A striking, red-headed leading lady of the 1940s and 50s, Rhonda Fleming was dubbed the "Queen of Technicolor" because of her highly photogenic green eyes and flaming auburn hair. She was signed by David O. Selznick directly out of high school and, after appearing in bit parts, was cast in her breakthrough role (her first in color and her first musical) opposite Bing Crosby in "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" (1949). Featured mostly for her decorative good looks, Fleming graced a number of Technicolor B-epics such as "Yankee Pasha" (1954), countless Westerns ("The Eagle and the Hawk" 1950) and in film noir played several femme fatale roles, such as the nervous secretary who frames a private eye for murder in "Out of the Past" (1947) and the adulterous wife in "While the City Sleeps" (1956).
Family
FATHER: Harold Cheverton Louis.
MOTHER: Effie Louis.
SISTER: Beverly Engle. Older; died of a rare form of ovarian cancer in 1990; Fleming founded the Rhonda Fleming Mann Clinic for Women's Comprehensive Care at UCLA (1991).
SON: Kent Lane. Born in 1941; father Tom Lane.
STEP-DAUGHTER: Victoria Mann Simms.
STEP-DAUGHTER: Roberta Mann Benson.
Companion
HUSBAND: Tom Lane. Married in 1940; divorced in 1942.
HUSBAND: Lewis Morrill. Doctor. Married in 1952; divorced in 1954.
HUSBAND: Lang Jefferys. Actor. Married in 1960; divorced in 1962.
HUSBAND: Hall Bartlett. Producer, director. Married in 1966; divorced in 1972.
HUSBAND: Ted Mann. Exhibitor. Born c. 1926; married in 1977; retired owner of Mann Theatres, a theater chain; fifth husband; died on January 16, 2001 at age 84.
Milestone
1940: Spotted on the street by an agent while she was a 17-year-old high school senior; signed to a contract by producer David O Selznick who changed her name to Rhonda Fleming
1943: Film debut (in bit part), "In Old Oklahoma"
1945: First film role, as a nymphomaniac in "Spellbound"
1973: Broadway debut, "The Women"
1976: Starred in the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera revival of "Kismet"
1980: Final movie before "retirement", "The Nude Bomb"
1991: Made first TV appearance in almost 20 years as Robert Mitchum's wife in the TV-movie "Waiting for the Wind"
1991: With husband Ted Mann founded the Rhonda Fleming Mann Clinic for Women's Comprehensive Care at UCLA
Education
Beverly Hills High School - Beverly Hills, California
Some sources list 1925 as Ms. Fleming's birth year.
Fleming described her first onscreen appearance in Technicolor: "Suddenly my green eyes were green green. My red hair was flaming red. My skin was porcelain white. There was suddenly all this attention on how I looked rather than the roles I was playing. I'd been painted into a corner by the studios, who never wanted more from me than my looking good and waltzing through a parade of films like "The Redhead and the Cowboy". --quoted in PEOPLE, 1991
Tcm.com is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network.