- Born
- Died
- Birth nameArline Francis Kazanjian
- Height5′ 5½″ (1.66 m)
- Arlene Francis, the witty actress and popular television personality, was born Arlene Francis Kazanjian on Oct. 20, 1907, in Boston. Her father was an Armenian immigrant, later painter and portrait photographer; her mother was the daughter of actor Alfred Davis. Even at an early age, Arlene said, "I started out with one goal: I wanted to be a serious actress." She studied at the Theatre Guild and then went to Hollywood. Her movie debut was in Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), in which Bela Lugosi (often cast as a villain or mad scientist in many of his over 40 horror movies) tied her to an X-cross to extract her blood (trivia: Arlene and Bela were both born on Oct. 20). The live theater, however, was her first love, and she appeared in many plays. In 1935, she married movie executive Neil Agnew; they'd stay together for 10 years. Arlene made her Broadway debut in 1936 and had her first major role in "All That Glitters" two years later. She appeared with Orson Welles in the Mercury Theatre production of "Danton's Death" in 1938, and in "Journey to Jerusalem" in 1940. Her big hit was "The Doughgirls" in 1942; it ran for 1-1/2 years. Arlene had auditioned for her first radio part at the same time she was getting started in the theater; she later recalled, "Radio came easily." In the 1940s, she played in as many as five radio serials a day. Arlene married actor Martin Gabel in 1946 (he died in 1986), and they had a son, Peter. She also was host of a radio dating show called "Blind Date," which was adapted to a TV series in 1949 (Your Big Moment (1949)), and she was the host (1949-1952). It was television that brought Arlene fame, and she became one of the highest-paid women in TV. Arlene was a permanent panelist on CBS' What's My Line? (1950) (a Mark Goodson-Bill Todman production) from 1950 through 1967 and continued as a panelist in a syndicated version that ran until 1975, thus being with the show for its entire 25-year run. She was warm, witty and had a cute laugh--and was always fashionably dressed. She wore a diamond heart-shaped necklace, which started a fad. She was still doing radio while on TV, and in 1960, she was the star of "The Arlene Francis Show," a daily interview show in New York, on WOR; it ran for 23 years. Arlene retired from show business after that and lived comfortably. She was still giving interviews in 1991. Arlene spent her last years living in San Francisco. Arlene died of cancer on Thursday, May 31, 2001, in a San Francisco hospital, at age 93. Her many fans will miss her, Arlene was truly one of the greats.- IMDb Mini Biography By: kdhaisch@aol.com
- With a sophisticated, sometimes biting, but always positive wit, a very urbane laugh and a knowing gleam in her eyes that she carried in even very trying circumstances, Arlene Francis personified the ideal for feminine television personalities in the 1950s and 1960s. She is perhaps most famous on television for her role in the long-running What's My Line (1951) series, but she also hosted Home (1954), an NBC prototype for TV magazine offerings that aired in the mornings following Today (1952). On ABC she hosted Talent Patrol (1953), which drew from members of the military for a variety of song and dance and other kinds of entertainment. She was born Arline Francis Kazanjian in Boston, where she first ventured on stage for productions presented by the Catholic girls' school she attended. Her father, a renowned portrait photographer, and her mother disapproved of her theatrical pursuits and attempted to stifle them by sending her to a New York City finishing school. They even tried to settle her down with her own boutique business on Madison Avenue, but she used the premises as little more than a venue for socializing with friends. Within a year, the boutique was gone and so, too, was her surname and the original spelling of her first name. A new Arlene Francis emerged in Hollywood, where she landed the small part of a harlot who riles Bela Lugosi in Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932). It was at this time she also launched her radio career with impersonations of celebrities on "45 Minutes in Hollywood" (she reportedly did a quite convincing Greta Garbo). Work on radio's "March of Time" and "Cavalcade of America" followed. She also performed on shows hosted by such stars as Jack Benny, George Burns and Gracie Allen, and Fred Allen. Eventually, she, too, hosted a show: ABC's Your Big Moment (1949), making