Ella Raines

Born Ella Wallace Raubes on August 6, 1920, near Snoqualmie, Washington, Ella Raines studied drama at the University of Washington and was appearing in a play there when she was seen by director Howard Hawks. She became the first actress signed to the new production company he had formed with the actor Charles Boyer, B-H Productions, and made her film debut in Corvette K-225 (1943) which Hawks produced.

Immediately following her role in Corvette K-225, Raines was cast in the all-female war film Cry "Havoc" (also 1943). She starred in the film noir Phantom Lady,[1] the Preston Sturges comedy Hail the Conquering Hero, and the John Wayne western Tall in the Saddle (all 1944).

She appeared in films such as The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945) with Geraldine Fitzgerald and George Sanders and the thriller The Web (1947). With the exception of Brute Force (1947), in which Raines appeared with Burt Lancaster, none of her later films were nearly as successful as her earlier movies and her career began to decline.

Raines on the cover of Life magazine (February 28, 1944)

In 1954 and 1955 she starred in the television series Janet Dean, Registered Nurse. She also appeared in such television series as Robert Montgomery Presents, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Presents, Lights Out, Pulitzer Prize Playhouse and The Christophers. After a main role in a British-made thriller (The Man in the Road) in 1956, she retired from acting the following year, but made one further screen appearance with a guest role in the series Matt Houston in 1984. Raines appeared on the cover of Life magazine twice, once for Brute Force in 1947 and, in 1944, for her work in Phantom Lady. Also in 1944, she appeared as a pin-up girl in the June 2 and June 16 issue of the G.I. magazine Yank.

Raines has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to motion pictures at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard,[2] and for television at 6600 Hollywood Boulevard.

On August 11, 1942,[3] a few days after her graduation from the University of Washington, Raines married her high school sweetheart, United States Army Air Forces Major Kenneth William Trout. The couple divorced December 18, 1945.[4]

On February 6, 1947,[5] Raines married fighter-pilot triple ace Robin Olds,[6] who was eventually promoted to United States Air Force brigadier general; the couple had three children, one of whom was stillborn. She also had two miscarriages which she blamed on the unsanitary conditions of serving abroad in Africa.[7] They separated in 1975 and divorced in 1976.

Pin-up photo of Ella Raines for the Aug. 17, 1945 issue of Yank, the Army Weekly, a weekly U.S. Army magazine fully staffed by enlisted men

She died from throat cancer in Sherman Oaks, California in 1988, aged 67.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ella Raines.

• Ella Raines at IMDb
• Ella Raines at the Internet Broadway Database
• Ella Raines at Find a Grave
• Screen Sirens - Ella Raines photo gallery
• Movie Maidens - brief biography and more photographs of Ella Raines
• Ella Raines at aenigma