Search
Jarma Lewis Profile
|
|
Photo gallery |
| (Jarma Toy Lewis) |
|
| 5 June 31 | is born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, of Irish-English descent to Victor Pierce Lewis and his wife, the later Mrs. Robert Edward Lee of Riverside, California |
| ? | attends the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York |
| ? | appears in plays at school and for a time serves as stage manager |
| ? | becomes an alumna of Los Angeles City College |
| ? | works as a receptionist at a Beverly Hills dental office |
| ? | attends the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York |
| February 53 | columnist Walter Winchell reports "she prefers understudying seasoned players at the Neighborhood Playhouse School: ‘To learn how to act.’ (Such a face)..." |
| May 53 | columnist Walter Winchell reports having seen her in The Magnetic Monster at the Globe. He remembers that she’s "the doll whose face appeared for a blink or two during our TV newscasts a few months ago." |
| August 53 | Winchell reports that she was chosen out of forty entrants for "the important role of the Queen in 20th’s Prince Valiant..." |
| October 53 | is the one on whom "writer Leonard Stern is concentrating. He was formerly wed to Julie Adams." |
| February 54 | is discovered by director Henry Hathaway at a dentist's office and cast for his upcoming Prince Valiant |
| December 54 | columnist Walter Winchell reports that shoe man Harry Karl is "finding solace with her. Millionaire Karl’s recently divorced from actress Marie McDonald." |
| she, Taina Elg, and Luana Lee are the youngsters of the year at MGM |
|
| 55 | attends the world premiere of The Cobweb in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| will be in the upcoming The Bar Sinister |
|
| March 55 | the wedding gift from her studio will be a six-week vacation |
| July 55 | MGM is reported boasting "a new Barbara Stanwyck-type, Jarma Lewis" |
| September 55 | is among the judges of the Save the Children Federation's National Doll Contest |
| October 55 | is seen out for a final fling with deejay Johnny Grant even though she is due to wed on November 27 |
| is off to New York to promote The Tender Trap. “She is on an eight-city tour with Steve Pirozzi, MGM press representative in charge. Her host in New York was Sam Gilman, manager of Loew’s.” |
|
| 22 October 55 | announces her engagement to Benjamin Edward "Ted" Bensinger III of the Music Corp of America in Riverside, California. He’s from Chicago and a graduate of Culver Military Academy and Yale. |
| November 55 | columnist Jimmy Fidler reports: "she will not get the traditional diamond engagement ring from Ted Bensinger, her fiancé. Instead, Miss Lewis has personally selected a single large pearl, from an assortment flown here from Chicago, and the pearl will be mounted in a setting of sapphires." |
| 27 November 55 | marries Bensinger in Woodmere, Long Island, at the home of the bridegroom’s grandparents, U.S. District Court Judge Clarence G. Galston and Mrs. Galston. He’s 26; she’s 24. |
| ? | the Bensingers honeymoon in South America and settle in Los Angeles |
| May 56 | her husband reinjures his right knee when he takes a bad spill while playing tennis in Palm Springs. Luckily, Dr. Lew Morrill, Rhonda Fleming's husband, is present and immediately administers first aid. |
| July 57 | settles with her bowling alley tycoon husband in Chicago. They expect their baby soon. |
| ? | her son John is born |
| 28 October 60 | her son Kerry R. is born in Los Angeles |
| December 61 | columnist Mike Connolly notes from Hollywood that she and Bensinger "flaked out in time to make the snowflake scene for Christmas in his hometown of Chicago, to be followed by New Year's in Jamaica." |
| May 62 | columnist Hedda Hopper tells: "Ted Bensinger got an earful listening in on a conversation among his wife, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Denise Minnelli, Mary Morrison, and yours truly. Next day I was lunching at the Bensinger home and Ted said: 'Could you have three dames over for lunch and invite me as the only male? I'd like to hear the end of that conversation.' The girls were discussing men." |
| 25 September 62 | her son Tyler P. is born in Los Angeles |
| March 64 | columnist Hedda Hopper notes her at Benny Thau's fun party for Spanish painter Alejo Vidal-Quadros wearing a gold coin necklace her husband, Ted, bought for her in Puerto Vallarta |
| 70s | becomes a writer and is active with the UCLA Art Council |
| 16 October 84 | divorces Bensinger in Los Angeles |
| 12 November 85 | as Jarma Bensinger, she is found dead at age 54 of unknown but natural causes in her Beverly Hills home in Los Angeles, California |
| Sources: The New York Times, Chronicle-Telegram, Independent, The Times Recorder, The Daily Independent, Syracuse Herald-Journal, The Zanesville Signal, Lincoln Sunday Journal and Star, Nevada State Journal, The Long Beach Press-Telegram, Van Nuys News, The Post-Standard, The Vidette-Messenger, Pasadena Independent, The Lima News, Picture Show Annual 1957, www.Ancestry.com | |
| Recommended Books: | |
| Links: Filmography | |