Kay Francis (January 13, 1905 – August 26, 1968) was an American actress who, after a brief beginning on Broadway in the 1920s, moved to film and achieved her greatest success between 1930 and 1936.
Francis was born Katharine Edwina Gibbs on January 13, 1905, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Her parents Joseph Sprague Gibbs and his actress wife, Katharine Clinton Franks were married in New York City in 1903, then moved to Oklahoma City in 1904. By the time young Katharine was four her father had left. Joseph, at 6’ 4”, would leave Katharine (Kay) the legacy of being Hollywood’s tallest leading lady (5’ 9”) in the 1930’s. Her mother claimed that Kay got her unique presence and personality from her father.
While she never discouraged rumors that her mother, Katharine ("Kay") Gibbs, was a pioneering businesswoman who established the "Katharine Gibbs" chain of vocational schools, Francis was actually raised in the hardscrabble theatrical circuit of the period. Her mother was actually only a...
Created by dipity on Feb 7, 2008
Last updated: 11/11/09 at 08:43 PM
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Kay Francis died in New York, New York, United States
In Name Only is a 1939 romantic film starring Cary Grant, Carole Lombard and Kay Francis.Alec Walker (Cary Grant) puts up with a loveless marriage to Maida (Kay Francis) until he meets widow Julie Eden (Carole Lombard). They fall in love and he asks his wife for a divorce. She refuses; she married him solely for his social position and wealth and won't give them up. Though he knows it, she is such a skillful liar, she has his parents (Charles Coburn, Nella Walker) convinced that Julie is the fortune hunter, out to destroy a happy marriage.Julie breaks up with Alec since she can't see any future with him. Alec becomes so distraught, he gets drunk and falls asleep in a hotel room, leaving a window open in the middle of winter. As a result, he becomes dangerously ill. The doctor tells Alec's father that he would have no trouble recovering if he hadn't lost the will to live. When Alec calls out her name in his delirium, the doctor strongly recommends that she be brought to him.Mr. Walker...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031477
Trouble in Paradise is a 1932 romantic comedy film that tells the story of a master thief who meets up with a beautiful pickpocket. The two of them go to work for a famous perfume manufacturer, and the thief finds himself torn between the two women. The film stars Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis, Herbert Marshall, Charles Ruggles and Edward Everett Horton.The film was directed by Ernst Lubitsch. The screenplay was written by Samson Raphaelson, based loosely on the play The Honest Finder (A Becsuletes Megtalalo) by Hungarian playwright Aladar Laszlo. As with all the Lubitsch-Raphaelson collaborations, Lubitsch contributed ideas to the writing and Raphaelson contributed ideas to the directing.[citation needed] The screenplay includes the line "Marriage is a beautiful mistake which two people make together... but with you, Francois, I think it would be a mistake."The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the ...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023622
Kay Francis was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Oklahoma County
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