Tandra Quinn Profile

Tandra Quinn

	(Derline Jeanette Smith)
27 March 31	is born in a Los Angeles, California, charity hospital of partly Rumanian descent to an electrician-lineman and a magazine saleslady
August 33	is chosen the “Perfect Baby of America” at a Los Angeles baby show
c. 33	is almost fatally burned in a heater accident at her parents’ home on Union Street at age 2 and a half
?	is a child fashion model
10 May 40	her sister, Loretta Lee, is born in Los Angeles
c. 41	attends the Grace Bowman School of Drama and Dance at age 10 / 11
c. 43	screen-tests at 20th Century-Fox at age 11 / 12
c. 44	auditions for MGM’s National Velvet. Her part eventually goes to Elizabeth Taylor.
47	her mother tries to get her the part of Catana in Captain from Castile. The role eventually goes to Jean Peters.
?	20th Century-Fox signs her to a seven-year contract but drops her because she “has something wrong with her face,” a result of the burns she received at two
50	lives with her parents in Inglewood
20 June 50	is chosen “Goose Girl” at Hollywood Park. “She will preside over the geese in the Hollypark infield.”
26 June 50	as Derline Smith, the “Goose Girl,” she guests on TV’s “Turf Topics” on KTTV
c. 50	Germany-born writer-director Herbert von Schoellenbach, a.k.a. Herbert Tevos, casts her for his upcoming Mesa of Lost Women. He tries to become her Svengali and suggests renaming her Tandra Nova. He’s about 55; she’s about 18.
?	moves in with a female friend of John Carroll's in Tarzana to be closer to the set of Mesa of Lost Women
?	Tevos takes her to the Sportsmen’s Lodge
?	moves into an apartment on Ozeta Terrace in Hollywood
Early 50s	photographer Paul Hesse arranges an appointment for her at RKO to meet Howard Hughes so he can check her over. Hughes wants her to pose in bright light while he hides behind a curtain, but she refuses. She will later say: "I was probably the only girl ever to stand up the big shot Howard Hughes!"
c. 53	during the filming of Problem Girls, her director, Ewald André Dupont, takes her out to a restaurant-bar in Hollywood
53	as Jeanette Quinn, she’s in The Neanderthal Man
54	marries Herbert Smithson, a builder in the Brentwood and Beverly Hills area. She’s about 23; he’s about 44.
?	her two children are born
?	she and her husband travel the South Pacific
95	her husband dies
?	becomes interested in mining and moves to Arizona
?	moves to Texas to work for a gold mining associate
07	as Derline Jeanette Smithson, she resides in Denton, Texas
20 October 16	dies at age 85 in Florida from cancer

Sources: Tom Weaver, The Evening Tribune, Long Beach Independent, www.Ancestry.com
Recommended Books:
Links: Filmography Tandra Quinn on YouTube