Noreen Nash

Nash was born on April 4, 1924, in Wenatchee, Washington. Her parents were Albert, who was in the beverage industry, and Gail Roth, a teacher.[1] Gail died in 1998 at the age of 99.[2]

Nash's career started in 1942 when she was crowned ”Apple Blossom Queen” in her home town.[3] With help from Louis Shurr, Bob Hope’s agent, she entered showbusiness and eventually got a contract with MGM as a showgirl.[4] She initially had declined, since she had planned to attend Stanford University. She had previously tested for Warner Brothers, but wasn't signed.[5] Her screen debut came in the 1943 musical film Girl Crazy, which starred Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. Her MGM contract lapsed in 1944.[1] In 1942, she worked as a model alongside Marilyn Monroe.[6]

A 1945 newspaper article reported Nash's being helped by actress Paulette Goddard. Goddard, the article said, was "sponsoring the career of shapely, brunette, blue-eyed and very beautiful Noreen Nash."[7] The article added that Nash's screen tests at Paramount Pictures were "arranged through the instigation of Paulette. As a result Noreen was signed to a term contract."[7]

Uncredited in her first movies, Nash eventually landed a role in director Jean Renoir's 1945 film The Southerner as Becky Devers. The film was nominated for three categories at the 18th Academy Awards in 1946.[8] During this time, she changed her screen surname to Nash, inspired by her father in the film, J. Carroll Naish. She and Renoir remained friends for the rest of his life.[9]

She appeared in films and television shows throughout the late 1940s and 1950s. Nash had leading roles in 1947's The Big Fix, about gamblers trying to rig a basketball game, and the crime drama Assigned to Danger (1948). She played a ranch owner in the Western Storm Over Wyoming (1950), and one of her most noted films was one about a ranch owner, Giant (1956), in which she played the small role of film star Lona Lane.[9] She had also been contracted to the British film studio Eagle-Lion.[6]

Some of the television series in which Nash appeared include Hopalong Cassidy, The Abbott and Costello Show and 77 Sunset Strip. She retired from acting in 1962.

Nash attended UCLA, majoring in history, after retiring from acting. She graduated with a Bachelor's degree in 1971.[1] She published the novel By Love Fulfilled in 1980, which was about a doctor in the 16th century.[5] It was partly based on the Flemish anatomist and physician Vesalius. In 2013, she published another book titled Agnes Sorèl, Mistress of Beauty.[6]

Nash married Dr. Lee Siegel on December 12, 1942, in Las Vegas, after only having known each other for little over a month.[5][10] They had two sons, Lee Siegel Jr.,[11] a novelist and religion professor, and Robert James Siegel, a cardiologist.[10][12] Dr. Siegel worked as a medical director at the film studio 20th Century Fox, died on May 7, 1990.[13] In 2001, she married actor James Whitmore, who died in 2009.[4]

Nash is a Democrat who supported the campaign of Adlai Stevenson during the 1952 presidential election.[14]

• By Love Fulfilled
• Agnès Sorel, Mistress of Beauty
• Titans of the Muses: When Henry Miller Met Jean Renoir

• Noreen Nash at IMDb 
• Noreen Nash at the American Film Institute