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Pat Williams Profile

Pat Williams
Pat Williams
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(Patricia Lee Williams)
32 is born in Tacoma, Washington, to Clyde N. Williams, a railroad telegrapher, and his wife Sammy M. The family resides at 324 North I Street. She has a brother, Neldon. Her older sister is Joann, and her younger sister is Donna.
? gets her first theatrical experience when she is billed with her sisters in an amateur show in Aberdeen, Washington, at the D & R Theatre
attends Stewart Junior High School and both Lincoln and Stadium High Schools and Aquinas Academy, all in Tacoma
while in the ninth grade at Stewart Junior High School, she is voted best looking girl in a school beauty contest. She is the student body choice mostly likely to succeed.
45 leaves Aquinas Academy to move to San Diego with her family
47 goes to Hollywood accompanied by her sister Donna, who will study voice.
48 auditions for Ken Murray's Blackouts. Murray and producer Dave Siegel narrow it down to two girls; the girl rejected is Marilyn Monroe.
two weeks after she joins the show, Murray gives her some words to speak. When customers pay less attention to her speaking lines and more to her other lines, Murray makes her Marie Wilson's understudy. She will later replace Wilson for the New York run of the show.
Ken Murray later adds, "Pat put on one of Marie's gowns and right away I saw that she was the right girl who could fill her, uh, shoes."
while in Blackouts, she rounds out her education at Long's Professional School and Hollywood Professional School
catches the eye of billionaire Howard Hughes during the Hollywood run of Blackouts. He hopes that flowers might be one way to win some affection from her.
poses in the nude for photographer Tom Kelley, as did another Fifties blonde, Marilyn Monroe, and is associated with agent Johnny Hyde, as was Marilyn
10 May 48 is photographed with fishing gear. “What fish could resist lures like these? The angling season gets a good send-off…”
1 August 48 Dorothy Kilgallen reports that "the last who hated to see Franchot Tone return to Hollywood this week is Pat Williams of Blackouts. They were a steady date while he was in Manhattan."
12 August 49 the 18-year-old appears in Los Angeles court to get her thousand-dollar-a-week contract with Ken Murray approved for movies, radio, television, and the stage
21 August 49 Hollywood correspondent William Tusher interviews her in a tiny El Capitan theater dressing room. When asked how it feels to be in Marie Wilson's shoes, she trilled, "I'm thrilled." Tusher writes: "Judging from the rumor of her gown, she must also have been chilled. It's the only dress this reporter has seen that you don't have to get out of to be out of."
Ken Murray describes her stage attire as "the nicest dressless evening strap I've ever seen."
asked what she thought her mother would say, Sammy not yet having seen Blackouts, she smiles, "Mother understands show business." What about her father? "Pop would be surprised."
her present steady, she confesses, is actor Michael North, but her dream man, whom she never has met, is Montgomery Clift. "I think he's a doll," she drools.
her Hollywood date book has included Mel Torme--before he married--and David Street--before he was married. She discreetly appends the last phrase in each case.
13 October 49 her shapely curves win her the title of "Sweetest Figure of the Year." She is awarded the title by author and columnist Earl Wilson, who was chosen “Sweetest Author of the Year” by the Sweetest Day Committee for his laugh-provoking book Let ‘Em Eat Cheesecake. The compliment comes as a reminder that October 15 is "Sweetest Day," a day to remember to make someone happy. Merchants and civil organizations participate in local and national programs on the third Saturday in October to distribute gifts to orphan homes, hospitals, homes for the aged and other charitable organizations.
21 October 49 Earl Wilson reports that “busty Pat Williams of Blackouts, who just signed a movie contract with MGM, aroused a little jealousy among less-sensationally proportioned gals. One of them said, ‘Pat? Why, she’s deformed.’”
24 October 49 four leggy beauties from the cast of Ken Murray's Blackouts today had not one good word between them for New York dramatic critics. The vaudeville-type show ran for seven years in Hollywood; it was seven weeks on Broadway before it folded. “The critics killed us. The audiences were grand, just like Hollywood, but we had to close because none of the critics had a kind word,” she said.
in New York Ken Murray puts in a plug for the "California chassis," using her as an outstanding example. "New York girls," he said, "are hothouse plants who've been brought up under nightclub lights. The California girls are sun-kissed, healthy and tanned. And they're naturally curvy."
30 December 49 returns to Hollywood on a seven-year MGM contract but has no assignment. Under court approval, she'll start at $150 a week and climb to $1,500 a week by the time the contract expires. "I was called to the studio one day, and Mr. Mayer signed me up right there."
She will later sign with Columbia.
15 January 50 she tells columnist Earl Wilson about her days at MGM: "Every morning at 10 o'clock I come in with 7 or 8 other girls who are under contract, and we study dramatics and diction. I haven't made a picture yet--right now I'm just going to school."
Late 49/Early 50 her father dies in Tacoma
50 serves as honorary princess in the Puyallup Valley Daffodil Festival in Tacoma
20 December 51 is off to the Caribbean on an USO tour to entertain the military forces. Others in the troupe are Richard Allan, Zachary Scott, Pat Williams, Bob Hawk, Harry Brown, Helen Stanley, Raymond Walburn, and Joy Windsor. They are expected to return to Hollywood January 5.
Mid-50s after being dropped by Columbia, she finds no further film offers and relocates to Las Vegas to work as a showgirl
September 55 is a dancer in the chorus line at the Sands Hotel
18 September 55 after a month of marriage, she is divorced from Danny Stein, a casino pit boss at the Sands Hotel
21 September 55 is found dead in the bedroom of her apartment in Las Vegas, Nevada, an apparent suicide from a barbiturate overdose. Dr. Byron Howells will perform an autopsy. She left a note indicating despondency over her marital difficulties.
she is survived by her mother, Mrs. Clyde Williams of Beverly Hills, California; two sisters, Donna Williams of Las Vegas, Nevada, also in the show at the Sands, and Mrs. H. W. (Joann) Thompson of Arcadia, California; and a brother, Neldon Williams of Boise, Idaho. Burial will be in Forest Lawn Cemetery, Glendale.
Sources:
Fallen Angels by Kirk Crivello, The Charleston Gazette, Reno Evening Gazette, The Gleaner, Long Beach Press-Telegram, The News, Nevada State Journal, Oakland Tribune, San Mateo Times, The Tacoma News Tribune, The Tacoma Sunday Ledger-News Tribune, The Times Recorder, The Van Nuys News
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