Born Mildred Linton in Ottumwa, Iowa on December 12, 1909, Karen Morley was adopted by a well-to-do family who moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1920s. She enrolled at Hollywood High School and studied for a career in medicine at UCLA, but a class in theater changed her career ambitions. After studying at Pasadena Playhouse, she was signed by Fox ...
I think Poppy (Scarface (1932)) was my favorite role. . . I always liked playing poor girls who have their sights on something. That's the most colorful character. You can show off. . .
2
I know I'm not pretty. I cannot make a place for myself on the screen as a beauty. I am not even an exciting person. There is, therefore, only one thing left. I must be an actress. And the more variety I can get, the more they will think of me as a capable actress.
3
Nobody could imagine just how terrible McCarthyism would be. So many careers went down the toilet.
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Fact
1
She had one child, a son, Michael Karoly Vidor born on August 26, 1933. He was 66 years old when he died March 30, 2000 in the town of Eastsound on Orca Island, Washington.
2
Had been considered for the role of Mrs. Connelly in the 2003 Drew Barrymore film, Duplex (2003). Had she received the role, it would have been her fifth with a member of the Barrymore family.
3
Her MGM career fell apart after marrying director Charles Vidor, one of Hollywood's bright promises at the time. It seems it didn't sit well that she had nabbed him over prettier stars and it affected the way the public viewed her as an ingenue. By the late 30s she was reduced to small roles.
Hollywood folklore has it that she broke into films when she read lines with actors being tested for Greta Garbo's movie Inspiration (1931) in 1931. She was so convincing that director Clarence Brown cast her in a prime role.
6
She only made one film, an independent western called Born to the Saddle (1953) after testifying before the Senate Committee hearing alongside her second husband Lloyd Gough, who shared her 'leftist' views. Both then dropped completely out of sight. He eventually came back in the 60s, she didn't.
7
In 1954, she ran unsuccessfully as a New York lieutenant governor candidate for the American Labor Party.
8
Originally a pretty starlet/ingenue in Hollywood, Morley's career was ruined 50 years ago by the Hollywood Blacklist/McCarthyism. She has long been a staunch left-wing activist around the San Francisco area. Now in her 90s, she appeared in a Vanity Fair photoshoot featuring other surviving victims of the Blacklist in December, 1999.
Actress
Title
Year
Status
Character
Police Woman
1975
TV Series
The Landlady
Kojak
1973
TV Series
Mrs. Webber
Kung Fu
1973
TV Series
Mrs. Roper
Born to the Saddle
1953
Kate Daggett
M
1951
Mrs. Coster
Samson and Delilah
1949
uncredited
Framed
1947
Beth
The Thirteenth Hour
1947
Eileen Blair
The Unknown
1946
Rachel Martin Arnold
Jealousy
1945
Dr. Monica Anderson
Pride and Prejudice
1940
Mrs. Collins
Kentucky
1938
Mrs. Goodwin - 1861
On Such a Night
1937
Gail Stanley
The Last Train from Madrid
1937
Baroness Helene Rafitte
The Girl from Scotland Yard
1937
Linda Beech
Outcast
1937
Margaret Stevens
Beloved Enemy
1936
Cathleen O'Brien
Devil's Squadron
1936
Martha Dawson
The Littlest Rebel
1935
Mrs. Cary
Thunder in the Night
1935
Madalaine
The Healer
1935
Evelyn Allen
$10 Raise
1935
Emily Converse
Black Fury
1935
Anna Novak
Wednesday's Child
1934
Kathryn Phillips
Straight Is the Way
1934
Bertha
Our Daily Bread
1934
Mary Sims
The Crime Doctor
1934
Andra
Dinner at Eight
1933
Mrs. Lucy Talbot
Gabriel Over the White House
1933
Pendola Molloy
Flesh
1932
Laura
The Mask of Fu Manchu
1932
Sheila
The Phantom of Crestwood
1932
Jenny Wren
Downstairs
1932
Karl's New Employer (uncredited)
The Washington Masquerade
1932
Consuela Fairbanks
Man About Town
1932
Helena
Scarface
1932
Poppy
Are You Listening?
1932
Alice Grimes
Arsène Lupin
1932
Sonia
Mata Hari
1931
Carlotta
The Cuban Love Song
1931
Crystal
The Sin of Madelon Claudet
1931
Alice
High Stakes
1931
Anne Cornwall
Politics
1931
Myrtle Burns
Laughing Sinners
1931
Estelle (photo in newspaper) (uncredited)
Never the Twain Shall Meet
1931
Maisie
Daybreak
1931
Emily Kessner
Strangers May Kiss
1931
Dining Companion (uncredited)
Inspiration
1931
Liane Latour
Thru Different Eyes
1929
Bit Part (uncredited)
Soundtrack
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Washington Masquerade
1932
performer: "Etude in E Op.10 No.3" 1829-32 - uncredited
Scarface
1932
performer: "Some of These Days" 1910
Thanks
Title
Year
Status
Character
Complicated Women
2003
TV Movie documentary in memory of
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
Complicated Women
2003
TV Movie documentary
Herself - Interviewee
Greta Garbo: A Lone Star
2001
TV Movie documentary
Herself (uncredited)
The South Bank Show
2001
TV Series documentary
Herself
Famous Families
1998
TV Series documentary
Herself
Screen Snapshots Series 16, No. 4
1936
Documentary short
Herself
Archive Footage
Title
Year
Status
Character
The 76th Annual Academy Awards
2004
TV Special
Herself (Memorial Tribute)
A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies
1995
TV Movie documentary
actress 'Scarface' (uncredited)
The Big Parade of Comedy
1964
Documentary
Mrs. Lucy Talbot in 'Dinner at Eight' (uncredited)
$200,000
