This pretty, blonde 1940s B-movie starlet was the daughter of newspaperman Leonard Sanders and showgirl Blanche Thompson (who also appeared in a few silent pictures).
By her own account, she was born in Hollywood as Nancy Lou Sanders on June 29 1925, the day of the Santa Barbara earthquake.
Curiously, being in the movies had not been her primary career choice when she was spotted dancing at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub by journeyman actor and talent scout Don Dillaway.
Dillaway took an instant shine to Nancy and managed to arrange a screen test at RKO.
She passed muster and was rewarded with a six-month contract (being an experienced equestrian from the age of eight also helped clinch the deal).
Before long, she found herself on the cover of Life magazine -- along with Jane Greer and Martha Hyer -- as one of 'nine hopefuls'.
After five pictures, RKO dropped her option and Nancy moved over to Columbia where she went on to appear in no less than thirteen pictures in 1947 alone.
Many of these were horse operas, including half a dozen of the Durango Kid series with Charles Starrett, shot at the Columbia ranch in Burbank.
Nancy also doubled for Rita Hayworth in The Lady from Shanghai (1947) (wearing a blonde wig) and The Loves of Carmen (1948) (dressed as a gypsy).
She was Gerald Mohr's leading lady in The Lone Wolf in London (1947) and popped up in a few Three Stooges comedies which she later said to have really enjoyed being in.
When her Hollywood career began to falter in the early 50s, Nancy found work as a tour booking agent with Air Cal Airlines.
In 1996, she came out of retirement for occasional TV guest appearances.
She was predeceased by her husband of 43 years, a sales rep for Seagram and Jim Bean.
- Biography By: I.
S.
Mowis
Two years after her last failed relationship, Emily Vale has stopped believing in love. This brings her to the attention of Venus who sends her son Cupid down to Earth to pierce her with an arrow in the hope of changing her mind. Unfortunately, the handsome but hapless Cupid misses and the arrow strikes his own heart making him fall hopelessly in love with Emily. Thus he is granted temporary leave from paradise in order to pursue her. However, not only does he have a limited time on Earth, but also Emily's last boyfriend, the handsome but sleazy Ted has just shown up intent on winning her back. Which one will Emily choose? And is she ready to open her heart and accept love into her life once more?
The stooges hope to collect a reward by proving to a museum that cavemen still exist. They return from their expedition with a film purporting to show some stone age stooges defending their women from other cavemen. The museum curators are about to pay they reward, until they overhear the stooges talking about how they faked the film, with themselves playing the cavemen.
The stooges are movers for an express company and on a rainy night are sent to move some junk, including a suit of armor, from a spooky old house. The armor is haunted by the ghost of Peeping Tom, who has no intention of leaving. The ghost foils the stooges attempts to take the armor, until Lady Godiva shows up and the two ride off together.
Set in the stone age, the stooges are cavemen who must have various misadventures hunting, gathering, and otherwise coping with prehistoric life. When some other cavemen threaten to take their women ("Aggie", "Maggie", and "Baggy"), the boys fight them off with a catapulting tree branch that shoots rocks and eggs.
It's 1873 and the disbanded Texas Rangers have been replaced by the corrupt Texas State Police. Steve Lanning arrives posing as a wanted outlaw to get in with them in his attempt to have them replaced. His inside work helps the Durango Kid break up the State Police raids but he is in trouble when his secret identity as Durango becomes known to them.
A chronic runaway bride is haunted by her conscience, who becomes reality.
Michael Lanyard (Gerald Mohr) is suspected of stealing two fabulous diamonds from a vault in Scotland Yard, where they were being held for safekeeping, but the Yard can't prove he did it. Later, Lanyard is summoned by a member of the nobility to help the latter raise money to pay a blackmailer. Lanyard later finds evidence to reveal the diamonds as having been stolen by a famous stage star.
A sailor suffering from post-traumatic stress becomes involved with a beautiful and enigmatic seductress married to a blind painter.
Government Agent Steve leases land to Masters so he can bring in horses for the Army. Henley has obtained a forged lease for the same land and Steve is unable to prove it's a fake. While Steve checks with Washington, Henley plans to roundup and ship the horses. Masters also intends to roundup the horses and he has the Durango Kid on his side in the battle with Henley.
When the ranchers of Bearcat are plagued by rustlers, Big Jim Grady offers to buy their herds from them at low-ball prices. Steve Haley suggests to the ranchers that they band together and drive their herds to Abilene, Kansas and get full price. Steve's friend Smiley "joins" the rustlers to learn who their leader is. Grady henchman Doc Walker asks Steve to help break up the cattle drive, and he agrees in order to keep tabs on the rustlers. The gang makes several attempts to take the trail herd but Steve, in his guise as the Durango Kid, intervenes and saves the cattle.
A dark personal secret drives a young woman to use every man she encounters.