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Veronica Lake
from Sullivan's Travels (1941)
Birth name	Constance Frances Marie Ockelman
Born	November 14, 1922(1922-11-14) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	July 07, 1973 (aged 50) Burlington, Vermont, U.S.
Spouse(s)	John S. Detlie (1940-1943) André De Toth (1944-1952) Joseph A. McCarthy (1955-1959) Robert Carleton-Munro (1972-1973)

Veronica Lake (November 14, 1922^[1] – July 7, 1973) was a popular American film actress and pin-up model who enjoyed both popular and critical acclaim, especially for her femme fatale roles in film noir with Alan Ladd during the 1940s.

Her success was fleeting. Following a string of broken marriages and long struggles with mental illness and alcoholism, she died almost destitute.

Contents 1 Early life and career 2 1940s icon 3 Tragic spiral 4 Quotes 5 References in popular culture 6 Filmography 7 References 8 External links

Veronica Lake was born Constance Frances Marie Ockelman in Brooklyn, New York on November 22, 1922, and not 1919 as some biographies have previously stated. Her father, Harry E. Ockelman, of Danish-Irish descent,^[2] worked for an oil company onboard a ship. When she was about one year old, the family moved to Florida but returned to Brooklyn before she was five. Her father died in an industrial explosion in Philadelphia in 1932 when she was 9. Her mother (née Constance Charlotta Trimble)^[3] married family friend Anthony Keane, a newspaper staff artist, a year later, and Ockelman began using his last name.

Connie was sent to an all-girls Catholic boarding school in Montreal, Canada, which she hated. The Keane family later moved to Miami, Florida. Constance Keane attended high school in Miami, where she was known for her beauty. She had a troubled childhood and was allegedly diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic during her teenage years, although no records exist to verify this diagnosis.

In 1938, Keane moved with her mother and stepfather to Beverly Hills, California, where her mother enrolled Keane in the celebrated Bliss-Hayden School of Acting at the Beverly Hills Playhouse. Her first appearance on screen was for RKO, playing a small role among several coeds in the 1939 film, Sorority House. Similar roles followed, including All Women Have Secrets and Dancing Co-Ed.

During the making of Sorority House, director John Farrow first noticed how her hair always covered her right eye, creating an air of mystery about her and enhancing her natural beauty. She was then introduced to the Paramount producer Arthur Hornblow Jr. He changed her name to Veronica Lake because, "[w]hen I think about Veronica, I think about classic, and ... [her] beauty is a classical beauty", and the surname suited her blue eyes.

Her contract was subsequently dropped by RKO. She married art director John S. Detlie in 1940. Another small role in the comedy, Forty Little Mothers, brought unexpected attention. In 1941, she was signed to a long term contract with Paramount Pictures. On August 21, she gave birth to a daughter, Elaine Detlie.

Her breakthrough film was I Wanted Wings in 1941, a major hit in which she played the second female lead and was said to have stolen scene after scene from the rest of the cast. This success was followed by Hold Back the Dawn later that year. She was soon regarded as a witty, intelligent and trend-setting actress and had starring roles in more popular movies, including Sullivan's Travels, This Gun for Hire, I Married a Witch, The Glass Key, and So Proudly We Hail!. Looking back at her career years later, Lake remarked, "I never did cheesecake; I just used my hair."

For a short time during the early 1940s, Lake was considered one of the most reliable box office draws in Hollywood and was also known for her onscreen pairings with actor Alan Ladd. At first, the couple was teamed together merely out of physical necessity: Alan Ladd was just 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m) tall and the only actress then on the Paramount lot short enough to pair with him was Lake, who stood just 4 feet 11½ inches (1.51 m). They made four films together.

A stray lock of her shoulder-length blonde hair during a publicity photo shoot led to her iconic peekaboo hairstyle, which hid one eye, and was widely imitated. During World War II, she changed her trademark image to encourage women working in war industry factories to adopt more practical, safer hairstyles.

Although widely popular with the public, Lake had a complex personality and acquired a reputation for being difficult to work with. Eddie Bracken, her co-star in Star Spangled Rhythm was quoted as saying "[s]he was known as 'The Bitch' and she deserved the title." In that movie, Lake took part in a song lampooning her hair style, "A Sweater, A Sarong and a Peekaboo Bang", performed with Dorothy Lamour and Paulette Goddard, although some of Lake's vocals were dubbed.

Lake's career stumbled with her unsympathetic role as Nazi sympathizer Dora Bruckman in 1944's The Hour Before the Dawn. During filming, she tripped on a lighting cable and her second child, William, was born prematurely on July 8, 1943, dying a week later from uremic poisoning. By the end of 1943, her first marriage ended in divorce. Meanwhile, scathing reviews of The Hour Before Dawn included criticism of her unconvincing German accent, which was said to have interfered disastrously with her acting.

Nevertheless, Lake was making $4,500 per week under her contract with Paramount when she married director André de Toth in 1944. Their son, her third child, André Michael de Toth III, was born October 25, 1945. Lake is said to have begun drinking more heavily during this period and people began refusing to work with her. Paramount cast Lake in a string of mostly forgotten films. A notable exception was The Blue Dahlia (1946) in which she again co-starred with Alan Ladd (who reportedly was also less than fond of her). During filming, author Raymond Chandler referred to her as "Moronica Lake". Paramount decided not to renew her contract in 1948.

