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Colleen Miller Profile
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| (Colleen J. Miller) |
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| 10 November 29 | is born in Yakima, Washington, of Irish descent |
| ? | is reared in Portland, Oregon |
| ? | attends high school in Portland Oregon, graduating at age 15 |
| ? | at age 16 she goes to Los Angeles and joins a dance troupe that tours the continent |
| ? | while dancing in Las Vegas, she poses with a fish/trout caught in a Lake Mead angling contest. The photo is seen in a Los Angeles newspaper by billionaire Howard Hughes, and she’s offered an RKO contract. |
| ? | attends daily classes at RKO; her coach is Florence Enright |
| ? | spends three years on RKO payroll in Hollywood before being cast in The Las Vegas Story |
| January 52 | is photographed posing at a Las Vegas hotel pool with Sandy, the sea serpent |
| August 54 | columnist Jimmy Fidler knows: “I hear that Ted Briskin will wed Colleen Miller sometime early in 1955. His divorce becomes final in January...” |
| September 54 | poses with two homeless dogs to promote National Dog Week, September 19 until 25 |
| January 55 | Fidler is back to her: “I hear that Colleen Miller and Ted Briskin will wed when Colleen finishes her current picture...” |
| 20 January 55 | marries Theodore Samuel "Ted" Briskin, the ex of actresses Betty Hutton and Joan Dixon, at the office of his attorney, Sidney Korshak, in Chicago. He’s 37; she’s 25. The ceremony is performed by Judge Joseph Drucker of municipal court. Witnesses are Korshak and his secretary, Mary Oppenheim. Immediately afterwards they leave for a honeymoon in Florida and Havana. Briskin’s the son of Samuel Briskin, the founder of Chicago’s Revere Camera Company, and has two children from his marriage to Hutton. |
| February 55 | is recalled from her honeymoon by Universal to star opposite Tony Curtis in The Rawhide Years |
| columnist Louella Parsons tells: “Ted Briskin flew out from Chicago just long enough to kiss his attractive bride, Colleen Miller, and wish her luck on her new picture, then business took him back home. So Colleen just has Tony Curtis and the cast and crew of The Rawhide Years at Universal-International to keep her company...” |
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| March 55 | she and her husband are entertained at La Rue by Harry Karl and Rhonda Fleming |
| her mother is reported living in San Francisco; her father’s deceased. “Her favorite authors are Somerset Maugham, De Maupassant, and Browning. She paints with oils, mostly landscapes.” |
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| May 55 | is nominated for stardom by famed columnist Louella Parsons |
| the Briskins are noted at La Rue with Hal Hayes and Barbara Rush |
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| July 55 | insists that her marriage to Ted Briskin has to come first, before her career at Universal-International |
| August 55 | is most likely to be Oscar's sweetheart with The Purple Mask |
| November 55 | she and Briskin expect their first baby |
| c. 56 | her daughter, Robin J., is born in Chicago |
| July 56 | is borrowed by MGM from Universal-International for the starring role opposite Leslie Nielsen in Capital Offense |
| August 56 | Fidler tells: “Colleen Miller has gone home to Chicago after completing her chore at MGM in Capital Offense...” |
| November 56 | while filming Pay the Devil, she tells Louella Parsons that she and Briskin will take a six-week trip to Europe and South Africa after they celebrate Christmas in Chicago |
| July 57 | the Hollywood press reports that her home and her career are 2,000 miles apart. “We have a house here and a house on the lake front in Chicago. I have two sets of clothes, so it’s no trouble going from one home to the other,” she says. |
| September 57 | Earl Wilson tells: “Ted Briskin, Chicago Revere camera tycoon, at the Little Club on his first New York visit in two years, said his bride, movie beauty Colleen Miller, is expecting their second in December....” |
| Early 58 | her son, Richard T., is born in Chicago |
| August 60 | Briskin’s family sells the Revere Camera empire to the Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Co. for $25 million. Her husband is slated to remain with the firm as production boss. |
| January 62 | columnist Mike Connolly tells that the Briskins and their two children will wing in from Chicago in February to make their permanent home in California. “Ted tells me he may produce pictures ‘if anything interesting in the line of scripts turns up.’ And Colleen may return to acting.” |
| October 62 | returns to Hollywood from Chicago and signs with the William Morris Agency to resume her acting career “after four years away” |
| June 68 | a former employee of the exclusive Friars Club in Los Angeles tells a federal court jury that Briskin lost $220,000 through rigged card games there between June 1962 and April 1963. Other unlucky gamblers named are Phil Silvers, Zeppo Marx, Tony Martin, and Harry Karl. |
| July 75 | divorces Briskin in Los Angeles. Briskin will die at age 62 in 1980 in Los Angeles. |
| 24 December 76 | marries Walter W. Ralphs, Jr., of Ralphs Markets fame, in Los Angeles. He's 60; she's 47. Ralphs is the son of supermarket chain founder Walter Ralphs, Sr. |
| 00 | lives with Ralphs on their ranch in Macdoel, Northern California |
| ? | is featured in Western Clippings |
| Sources: Ladies of the Western by Michael G. Fitzgerald and Boyd Magers, The Bismarck Tribune, The Progress-Index, The Era, Nevada State Journal, San Mateo Times, El Paso Herald Post, Chronicle-Telegram, The Daily Review, The Lowell Sun, Mansfield News-Journal, Pacific Stars and Stripes, Syracuse Herald-Journal, Nevada State Journal, San Antonio Light, The Hammond Times, The Capital Times, New Castle News, The Troy Record, Picture Show Who's Who on the Screen, Modern Screen, Movie Life, Western Clippings, www.Ancestry.com | |
| Recommended Books: | |
| Links: Filmography Brian's Drive-In Theater: Coleen Miller Colleen Miller (Interview in Western Clippings) | |