Profile of Veronica Lake on Famous Like Me

Veronica Lake, born Constance Frances Marie Ockleman, also known as Constance Keane (14 November 1922, Brooklyn, New York – 7 July 1973, Colchester, Vermont) was a popular American film actress and pin-up model who achieved wide fame and critical praise, especially for her film noir roles during the 1940s. Described by Bette Davis as "the most beautiful person who ever came to Hollywood," her success was fleeting and after a string of broken marriages and long struggles with mental illness and alcoholism she died destitute and friendless at the age of 50.

Early life and career

Constance's father worked on a ship for an oil company. When she was about a year old the family moved to Florida but had returned to Brooklyn before she was five. According to some accounts she was beaten as a child. Her father died in an industrial explosion when she was 12. Her mother married Anthony Keane a year later and Constance began using his last name. They are said to have lived in Canada, New York state and Miami, Florida where she graduated from high school. A troubled teenager, she had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic during her childhood at a time when therapy for such conditions was usually limited to long-term institutionalization. Having already achieved minor celebrity in Miami for her beauty, in 1938 Constance moved with her mother and step-father to Beverly Hills, California where Mrs. Keane enrolled her daughter in Hollywood's Bliss Hayden School of Acting.

Her first appearance on screen was for RKO, playing a small a role among several coeds in Sorority House (1939). Similar roles followed, including All Women Have Secrets and Dancing Co-Ed. However her contract was dropped by RKO. She married art director John Detlie in 1940. Another small role in the comedy movie 40 Little Mothers brought unexpected attention and in 1941 she was signed to a long term contract by Paramount Pictures, was given her stage name Veronica Lake and on August 21 gave birth to a daughter, Elaine Detlie.

An icon of the 1940s

Her breakthrough film was I Wanted Wings (1941), a major hit in which she had the second female lead and was said to have stolen scene after scene from the rest of the cast. This success was followed by another, Hold Back the Dawn (1941). She was soon noted as a witty, intelligent and trend-setting actress and had starring roles in more popular movies including Sullivan's Travels (1941), This Gun for Hire (1942), I Married a Witch (1942, later used as a basis for the 1960s hit television series Bewitched), The Glass Key (1942) and So Proudly We Hail! (1943).

For a short time during the early 1940s Veronica Lake was considered one of the most reliable box office draws in Hollywood and was also known for her onscreen pairings with actor Alan Ladd. A stray lock of hair during a publicity photo shoot led to her iconic peekaboo hairstyle which hid one eye with her shoulder-length blonde hair and was widely imitated. During World War II she changed her trademark image as a publicity move to encourage women working in war industry factories to adopt more practical hairstyles. Some critics have speculated that the loss of her peekaboo look diminished the mystery and allure of her on screen image, damaging her box office appeal. Given the fickle nature of movie audiences there could have been some truth to this initially but other factors were at work.

Although widely popular with the public, Lake had a complex personality and professionally she had developed a reputation for being difficult to work with. Eddie Bracken, her co-star in Star Spangled Rhythm (1942), was quoted as saying "She was known as The Bitch and she deserved the title." However, in that same movie Lake took part in a song lampooning her own hair style, "A Sweater, A Sarong and a Peekaboo Bang."

Lake's career stumbled with her role as Nazi sympathizer Dora Bruckman in The Hour Before Dawn (released in 1944). During filming she had tripped on a lighting cable and her second child was born prematurely on July 8, 1943. William Detlie died a week later from uremic poisoning and there are indications she may have deliberately attempted to miscarry him. By the end of 1943 her first marriage had ended in divorce. Meanwhile scathingly poor reviews of The Hour Before Dawn included criticism of her unconvincing German accent which was also said to have interfered disasterously with her acting. Nevertheless Lake was making $4500 per week under her contract with Paramount when she married director André de Toth in 1944. Their son, André Michael de Toth III, was born October 25, 1945. Lake is said to have begun drinking more heavily during this period and people began plainly refusing to work with her. She had been seeing psychiatrists for years but de Toth didn't approve and according to a published account, once suggested Constance spend the $50 she would otherwise pay for a doctor’s appointment on a new hat. Meanwhile Paramount cast Lake in a string of mostly forgotten films. A notable exception was The Blue Dahlia (1946) in which she again co-starred with Alan Ladd (who reportedly was less than fond of her) but Paramount decided not to renew her contract in 1948.

