Actress, Model. A typecast, feisty young girl, she is remembered for numerous cinematic features of the World Was II era. Born Katharine Gratten Aldridge, she was raised on the Eastern Shore of Virginia from the time she was a toddler. She started high school in Westminster, Maryland, then transferred to the St. Mary's Female Seminary of St. Mary's City, Maryland, where she developed an interest in theater. Following her 1934 graduation, she moved to New York and joined the Powers Agency. After becoming a regular presence in such periodicals as "Life", "Look," and "Redbook," she went to Hollywood and made her silver screen debut in "Vogues of 1938." Kay signed a 1939 contract with 20th Century Fox. She starred in such forgettable pieces as the 1939 "Hotel for Women," "Shooting High," "Sailor's Lady," and "Down Argentine Way" (all 1940), and 1941's "You're in the Army Now," though she also had a screen test for the role of Scarlett in "Gone With the Wind." Signing with Republic in 1941, she landed her best known gig as the heroine of "Perils of Nyoka," a suspense serial that ended each episode with a cliffhanger. Also seen in "Dare Devils of the West" and "Du Barry Was a Lady" (both 1943) and the 1944 "Haunted Harbor," she made her final screen appearance in 1945's "The Phantom of 42nd Street," then retired from show business to raise her eventual four children. Married three times, she lived her final decades in coastal Maine and died of heart disease. A few of her performances are preserved on DVD.
Actress, Model. A typecast, feisty young girl, she is remembered for numerous cinematic features of the World Was II era. Born Katharine Gratten Aldridge, she was raised on the Eastern Shore of Virginia from the time she was a toddler. She started high school in Westminster, Maryland, then transferred to the St. Mary's Female Seminary of St. Mary's City, Maryland, where she developed an interest in theater. Following her 1934 graduation, she moved to New York and joined the Powers Agency. After becoming a regular presence in such periodicals as "Life", "Look," and "Redbook," she went to Hollywood and made her silver screen debut in "Vogues of 1938." Kay signed a 1939 contract with 20th Century Fox. She starred in such forgettable pieces as the 1939 "Hotel for Women," "Shooting High," "Sailor's Lady," and "Down Argentine Way" (all 1940), and 1941's "You're in the Army Now," though she also had a screen test for the role of Scarlett in "Gone With the Wind." Signing with Republic in 1941, she landed her best known gig as the heroine of "Perils of Nyoka," a suspense serial that ended each episode with a cliffhanger. Also seen in "Dare Devils of the West" and "Du Barry Was a Lady" (both 1943) and the 1944 "Haunted Harbor," she made her final screen appearance in 1945's "The Phantom of 42nd Street," then retired from show business to raise her eventual four children. Married three times, she lived her final decades in coastal Maine and died of heart disease. A few of her performances are preserved on DVD.
Bio by: Bob Hufford
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