Lori Nelson, Actress in 'Revenge of the Creature,' Dies at
87
The Hollywood Reporter
By Mike Barnes
8/23/2020
She also played Barbara Stanwyck's daughter in Douglas
Sirk's 'All I Desire' and Jack Palance's love interest in 'I Died a Thousand
Times.'
Lori Nelson, the 1950s starlet who was kidnapped by an
amphibious monster in Revenge of the Creature and portrayed
Barbara Stanwyck's daughter in Douglas Sirk's All I Desire, has died.
She was 87.
Nelson had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease for several
years and died Sunday at her home in the Porter Ranch section of Los Angeles, her daughter
Jennifer Mann said.
In Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair (1952) and Ma
and Pa Kettle at Waikiki (1955), Nelson played Rosie Kettle, one of the
daughters of the characters played by Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride in the
Universal series of films.
Nelson also made her mark in I Died a Thousand Times
(1955), a remake of the Humphrey Bogart classic High Sierra in which
she portrayed the club-footed love interest of Jack Palance's crook; Pardners
(1956), working opposite Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in their penultimate film
together; and Tumbleweed (1953), in which she was featured opposite
Audie Murphy.
On television, Nelson starred as the psychology major/game
show usher Greta Hanson opposite Barbara Eden on the first season (1957-58) on
the syndicated comedy How to Marry a Millionaire, based on the 1953
Fox film. Her character was written out of the show, and Lisa Gaye was brought
in to replace her.
In Revenge of the Creature (1955), the first of two
sequels spawned from 1954's Creature From the Black Lagoon, Nelson
played the ichthyology student named Helen who is snatched from a seaside
restaurant by a smitten Gill Man (Tom Hennesy and Ricou Browning).
She initially did not want to make the movie but in the end
was glad she did.
"I played opposite Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis, Jimmy
Stewart, Dean Martin and Audie Murphy, but who's the leading man everybody
wants to ask me about? The Gill Man!" she said in an interview for Tom
Weaver's book The Creature Chronicles: Exploring the Black Lagoon Trilogy.
"It's so funny, Universal had to twist my arm a little to be in a monster
movie. But if I knew then how popular they would remain, I would have twisted their
arm to be in a couple more."
Born Dixie Kay Nelson on Aug. 15, 1933, in Santa Fe, New Mexico,
Nelson and her family moved to Encino when she was young. She signed with
Universal on her 17th birthday and made her film debut in Bend of The River (1952),
starring Stewart, Arthur Kennedy and Hudson, who would become a close friend
and mentor.
She went on to star with Curtis in The All American
(1953), with Murphy again in Destry (1954), with Jane Russell in Underwater!
(1954) and with Mamie Van Doren in Untamed Youth (1957).
She also starred with Van Johnson, Jim Backus and Claude
Rains in the 1957 NBC holiday telefilm The Pied Piper of Hamelin and
guest-starred on such shows as Climax!, Wagon Train, Tales
of Wells Fargo, The Tab Hunter Show, Bachelor Father and
Family Affair.
Nelson was one of actress Debbie Reynolds' bridesmaids at
her 1955 wedding to singer Eddie Fisher. She also was engaged to actor
Burt Reynolds, but the two "ended up calling it quits," her daughter
said. Nelson then was married to late composer Johnny Mann from 1960 until
their 1973 divorce; they had two children, Lori and Jennifer.
She married then-LAPD detective Joseph J. Reiner Survivors
in 1983; he survives her.
NELSON, Lori (Dixie Kay Nelson)
Born: 8/15/1933, Santa Fe, New
Mexico, U.S.A.
Died: 8/23/2020,
Porter Ranch, California, U.S.A.
Lori Nelson’s
westerns – actress:
Bend of the River – 1952 (Marjie Baile)
Tumbleweed – 1953 (Laura Saunders)
Destry – 1954 (Martha Phillips)
Mohawk – 1956 (Cynthia)
Pardners – 1956 (Carol Kingsley)
Outlaw’s Son – 1957 (Lila Costain)
Sugarfoot (TV) – 1959 (Ellen Conway)
Tales of Wells Fargo (TV) – 1959 (Susan Farr)
The Texan (TV) – 1959 (Elizabeth Blake)
Wagon Train (TV) – 1959 (Charity Steele)
Wanted: Dead or Alive (TV) – 1959 (White Antelope / Doris
Albright)
Laramie
(TV) – 1961 (Grace)
Whispering Smith (TV) – 1961 (Mrs. Venetia Molloy)
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