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Arleen Whelan Profile
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| 16 September 16 | is born in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her father owns a small electrical shop. |
| graduates from Manual Arts High School |
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| ? | makes her home in Pueblo, Colorado |
| ? | moves from Idaho to California |
| ? | is a hairdresser when discovered by Hollywood painter Azadia Newman. Azadia paints her because of her piquant face and rich auburn hair. |
| ? | works as a manicurist at Patrick Rogan’s establishment on Hollywood Boulevard, where she’s spotted by director H. Bruce Humberstone and recommended to Darryl F. Zanuck |
| May 37 | has a court-approved contract by which she will earn from $50 to $300 a week during the next seven years |
| ? | is rumored for the Scarlett O'Hara role in the upcoming Gone with the Wind |
| ? | her name is linked with that of actress Alice Faye's brother Bill |
| February 38 | 20th Century-Fox slaps a 3-year non-marriage clause into her contract |
| March 38 | gives a dinner for director Lucky Humberstone, "who first discovered her in a manicurist shop" |
| 20th Century-Fox declares she washes the family dishes every night |
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| April 38 | Hollywoodites are reported chuckling about her, "the ex-manicurist, who's been going places with Fox's English importation, Richard Greene. After their third date she started talking with an English accent." |
| Late April 38 | columnist Louella Parsons reports her being Tyrone Power's latest heartthrob, "if that cooing at the Brown Derby means anything: apparently but apparently there was no way of smoothing over the difficulties which started a year ago." |
| July 38 | is best girl of British newcomer Richard Greene |
| September 38 | Greene says he would like to marry her, but he can't afford it |
| because of night work in Greene's upcoming Submarine Patrol, they haven't much chance to see one another |
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| ? | starts to date Tyrone Power since his broken almost-engagement to fellow actress Janet Gaynor |
| October 38 | loses the lead in Jesse James to Nancy Kelly |
| attends Darryl F. Zanuck's preview of Suez with Tyrone Power. His mother and agent are chaperones. |
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| dines at the Tropics with Richard Greene. The next day they are off to San Diego for the world premiere of Submarine Patrol. |
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| November 38 | spends a Palm Springs weekend with fellow actress Marjorie Weaver and her mother while Greene is away on an Arizona hunting trip |
| January 39 | her head man is still Richard Greene in spite of the big rush she gets from billionaire Howard Hughes |
| February 39 | throws a party at La Conga. Her escort is 30-year-old actor Alexander D'Arcy; her girlfriend, actress Nancy Kelly, goes with Robert Lowery. Her parents attend, too. |
| July 39 | has an on-again, off-again romance with D'Arcy. The film colony awaits news of an elopement in the immediate future. |
| December 39 | she and actress Joy Hodges are guests of the Pittsburgh Symphony in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| March 40 | is in hearty accord with actor Paul Draper |
| 2 September 40 | marries D'Arcy in a Las Vegas, Nevada, hotel suite. The couple motors in from Hollywood and starts their return trip soon after the ceremony. He's 31; she's 26. |
| 42 | is on Broadway for a year in the hit comedy The Doughgirls, with Arlene Francis and Doris Nolan |
| May 42 | Gary Grant, who is a good friend of both hers and Alex, does his utmost to bring them to reconcile |
| November 42 | there will be no divorce from D'Arcy because he won't give her one, and she can't divorce him since the application was made after he was drafted |
| December 42 | is reported having cocktails at the Madison "with an important Washington official..." |
| January 43 | columnist Edith Gwynn reports her "very upset because Alex D'Arcy won't let her divorce him. Because it upsets a lot of her plans..." |
| ? | is on the New York stage in Doughgirls |
| March 43 | spends her free moments "at the Stork Club and elsewhere, with Jack Pulitzer; dining at a quiet spot at a table for two..." |
| 18 August 43 | is granted a divorce from D'Arcy in Hollywood after a 3-year marriage. She claims D'Arcy was an "extremely supersensitive person" and charges that he interfered with her work by outbursts of temperament. Their elopement in September 1940 had been much against objections of her parents. He's 39; she's 26. |
| October 43 | Parsons reports D'Arcy at Marcel La Maze's with a dead ringer for Arleen |
| 43 | marries Paramount Pictures New York executive, Hugh Owen |
| July 44 | is seen at the cub room of the Gay Blades in New York |
