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Judy Tyler Profile
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Photo gallery |
| (Judith Mae Hess) |
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| 9 October 32/33 | is born in Teaneck, New Jersey/Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her father, a former trumpeter with bands such as Paul Whiteman and Benny Goodman, retired and became a building contractor. Her mother, Loreleo Kendler, is a former Ziegfeld Follies dancer. |
| studies ballet, music, and acting |
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| quits school at 15 to become a Harry Conover model |
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| 49 | Conover names her "Miss Stardust" |
| moves to Manhattan and auditions at the Copa |
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| dances with the Copacabana chorus line. There she meets 26-year-old Colin Romoff, the pianist at the Copa, who becomes her vocal coach. |
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| marries Romoff two months later |
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| does single acts at New York nightclubs such as Bill Miller's Riviera and Le Ruban Bleu |
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| appears for 13 weeks on "The Milton Berle Show" |
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| clicks as a singer at the Mocambo |
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| 52 | replaces the puppet character of Princess Summerfall Winterspring on the TV's "Howdy Doody" kids' show, where she will remain for the next three years |
| 55 | Reginald Hammerstein, the brother of Oscar, spots her on "Caesar Presents" and recommends her for Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical Pipe Dream |
| 56 | the success of Pipe Dream lands her the cover of Life magazine |
| her marriage dissolves and she divorces Romoff amicably |
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| 57 | does a screentest for Marjorie Morningstar |
| 17 March 57 | marries 19 / 24-year-old television actor Gregory LaFayette at the Balmoral Hotel in Miami. Singer Patti Page is the matron of honor. |
| plays club dates in Florida between filmings |
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| back in New York, she and LaFayette rent an apartment at 158 West 44th Street |
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| after completing Jailhouse Rock, she and her husband enjoy a short honeymoon in Laramie, Wyoming. She signed a contract for a CBS show and has to be back East by the fall. |
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| July 57 | along with her poodle and a kitten she bought for her agent, they decide to go east by car rather than by flying |
| 3 July 57 | she and LaFayette are driving through Billy the Kid, Wyoming, when a car suddenly pulls onto the road from an antique store. Trying to avoid it, LaFayette smashes into a car in the opposite lane. She dies instantly, cut in half. A passenger in the other car dies, as well as her dog and cat. Looters steal LaFayette's wallet and her cash, furs, and jewelry. Other sources give LaFayette dying that evening, she the following morning. |
| she is laid in state at Frank E. Campbell's Funeral Church, New York City. Her ashes are buried in Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York; her husband is buried in Hopewell Junction, New York, his hometown. |
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| Sources: "Judy Tyler. The Brief Career Of The Cinderella Girl" by Eve Golden in Films of the Golden Age, Fallen Angels by Kirk Crivello, People Today, www.IMDb.com | |
| Recommended Books: | |
| Links: Filmography Elvis' Women Elvis - The King And His Court | |