Audrey Young

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This article is about the American actress and singer. For the British aristocrat of the same name, see Audrey Osborne, Duchess of Leeds.

Audrey Young (October 30, 1922 – June 1, 2012)[1] was an American film actress and a big-band singer who was most active in the 1940s. She was the wife of director Billy Wilder.

Early years[]

Young was born in Los Angeles, California,[2] Her father, Stratton Young,[3] built sets for films.[4]

Career[]

Young was a contract actor with Paramount Pictures in the 1940s,[2] appearing in approximately 20 films from 1944 to 1949. Her film debut came in Lady in the Dark (1944).[5] She had sung with Tommy Dorsey's orchestra before becoming an actress, and she sang (either solo or as part of a group) in several films, including Blue Skies.[4] Most of her roles were small and uncredited, with only a few exceptions like Danger Street and The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap. Her final film appearance was in Love Me or Leave Me (1955).[1]

On November 1, 1944, Young appeared on a Paramount Studios television variety program that was broadcast on station W6XYZ (later KTLA) in Los Angeles. She sang "What a Difference a Day Makes" and "Getting Sentimental Over You". In a review in the trade publication Billboard, Cy Wagner wrote that Young "had a nice voice and was very telegenic."[6] She also sang in vaudeville.[7]

Young worked as a costume consultant on two films, The Apartment and Some Like It Hot.[5]

Personal life[]

On June 30, 1949, Young married director Billy Wilder in Linden, Nevada.[3] They first met when she appeared in a small role as a Cloak Room Attendant in The Lost Weekend and were married until his death in 2002.[2] They had no children, but she was stepmother to Wilder's two children from an earlier marriage.[4] After Wilder's death, Young donated $5 million to the Hammer Museum at UCLA to create the Billy Wilder Theater.[2]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b "She donated funds for Billy Wilder Theater". The Los Angeles Times. California, Los Angeles. June 10, 2012. p. 34. Retrieved 31 May 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Lentz, Harris M., III (2013). Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2012. McFarland. p. 313. ISBN 9780786470631. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b "Billy Wilder Marries Singer Audrey Young". The Los Angeles Times. California, Los Angeles. July 1, 1949. p. 4. Retrieved 31 May 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Audrey Young, widow of Billy Wilder, dies at 89". Variety. June 6, 2012. Archived from the original on 31 May 2019. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b Pedersen, Erik (June 7, 2012). "Audrey Young Dies; Actress and Widow of Billy Wilder". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 26 January 2013. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  6. ^ Wagner, Cy (November 11, 1944). "Paramount" (PDF). Billboard. pp. 11–12. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  7. ^ "Vaudeville Reviews: Roxy, New York" (PDF). Billboard. August 2, 1947. p. 42. Retrieved 1 June 2019.

External links[]

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