| 45 | is on Broadway with Hugh Herbert and Catherine Doucet in Oh Brother! |
| August 45 | has never made a Technicolor movie. Disappointed, she turns her back on Hollywood and goes to New York. |
| she and her husband live on the 40th floor of a big New York hotel |
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| Fall 45 | is the lead in Broadway's Comedy Francais |
| February 46 | denies she expects the stork |
| January 47 | spends two weeks in Palm Springs with her estranged husband, Hugh Owen. There are rumors they may reconcile. |
| June 47 | upon her return to New York, she promises to never let another movie job come between her and her husband |
| January 49 | won't return to New York with "her ever lovin' husband Hugh Owen, and for a good reason,” as Louella Parsons reports: "My red-haired friend has signed for Dear Wife, the sequel to Dear Ruth, at Paramount along with Bill Holden and Joan Caulfield. 'Funny part is,' Arleen told me, 'I've been busy playing dear wife in private life golfing and going to movies with Hugh on our vacation out here. Now I'm going to be the other woman.'" |
| March 49 | is reported one of Hollywood's most avid baseball fans. "Her pop, Art Whelan, performed with a half dozen western minor leagues when she was a kid..." |
| April 50 | is one of Hollywood's top female golfers |
| July 50 | when not in a picture, she lives in New York with her husband, Hugh Owen |
| Summer 52 | receives a letter from her husband asking her to get a divorce |
| May 53 | actor John Payne rushes her at Betty Furness’ party |
| July 53 | she and Owen celebrate their reconciliation by togethering |
| Mid-November 53 | obtains a divorce and $500 monthly alimony from Owen in Santa Monica, California. She charges mental cruelty and testifies that her husband "just wanted to be a bachelor." She says that in the summer of 1952 she received a letter from Owen, who was in New York, asking her to get a divorce. Owens will start a romance with socialite Alma Knight in 1956. |
| February 54 | there are rumors she will marry 44-year-old Hyatt Robert von Dehn, building contractor and former husband of singer-actress Ginny Simms |
| Early March 55 | is sent to Palm Springs on orders from her doctor to take a 10-day rest |
| August 55 | is seen with Warner Brothers TV manager, Gary Stevens |
| October 55 | is considered for Alan Ladd's upcoming Santiago. Her part eventually goes to Italian newcomer Rosanna Podesta. |
| her big man of the moment is Universal-International executive Bob Rains |
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| is reported resuming the career she gave up for marriage |
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| December 55 | she and Rains appear ready for the orange blossoms and flat silver |
| January 57 | is seen at the Captain's Table with Hyatt von Dehn |
| March 57 | is seen at the Bantam Cock on La Cienega's Restaurant Row with Joe Kirkwood, Jr. |
| May 57 | her escort at Chandler's is 57-year-old actor-composer Hoagy Carmichael |
| June 59 | attends Frank Sinatra's Share Boomtown party at the Moulin Rouge with Dr. Warren O. Cagney |
| October 59 | there are rumors she will marry Cagney but he's a "twosome of the week" with actress Dorothy Malone at the 7 Chefs |
| c. March 60 | marries Cagney in San Francisco. He's 40, she's 43. |
| 26 May 61 | files for divorce from Cagney in Santa Monica, California, after a 15-month marriage. She charges cruelty. Cagney will die at age 82 in 2002 in Santa Monica. |
| July 61 | is in Santa Monica Superior Court asking $1,150 a month alimony from Cagney testifying that she has not had a movie or television contract for the past four or five years. The court entitles her to $600 a month temporary alimony. |
| Late 80s | when D'Arcy is told she is living in Laguna Niguel, California, he phones her. She has not heard his voice in more than forty-two years and hangs up immediately. |
| 7 April 93 | as Arleen W. Cagney, she dies at age 76 in Laguna Niguel, California, from a stroke |
| Sources: Nebraska State Journal, Mansfield News-Journal, The Lowell Sun, Reno Evening Gazette, The Daily Independent, Lincoln Sunday Journal, The Newark Advocate, The Odessa American, The Frederick Post, Ironwood Daily Globe, Syracuse Herald-Journal, Middletown Times Herald, The Charleroi Mail, Waterloo Daily Courier, Pottstown Mercury, Sunday Times Signal, The Zanesville Signal, Indiana Evening Gazette, Pasadena Independent, The Lethbridge Herald, Van Nuys News, The Vidette-Messenger, The Daily Gleaner, Two Rivers Reporter, The Fresno Bee, The Times and Daily News Leader, San Mateo Times, The Modesto Bee, Long Beach Independent, The Daily Review, Long Beach Press-Telegram, They Had Faces Then by John Springer and Jack Hamilton, Picture Show Who's Who on the Screen, Whatever became of...? by Richard Lamparski, Screen, www.Ancetry.com | |
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| Links: Filmography | |