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Marla English Profile

Marla English
Marla English
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(Marleine Gale English)
4 January 35 is born in San Diego, California, to Mr. and Mrs. Arthur H. English. Her father is English; her mother, Italian.
c. 48 models bathing garb for leading advertising agencies at age 12. She enters six bathing beauty contests and each time emerges a winner; as a result, she’s noted by a Hollywood talent scout.
? is a water skiing champion
c. 51 is named “Fairest of the Fair” at the San Diego County Fair at 16 and signs with Les Paul and Mary Ford’s agent to become a film star
? plays on stage at the Global Theater in San Diego
graduates from Hoover High School
? poses in a bathing suit for publicity pictures, which are seen by producer Hal B. Wallis. She goes into an intensive period of coaching and grooming at Paramount’s talent school.
? rooms with fellow actress Kathryn Grant
August 53 is chosen "Miss Fiber Flower" by the National Florist Design Association because of her "fresh beauty"
20 August 53 elopes with Paramount player Richard Shannon to Las Vegas
January 54 attends the premiere of Cease Fire!, a story about the Korean War, with escort Corporal Robert Western. Western was a prisoner of war in North Korea for 37 months.
April 54 is singer Guy Mitchell’s date; he was recently divorced from Jackie Loughery
advertises for Hollywood Bread
May 54 columnist Louella Parsons knows: “Glamorous Marla English, the girl who won herself a long-term contract at Paramount, has been borrowed by Howard Hughes on a 20-week deal. Howard has big plans for Marla and will shortly announce an important motion picture for her.”
July 54 attends the Knock On Wood premiere with Geordie Hormel
August 54 writes a bulging 12-page letter each day to Larry Pennell, who is on location in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for Blue Horizon
28 August 54 is named "Miss Scorpion of 1954" by the U.S. Air Force's "Flying Tiger" fighter-interceptor squadron at Presque Isle. She is chosen unanimously by the fliers as "the personality calculated to arouse the most tiger in us."
September 54 she and Bud Pennell are among the twosomes at Lori Nelson’s birthday party
55 she and fellow actress Jayne Mansfield pose at the Dunes, Las Vegas, for Bernard of Hollywood
July 55 columnist Walter Winchell writes: “Screen lovely Marla English and husband Budd Pennell are saying good bye...”
August 55 test-visits the four kingdoms of Disneyland with actor Larry Pennell
? is madly in love with Pennell until something very tragic occurs
? has had some unhappy experiences with a few people in the business, including Dean Martin and, particularly, billionaire Howard Hughes
Late September 55 tests for the role of the Indian princess Aouda in Mike Todd’s upcoming Around the World in 80 Days. The part eventually goes to Shirley MacLaine.
November 55 is suspended by Paramount for turning down the lead opposite Spencer Tracy in The Mountain because she's too deeply in love with Bud/before leaving for Europe to film on location, she falls ill from a smallpox vaccination and is pulled out of the movie, prompting Paramount to suspend her and replace her with Barbara Darrow Pennell to leave him for France/ turns down the part later accepted by Barbara Darrow in The Mountain because she thinks the role isn't big enough
attends the premiere of The Tall Men with Dale Robertson
attends the Sincerely Yours premiere with Bud Pennell
56 her measurements are 36-22-36
January 56 she, Tab Hunter, Ernest Borgnine, and Lori Nelson are panelists on “In Person”
poses for the press with her $4,900 in U.S. bonds that she accumulated since her first film contract three years ago when she was 18. The bonds represent 20 per cent of her earnings during that time.
July 56 her parents announce her engagement to Paul A. Sutherland, young San Diego businessman and son of Allin J. Sutherland, bank president. Sutherland is 12 years her senior.
19 August 56 marries Sutherland, the owner and operator of a large parking complex in San Diego and retires from the film business. They will have four sons together and a daughter, Ann, from his previous marriage.
57 does her last films only to close out her contract
25 December 57 her son Allen P. is born in San Diego
5 December 61 her son Stephen A. is born in San Diego
18 December 62 her son Timothy J. is born in San Diego
1 August 66 her son David A. is born in San Diego
? a Billy Graham broadcast inspires her and Sutherland to become devoted Christians
88 film historians Paul and Donna Parla meet her at her home
Late 90s enjoys gardening, planting, raising roses, and she refuses to give interviews and to appear in public
10 December 12 dies in Tucson, Arizona, from a four-year battle with cancer
she is survived by her husband of 56 years, A. Paul Sutherland of Tucson; daughter Ann Sutherland of San Diego; sons Allen Sutherland of Prescott, Ariz., Stephen Sutherland of Albuquerque, N.M., Tim Sutherland of Tucson, and David Sutherland of Palm Desert; mother Bertha English of San Diego; eight grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren
Sources:
Paul Parla and Charles P. Mitchell, Fast and Furious by Marc Thomas McGee, Picture Show Who's Who on the Screen, Motion Picture, Silver Screen, Modern Screen, Movieland, Syracuse Herald-Journal, Nevada State Journal, Syracuse Herald-Journal, The News, The Zanesville Signal, The Lethbridge Herald, Pasadena Independent, Long Beach Press-Telegram, U-T San Diego, www.Ancestry.com, pro.Corbis.com
Recommended Books:
Links:
Filmography
The Marla English Tribute Page at the Spooky Tom's Nightmare Mansion Site