Her fourth child, Diana de Toth, was born October 16, 1948. Lake was also sued by her mother for support payments that year. After a single film for 20th Century Fox, her career collapsed. By the end of 1952, she had appeared in one last film (Stronghold, which she later described as "a dog"), filed for bankruptcy, and divorced de Toth. The IRS seized the remainder of her assets for unpaid taxes. Lake turned to television and stage work, and in 1955, married songwriter Joseph A. McCarthy.

After breaking her ankle in 1959, Lake was unable to continue working as an actress. She and McCarthy divorced, and she drifted between cheap hotels in Brooklyn and New York City and was arrested several times for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct.

A reporter found her working as a barmaid at the all women's Martha Washington Hotel in Manhattan. At first, Veronica claimed that she was a guest at the hotel and covering for a friend. Soon afterward, she admitted that she was employed at the bar. The reporter's widely distributed story led to some television and stage appearances. In 1966, she had a brief stint as a TV hostess in Baltimore, Maryland, along with a largely ignored film role in Footsteps in the Snow.

Her physical and mental health declined steadily and by the late 1960s Lake was in Hollywood, Florida, apparently immobilized by paranoia (which included claims she was being stalked by the FBI).

She published her autobiography Veronica amid much publicity and positive reviews. With the proceeds, Lake co-produced and starred in her last film, Flesh Feast (1970), a very low budget horror movie with a Nazi-myth storyline.

She then moved to the UK, where she had a short-lived marriage with "English sea captain" Robert Carleton-Munro before returning to the U.S. in 1973, having filed for divorce. Lake was immediately hospitalized and although she is said to have made a cheerful and positive impression on the nurses who cared for her, she was apparently estranged from her three surviving children. She had no guests or visitors and was destitute again.

Lake was 50 when she died of hepatitis and acute renal failure (complications of her alcoholism) near Burlington, Vermont. Her ashes were scattered off the Virgin Islands. In 2004, some of Lake's ashes were reportedly found in a New York antique store.^[4]

Lake has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6918 Hollywood Boulevard for her contributions to the motion picture industry.

• "I wasn't a sex symbol, I was a sex zombie."

• "You could put all the talent I had into your left eye and still not suffer from impaired vision."

• "I've reached a point in my life where it's the little things that matter... I was always a rebel and probably could have got much farther had I changed my attitude. But when you think about it, I got pretty far without changing attitudes. I'm happier with that." (1970)

• The Archie comics character Veronica Lodge was partially named after Veronica Lake, who was in the midst of her early celebrity when the comic book character was introduced in the spring of 1942.

• The first two lines of the Rodgers & Hart song "The Girl I Love to Leave Behind" (which is featured in the 1943 movie Stage Door Canteen) are "She has hair that she wears like Veronica Lake / So that fifty percent of her is blind."

• Veronica Lake is also the name of a fictional lake located near the small town of Frostbite Falls, Minnesota (a parody of International Falls) on the animated Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

• In 1997, the Academy Award-winning film L.A. Confidential paid homage to Lake's image and manner through Kim Basinger's starring role in an adaptation of James Ellroy's crime novel set in early 1950s Los Angeles. The movie also displayed Lake's photograph and mentioned her. Another scene included an image of Lake from This Gun for Hire screening in the background.

• Peter Hammill's 2000 album None of the Above contains a song entitled Like Veronica, of which the opening line is "Wear your hair like Veronica Lake."

• Britney Spears paid tribute to Lake in Spears' video of her single "Lucky".

• Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit was designed after Veronica Lake and Rita Hayworth. Jessica also sports Lake's trademark peekaboo hairstyle.

• In the Family Guy episode "Deep Throats" in the restaurant scene Stewie is in drag wearing a Veronica Lake wig.

• A clip from This Gun for Hire was incorporated into the 1982 film Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid.

• The characters "Veronica Lake and her Escort" walk into the Copacabana night club in Barry Manilow's musical comedy Copacabana, and are escorted to a table.

• The character of Ronnie Lake in the hit CBS drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is named after her.

• Sorority House (1939)
• The Wrong Room (Short subject, 1939)
• Dancing Co-Ed (1939)
• All Women Have Secrets (1939)
• Young As You Feel (1940)
• Forty Little Mothers (1940)
• I Wanted Wings (1941)
• Hold Back the Dawn (Cameo, 1941)
• Sullivan's Travels (1941)
• The Eyes Have It (Short subject, 1942)
• This Gun for Hire (1942)
• The Glass Key (1942)
• I Married a Witch (1942)
• Star Spangled Rhythm (1942)
• So Proudly We Hail! (1943)
• The Hour Before the Dawn (1944)
• Bring on the Girls (1945)
• Out of This World (1945)
• Duffy's Tavern (Cameo, 1945)
• Hold That Blonde (1945)
• Miss Susie Slagle's (1946)
• The Blue Dahlia (1946)
• Ramrod (1947)
• Variety Girl (Cameo, 1947)
• Saigon (1948)
• The Sainted Sisters (1948)
• Isn't It Romantic? (1948)
• Slattery's Hurricane (1949)
• Stronghold (1951)
• Footsteps in the Snow (1966)
• Flesh Feast (1970)

• Veronica Lake at the Internet Movie Database
• Veronica Lake at the TCM Movie Database
• Veronica Lake at Find a Grave
• Veronica Lake biography