Noreen Nash

Noreen Nash (born Norabelle Jean Roth, April 4, 1924) is a retired American film and television actress. 

Early years
Nash was born on Aprl 4, 1924, in Wenatchee, Washington.  Her parents were Albert, who was in the beverage industry, and Gail Roth, a teacher.  Gail died in 1998 at the age of 99. 

Film and television career
Nash's career started in 1942 when she was crowned ”Apple Blossom Queen” in her home town.  With help from Louis Shurr, Bob Hope’s agent, she entered showbusiness and eventually got a contract with MGM as a showgirl.  She initially had declined, since she had planned to attend Stanford University.  Her screen debut came in the 1943 musical film Girl Crazy, which starred Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland.  Her MGM contract lapsed in 1944. 

A 1945 newspaper article reported Nash's being helped by actress Paulette Goddard.  Goddard, the article said, was "sponsoring the career of shapely, brunette, blue-eyed and very beautiful Noreen Nash."  The article added that Nash's screen tests at Paramount Pictures were "arranged through the instigation of Paulette.  As a result Noreen was signed to a term contract." 

Uncredited in her first movies, Nash eventually landed a role in director Jean Renoir's 1945 film The Southerner as Becky Devers.  It was nominated for three categories at the 18th Academy Awards in 1946. 
During this time, she changed her screen surname to Nash, inspired by her father in the film, J. Carroll Naish.  She and Renoir remained friends for the rest of his life. 

She appeared in films and television shows throughout the late '40s and 1950s.  Nash had leading roles in 1947's The Big Fix, about gamblers trying to rig a basketball game, and the crime drama Assigned to Danger (1948). 

She played a ranch owner in the Western Storm Over Wyoming (1950), and one of her most noted films was one about a ranch owner, Giant (1956), in which she played the small role of film star Lona Lane. 

Some of the television series in which Nash appeared include Hopalong Cassidy, The Abbott and Costello Show and 77 Sunset Strip. 
She retired from acting in 1962. 

Later life
Nash attended UCLA, majoring in history, after retiring from acting.  She graduated with a Bachelor's degree in 1971.  She published the novel By Love Fulfilled in 1980, which was about a doctor in the 16th century. 

Personal life
Nash married Dr. Lee Siegel on December 12, 1942, in Las Vegas after only having known each other for little over a month.  They had two sons, Lee Siegel Jr., a novelist and religion professor, and Robert James Siegel, a cardiologist.  Dr. Siegel died on May 7, 1990.  In 2001, she married actor James Whitmore, who died in 2009. 

Nash is a Democrat who supported the campaign of Adlai Stevenson during the 1952 presidential election. 

Filmography

Television credits

Works
By Love Fulfilled
Agnès Sorel, Mistress of Beauty
Titans of the Muses: When Henry Miller Met Jean Renoir

References

External links

Noreen Nash at the American Film Institute

Category:1924 births
Category:Living people
Category:American film actresses
Category:American television actresses
Category:People from Wenatchee, Washington
Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players
Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:California Democrats
Category:Washington (state) Democrats
Category:Paramount Pictures contract players
Category:American writers