Mona Freeman

Early years

Freeman was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and grew up in Pelham, New York. A lumberman's daughter, she was a model while in high school, and was selected the first "Miss Subways" of the New York City transit system.

Career

Paramount Pictures signed Freeman to a contract after she moved to Hollywood. She eventually signed a movie contract with Howard Hughes.

Her contract was later sold to Paramount Pictures. Her first film appearance was in the 1944 film Till We Meet Again. She became a popular teenage movie star. After a series of roles as a pretty, naive teenager she complained of being typecast.

As an adult, Freeman's career slowed and she appeared in mostly B-movies, though an exception was her role in the film noir Angel Face (1952). She also co-starred in the hit film Jumping Jacks with the comedy team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. In 1952, she was called a "vest pocket Venus" by sculptor Yucca Salamunich because her proportions were the same as those of the Venus de Milo but three-quarter size.

Freeman's appearances in films ended in the 1950s but she continued to work in television. Among her appearances were seven guest roles on The United States Steel Hour from 1960–1962 and three on Perry Mason, all of them roles as Mason's client: Jane Wardman in the 1962 episode, "The Case of the Lurid Letter", Rosanne Ambrose in the 1964 episode, "The Case of the Illicit Illusion", and Ellen Payne in the 1965 episode, "The Case of the 12th Wildcat".

Freeman was also a portrait painter and after 1961, she concentrated on painting. Her best-known portrait is that of businesswoman Mary See, founder of See's Candies.

Personal life and death

Freeman married Pat Nerney, a car dealer, in Los Angeles in 1945. The couple had one daughter, Mona. They divorced in 1952. In 1961 she married H. Jack Ellis, a businessman from Los Angeles.

Freeman died on May 23, 2014 at the age of 87 after a long illness at her Beverly Hills home.