her the first woman to host a TV game show. Her school-day aspirations for theater found satisfaction in 1936 when she debuted in "One Good Year" and landed a major role in the 1938 Broadway production of "All That Glitters." It was also in 1938 that she first appeared with Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten and the Mercury Theatre in "Danton's Death." In 1940 she appeared in Maxwell Anderson's "Journey to Jerusalem." She scored a big hit in 1942 with Joseph Fields' comedy "The Doughgirls," playing the role of a Russian sniper, walking "away with the show," according to Look magazine. She joined "What's My Line?" for its second telecast and became a mainstay for the show for the next 17 years. John Daly hosted the show, which included Bennett Cerf, Fred Allen, and Dorothy Kilgallen as fellow panelists, all of whom helped to give the show its well-deserved reputation for urbanity. After the deaths of Allen in 1956 and Kilgallen in 1965, Francis and Cerf were usually joined on the show by a variety of celebrity guest panelists. For all her successes, bizarre but nonetheless tragic occurrences found their way into Francis' life. In 1960, a dumbbell she was using to prop open a window in her Manhattan apartment slipped out of its hold and fell eight stories onto a Detroit tourist who was in New York celebrating his 60th birthday, killing him. In 1963, she was driving in the rain when she collided with another car, and the accident killed the driver. She suffered a concussion and a broken shoulder. In 1988, while she was walking along New York's Lexington Avenue, a genuine piece of Americana was stolen from her when a thief snatched from around her neck the diamond encrusted heart-shaped necklace her husband had given her on their first wedding anniversary. The necklace had so graced her appearances on What's My Line? (1950) and so typified her portrayal of the sophisticated cosmopolitan that it had become a bit of an icon in fashion jewelry. Despite these tragedies, Francis usually maintained a dignified and positive outlook, managing to lighten things with her wit. In a rather harrowing experience in one of her Home (1954) shows, she demonstrated her mettle by descending in a diving bell to the sea floor near Santa Catalina Island in California. When a malfunction with the air pressure shot the bell to the surface without warning, Francis quite naturally let out a scream that was telecast nationwide. But she quickly regained her composure and, with that gleam in her eyes, exclaimed, "Wow, now I know what it feels like to be a champagne cork!"- IMDb Mini Biography By: Patrick King <patrick_king@hotmail.com>
- Actress, TV/radio hostess, panelist, and early-TV celebrity. Her parents discouraged her from pursuing a stage career, sending her instead to an exclusive New York finishing school. She dropped her surname, altered the spelling of her first name, and went to Hollywood to seek a career in films. After her first film, she began a radio career, appearing in "45 Minutes in Hollywood." While a member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theater, she met Martin Gabel, who became her second husband. With a ready smile and quick wit (one TV reporter called her personality "femininely gay"), Arlene Francis became one of early television's most visible and busy celebrities. Her best-remembered ongoing appearances may have been on the panel show What's My Line? (1950).- IMDb Mini Biography By: Hup234!
- SpousesMartin Gabel(May 14, 1946 - May 22, 1986) (his death, 1 child)Neil Francis Agnew(November 28, 1935 - August 13, 1945) (divorced)
- Children
- Well known for her diamond heart-shaped necklace
- The heart-shaped diamond necklace she always wore was given to her by husband Martin Gabel. It triggered a heart-shaped diamond fad in the mid-50s.
- In 1960, her maid accidentally dropped a barbell from her apartment window or balcony, killing a passerby. Ms. Francis paid $175,000 in damages.
- Was offered the role of Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote (1984) but declined because she felt the part would be mundane.
- Suffered from Alzheimer's disease from mid-1980s until her death in 2001.
- On her television show, Home, of April 3,1957, she interviewed then Senator and future President John F. Kennedy and Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy.
- [on her 25 years on "What's My Line?"]: Who said where has the time gone? I watched it go and was grateful it had gone so well.
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