Jane Greer September 9, 1924 - August 24, 2001

I liked Jane Greer. She really didn't do all that much. But she could be a nasty femme fatale, who you could see yourself falling for regardless. She played Peggy Lipton's mom on several episodes of Twin Peaks.

She was married to Rudy Vallee in 1943 and divorced in 1944, then to Edward Lasker from 1947 to 1963 -- 3 sons. From 1963 to January 2001 she was the companion until his death of Frank London.

She made less than 30 films. The most important: her most famous and best film Out of the Past (1947), They Won't Believe Me (1947), a noir western Station West (1948), The Big Steal (1949), The Prisoner of Zenda (1952), Man of a Thousand Faces (1957), The Outfit (1974), and a remake of Out of the Past, Against All Odds (1984).

She also participated in an Out of the Past parody on TV's "Saturday Night Live" with her original costar Robert Mitchum. Her son Lawrence Lasker has coproduced several films, including WarGames (1983) and Sneakers (1992).

Complete Filmography:
Perfect Mate (1996) .... Mom
Immediate Family (1989) .... Michael's Mother VHS
Just Between Friends (1986) .... Ruth Chapwick
Against All Odds (1984) .... Mrs. Wyler VHS DVD
Outfit, The (1974) .... Alma VHS
Billie (1965) .... Agnes Carol VHS
Where Love Has Gone (1964) .... Marian Spicer VHS
Man of a Thousand Faces (1957) .... Hazel Bennett Chaney VHS DVD
Run for the Sun (1956) .... Katie Connors
Down Among the Sheltering Palms (1953) .... Diana Forrester
Clown, The (1952) .... Paula Henderson VHS
Desperate Search (1952) .... Julie Heldon
Prisoner of Zenda, The (1952) .... Antoinette de Mauban VHS
You for Me (1952) .... Katie McDermad
You're in the Navy Now (1951) .... Ellie Harkness
Company She Keeps, The (1950) .... Diane
Big Steal, The (1949) .... Joan 'Chiquita' Graham
Station West (1948) .... Charlie
Sinbad the Sailor (1947) .... Pirouze VHS
They Won't Believe Me (1947) .... Janice Bell
Out of the Past (1947) .... Kathie Moffat VHS
Bamboo Blonde (1946) .... Eileen Sawyer
Sunset Pass (1946) .... Helen Baxter
Falcon's Alibi, The (1946) .... Lola Carpenter
George White's Scandals (1945) (as Bettejane Greer) .... Billie Randall
Pan-Americana (1945) (as Bettejane Greer) .... Miss Downing
Two O'Clock Courage (1945) (as Bettejane Greer) .... Helen Carter
Dick Tracy (1945) .... Judith Owens, Steve's Daughter

Television:
"Twin Peaks" TV Series .... Vivian Smythe (1991)
"Murder, She Wrote" playing "Bonnie Phelps" in episode: "Last Flight of the Dixie Damsel, The" (episode # 5.7) 12/18/1988
"Falcon Crest" playing "Charlotte Pershing" in episode: "appr. 6 episodes" 1984-85 season
Shadow Riders, The (1982) (TV) .... Ma Traven VHS DVD
"Quincy" in episode: "Depth of Beauty, The" (episode # 3.13) 1/25/1979
Columbo: Troubled Waters (1975) (TV) .... Sylvia Danziger
"Thriller" in episode: "Portrait Without a Face" (episode # 2.14) 12/25/1961
"Stagecoach West" in episode: "High Lonesome" (episode # 1.1) 10/4/1960
"Zane Grey Theater" in episode: "Stagecoach to Yuma" (episode # 4.29) 5/5/1960
"Bonanza" playing "Julia Bulette" in episode: "Julia Bulette Story, The" (episode # 1.6) 10/17/1959
"Alfred Hitchcock Presents" playing "Mrs. Cannon-Hughes" in episode: "True Account, A" (episode # 4.34) 6/7/1959
"Zane Grey Theater" in episode: "Vaunted, The" (episode # 3.8) 11/27/1958
"Zane Grey Theater" in episode: "Gun for My Bride, A" (episode # 2.12) 12/27/1957

David Thomson, from Salon.com says:
Doomed
Femme fatale Jane Greer had a scent about her that was sweet, but with a hint of death.

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By David Thomson

Aug. 31, 2001 | "I go there sometimes," says Kathie Moffat, as an afterthought, to Jeff Bailey. They have met, as if by chance, in a cafe in Acapulco next to a small movie house. She has strolled in out of the day's last sunlight in a pale dress and a wide-brimmed straw hat. In fact, he's been sent to find her, and maybe she knew that or guessed it already. Knowing things seems to be her trade. Still, she tells Jeff about this other place, where they play American music, and the way she says it -- "I go there sometimes" -- makes it one of the more mysterious lines in American film. Somehow, you have the worst thoughts about the other things she does. Yet you know you're doomed to find out.

