Mary Carlisle

American actress

Mary Carlisle (born Gwendolyn Witter; February 3, 1914 – August 1, 2018) was an American actress, singer, and dancer, best known for her roles as a wholesome ingénue in numerous 1930s musical comedy films. She starred in more than 60 Hollywood films, moving beyond bit parts after coming to attention, alongside the likes of Gloria Stuart and Ginger Rogers, as one of 15 girls selected by the Western Association of Motion pictures as their WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1932. Her first major role was in the 1933 film College Humor with Bing Crosby. The two performers worked together in two additional films, Double or Nothing (1937) and Doctor Rhythm (1938). After her marriage in 1942 and a starring role in Dead Men Walk (1943), she retired from acting.

Carlisle was born Gwendolyn Witter in Boston, Massachusetts, to Arthur William and Leona Ella (Wotton) Witter. Born into a religious family, she was educated in a convent in Back Bay, Boston, after her family moved to that neighborhood when she was six months old. Some time after her father's death, when she was 4, Carlisle and her mother relocated to Los Angeles. Through her uncle Robert Carlisle, who was a film editor and producer, she learned of a casting call at Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Carlisle's uncle, who lived in California, gave Carlisle the opportunity to appear in the Jackie Coogan silent movie Long Live the King in 1923, a performance for which she was uncredited. She was praised for her angelic looks, and Laemmle offered her a screen test. Though she passed the test and started doing extra work at Universal, she was stopped by a welfare officer who noticed that she was underage and had to finish school first. She also had a role in Grand Hotel (1932), as a bride named Mrs. Hoffman. Her major acting break came when Paramount Pictures "loaned" her out to star in the musical comedy College Humor (1933) alongside Bing Crosby. She made two more movies with Crosby, Double or Nothing in 1937, and retired after co starring as the doctor's wife in Dead Men Walk (1943).

In 1942, Carlisle married British born actor James Edward Blakeley, who later became an executive producer at 20th Century Fox. She retired from films shortly after. After the death of Barbara Kent at age 103 in 2011, Carlisle became the last surviving WAMPAS Baby Star. She died on August 1, 2018, at the Motion Picture & Television Fund, a retirement community for actors in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles;