Cleo Moore

Cleo Moore was born Cleouna Moore on October 31, 1924 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the daughter of a building contractor. Both her parents were deeply involved in Democratic politics. Politics, in Louisiana, was an all consuming passion with a lot of families in the 1920s. Cleo began her trek to stardom when she participated in school plays in high school. When she was about 20 years old, Cleo wed Palmer Long, son of the late Huey "Kingfish" Long in 1944. Palmer's father had been one of the movers and shakers in Louisiana politics for years, first serving as governor and then the United States Senate. He was assassinated in 1935 in the state capitol building. The marriage was doomed to fail, having lasted a mere six weeks. After Cleo finished high school, she moved with her family to California where her father was anticipating the end of World War II and the building boom that was expected to follow. Once in sunny California, it did not take long to get "discovered". She was spotted by an RKO talent scout while attending a boxing fight at the Hollywood Legion Stadium and persuaded to take a screen test. She passed. Her first film was Congo Bill (1948). Then she went back to work at her family's building business and did some modeling. Two years later, in 1950, the shapely blonde appeared in a Western, Rio Grande Patrol (1950). She received fifth billing in the movie that went nowhere. That year proved too busy for Cleo as she appeared in five other films. In Bright Leaf (1950), a film about the tobacco industry, was a well-received one even though she had only a small part. Gambling House (1950) was, somewhat, of a personal breakthrough. Instead of having, basically, unknowns as her co-stars, Cleo had Victor Mature and William Bendix. Hard as it was to break into films, that one really grabbed the public's attention; she seemed destined to stay in B films. She did appear in On Dangerous Ground (1951) with Ida Lupino and Robert Ryan, but had only a minor part. For an actress who had a wonderful talent, she seemed to be picked because of how her physical attributes played on the screen. That seemed secondary to the moguls of the studios. She was very beautiful, but Cleo wanted them to look past that and see the talent she possessed. In 1954 (now under contract to Universal-International), she appeared in two more box-office bombs, The Other Woman (1954) and Bait (1954). The following year, she made two more films, Hold Back Tomorrow (1955) and Women's Prison (1955). Although second class movies, they fared well at the box-office because of the subject matter and Cleo. Other than that, they did not have a lot going for them. In 1957, Cleo starred in her final film, along with her sister, Mara Lea, Hit and Run (1957). She had star billing, but it was another box-office bomb. Cleo then left the motion picture industry forever. She married a real estate tycoon in 1961 and settled down to domesticity and the life of a Beverly Hills socialite. Her only child, a daughter, Debra, was born in 1963. Less than a week before her 49th birthday (October 25, 1973), Moore died of a heart attack in Inglewood, California. To her legions of fans, she remains their favorite sex symbol of the 1950s, and others languish knowing that her talent could have sent her to loftier heights instead of being wasted in minor roles in substandard B films.