This is a 1947 film, called "Out of the Past." Jeff is Robert Mitchum, and Kathie Moffat is Jane Greer, who died this week. No matter that she was one of those dark-eyed, dark-haired girls noticed by Howard Hughes, given a contract and offered much more, she didn't really have a movie career. Only a few years after she'd begun, she settled down with a second husband to have a family. But when you learn that the first husband was Rudy Vallee (23 years her senior, and wild), you realize how close she came to the kind of craziness that tangles the life of Miss Moffat.

I can't really say that Jane Greer was a great actress, or that she might have been, given better opportunities. Chances are not, or she'd have stuck at it. But she had a lethal smile, long floppy hair and eyes like large blueberries floating in cream -- you wanted to play bobbing for eyes. She was one of those women you could smell, even on film. Have you noticed that? There are some actresses who have a fragrance, or a scent. And with Jane Greer it was very sweet and sophisticated, until you got the aftertaste -- and there was something like death in that.

You could say she was lucky. "Out of the Past" is a very good film: Jacques Tourneur knew how to direct such pulp so that it seemed poetic, she had Nicholas Musuraca to gather the shadows around her pale face, she had yards of tart dialogue and she had Robert Mitchum to play off.

But give her credit. Just as she made it absolutely evident why Jeff would do the stupidest things for her, without really doing anything more erotic than getting soaked in the rain in one scene, she made it quite clear -- in the sense of don't tell me I didn't warn you -- that she was treacherous, spiteful and entirely selfish.

No matter how many times I see the film, I can't give up wondering on those other things Kathie Moffat does. In the story, you see, she has run away with $40,000 of Kirk Douglas' money. And she has ended up in Acapulco where she has a little house that probably rented for $125 a year then. And she takes a drink occasionally. But she's hardly extravagant. As well as going to this bar sometimes, what does she do? There's something about her that makes me feel she knows how dangerous she is so that she's made a pact with herself to be alone as much as possible.

So I see her (this is 1947, after all) listening to Charlie Parker records, reading "The Sheltering Sky" and cutting the legs of spiders to practice her fine touch. And being bored until she could scream. So then, at witching hour, the witch puts on that wide-brimmed hat that throws such cute shadows, and goes out looking for the next feeble hunk.

Acapulco was much too crowded. She should have kept going south -- to those jungles where the insects are big enough to fight back.

Except that all of the above is what you might call a classic femme fatale scenario, and femmes fatales were usually the creation of men who were afraid of women or hated them. Those guys always knew in their jittery hearts that a femme fatale would betray them, sooner or later. Whereas, if you look at the phrase "femme fatale," maybe it just means a woman who is going to die -- or one who can't shake that knowledge. So maybe she stayed at home, read a little Jane Austen or listened to Ravel, and wondered how she might manage not to be bored by self-dramatizing men. "I go there sometimes."

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AP says:

Actress Jane Greer Dies at 76

By ANDREW BRIDGES, Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Actress Jane Greer, a film noir star and former wife of bandleader Rudy Vallee, has died. She was 76.

Greer, who as an icy brunette bested both Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas in 1947's noir classic "Out of the Past,'' died Friday of complications from cancer, said her son, Alex Lasker.

The native of Washington, D.C. and former beauty contestant and model caught the eye of Hollywood after appearing in Life magazine. She later signed with RKO, after studio head Howard Hughes became smitten with her.

While still a teen-ager, she married crooner Vallee in 1943. The two divorced in 1945. She then married attorney and producer Edward Lasker in 1947, earning the spite of Hughes who then sought to stymie her career. They later divorced.

Greer was best known for her role as the seductive Kathie Moffat in "Out of the Past,'' which cemented her reputation as a noir vixen.

"She was a bad girl you could fall in love with - who could take on Robert Mitchum and really make him melt,'' Lasker said.

Bettejane Greer and her twin brother, Don, were born Sept. 9, 1924, and grew up in Florida.

Greer later said she was set on becoming an actress at 15, after awaking one morning to find the left side of her face was paralyzed. Months of facial exercises eventually cured her.

"I'd always wanted to be an actress, and suddenly I knew that learning to control my facial muscles was one of the best assets I could have as a performer. Emotions often must be portrayed from an inner feeling, of course, but I had a double advantage because I was learning to direct my as-yet expressionless feelings, as well as gaining an ability to express emotion by a very conscious manipulation of my muscles,'' Greer once told an interviewer.

Throughout the 1940s and '50s, she worked consistently, appearing in "Dick Tracy, Detective,'' "The Prisoner of Zenda,'' and "Man of a Thousand Faces.'' Her career slowed by the mid 1950s, although she continued to act.

In 1984, Greer appeared in "Against All Odds,'' a remake of "Out of the Past.'' In it, she played the mother of her original character. She later acted in David Lynch's TV series "Twin Peaks.''

Her on-screen character was not matched by her countenance in person, said daughter-in-law Anne Wile-Lasker.

"She was just gracious and sweet. She had this image on film that she wasn't in life,'' Wile-Lasker said.

Greer is survived by her twin brother; sons Alex, Lawrence and Steve; and two grandchildren. Her common-law husband, acting coach Frank London, died in January.

A private memorial service will be held Sept. 9 on what would have been Greer's 77th birthday.