Tragic spiral

Her fourth child, Diana de Toth, was born October 16, 1948. Lake was also sued by her mother for support payments that year. After a single film for 20th Century Fox her career collapsed catastrophically. By the end of 1952 she had appeared in one last film (Stronghold, which she later described as "a dog") had filed for bankruptcy and divorced de Toth. The IRS siezed what was left for unpaid taxes. Lake resorted to television and stage work and in 1955 married songwriter Joseph A. McCarthy.

After severely breaking her ankle in 1959 Lake was unable to continue working as an actress. She and McCarthy divorced and she drifted between cheap hotels in Brooklyn and New York City and was arrested several times for public drunkness and disorderly conduct. A reporter eventually ran across her working as a barmaid (with easy access to alcohol) and wrote a widely distributed story which led to some television and stage appearances. In 1966 she had a brief stint as a TV hostess in Baltimore, Maryland along with a largely ignored film role (Footsteps in the Snow). Her physical and mental health declined steadily and by the late 1960s Lake was in Hollywood, Florida, apparently immobilized by paranoia (which included claims she was being stalked by the FBI).

She published her autobiography Veronica amid much publicity and positive reviews. With the proceeds Lake co-produced and starred in her last film, Flesh Feast (1970), a very low budget horror movie with a Nazi-myth storyline. She then moved to the UK where she had a short-lived marriage with "English sea captain" Robert Carelton-Munro before returning to the US in 1973, having filed for divorce. Lake was immediately hospitalized and although she is said to have made a cheerful and positive impression on the nurses who cared for her, she had no guests or visitors and was again financially destitute. Lake was 53 when she died of hepatitis and acute renal failure (complications of her alcoholism) near Burlington, Vermont. Her ashes were scattered off the Virgin Islands.

Veronica Lake has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6918 Hollywood Boulevard for her contributions to the motion picture industry.

Quotes

"I wasn't a sex symbol, I was a sex zombie."

"You could put all the talent I had into your left eye and still not suffer from impaired vision."

"I've reached a point in my life where it's the little things that matter... I was always a rebel and probably could have got much farther had I changed my attitude. But when you think about it, I got pretty far without changing attitudes. I'm happier with that." (1970)

Trivia

• She was reportedly only 4' 11" tall (although some accounts place her height two or three inches higher). According to Celebrity Sleuth magazine, Lake said her "measurements" were 33C - 21 1/2 - 33 1/2.

• The name of Archie comics character Veronica Lodge is remarkably similar to Veronica Lake, who was in the throes of her early celebrity when the comic book character was introduced in the spring of 1942.

• Veronica Lake is also the name of a fictional lake located near the small town of Frostbite Falls, Minnesota (a parody of International Falls) on the animated Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

• Many women are said to have damaged their hair while trying to imitate her platinum blonde color during the 1940s.

• She learned to fly in 1946 and flew her small plane from Los Angeles to New York in 1948.

• Her close friendship with actress Rita Beery, former wife of actor Wallace Beery, has led to unconfirmed rumours she experimented with lesbianism.

• In 1997 the Academy Award-winning film L.A. Confidential paid homage to Lake's image and manner through Kim Basinger's starring role in an adaptation of James Ellroy's crime novel set in early 1950s Los Angeles. One scene even included a fragment from This Gun for Hire screening in the background.

• A somewhat bizarre twist came in 2004 when some of Lake's ashes were reportedly found in a New York antique store.

Filmography

• Sorority House (1939)
• The Wrong Room (1939) (short subject)
• Dancing Co-Ed (1939)
• All Women Have Secrets (1939)
• Young as You Feel (1940)
• Forty Little Mothers (1940)
• I Wanted Wings (1941)
• Hold Back the Dawn (1941) (Cameo)
• Sullivan's Travels (1941)
• The Eyes Have It (1942) (short subject)
• This Gun for Hire (1942)
• The Glass Key (1942)
• I Married a Witch (1942)
• Star Spangled Rhythm (1942)
• So Proudly We Hail! (1943)
• The Hour Before the Dawn (1944)
• Bring on the Girls (1945)
• Out of This World (1945)
• Duffy's Tavern (1945) (Cameo)
• Hold That Blonde (1945)
• Miss Susie Slagle's (1946)
• The Blue Dahlia (1946)
• Ramrod (1947)
• Variety Girl (1947) (Cameo)
• Saigon (1948)
• The Sainted Sisters (1948)
• Isn't It Romantic? (1948)
• Slattery's Hurricane (1949)
• Stronghold (1951)
• Footsteps in the Snow (1966)
• Flesh Feast (1970)

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