Connor, Olsen & Johnson, and Mel Torme, in addition to playing leads in Universal's popular teenage musicals.

Her most famous film appearance is in 1941's Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, opposite Fields. Her dramatic tour de force, as a blind girl being menaced by an escaped killer, was filmed for Julien Duvivier's Flesh and Fantasy, but deleted, and expanded into the 1944 melodrama, Destiny.

When Gloria's Universal contract lapsed, her agent arranged a busy schedule of personal appearances. In 1946 she returned to Hollywood and resumed her movie career. Stage and television work followed in the 1950s, but she kept her hand in with occasional motion picture roles. She retired from show business in 1962 and began a 30-year career with Redken Laboratories, a national cosmetics firm. She is now retired and living in California.

Gloria Jean's film work is beginning to receive more exposure: If I Had My Way has been restored to its original length and issued on DVD, followed by the DVD release of Never Give a Sucker an Even Break. Universal Pictures has also struck new 35mm prints of Mister Big and Get Hep to Love for theatrical use.

Gloria Jean's authorized book biography was published in 2005 (Gloria Jean: A Little Bit of Heaven by Scott and Jan MacGillivray, [1] and [2]). A tribute website appears at http://home.earthlink.net/~under-pup/.


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