- Born
- Died
- Birth nameMartha Lee Estes
- The Tennessee-born Snowden (real name: Martha Lee Estes) was a movie actress and model who first made a splash on the Jack Benny TV show, sashaying across the stage at the San Diego Naval base. Twenty thousand sailors gave the curvy sweater-clad starlet a standing ovation that made headlines in "Variety", and every talent scout in Hollywood was on Snowden's trail the very next morning. Three days later, she was hired to make her film debut in director Robert Aldrich's obtuse crime classic Kiss Me Deadly (1955) (Aldrich expanded her role and gave her featured billing). In January 1955, she signed a seven-year contract with Universal Studios, beginning by playing up her Dixie drawl in their glossy soap opera All That Heaven Allows (1955). Other movies include Francis in the Navy (1955), The Creature Walks Among Us (1956) and the Bridey Murphy-inspired I've Lived Before (1956). In September 1956, Snowden married Dick Contino, a big-name singer/accordion player, and a few years later she retired from acting. Mother to five children from two marriages, she died of cancer at age 51.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tom Weaver <TomWeavr@aol.com>
- SpousesDick Contino(September 18, 1956 - May 11, 1982) (her death, 3 children)James W. Snowden, Sr.(1952 - 1955) (divorced, 2 children)
- She met her husband-to-be Dick Contino at a party given by Tony Curtis to celebrate the first TV show performance of Rory Calhoun. Within three months, she and Contino got married. After a year, with the arrival of their first child, she chose to be a stay-at-home mom who cared mostly about her family. She hated housework but enjoyed cooking.
- Moved to Hollywood in 1954 and first shared a Los Angeles apartment with another wannabe actress, Barbara Stuart, who later played Bunny on the "Gomer Pyle" series. The two starlets became life-long friends. When Leigh became ill with terminal cancer in 1981 and was receiving treatment at Cedar-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, Barbara and then-husband Dick Gautier insisted that husband Dick Contino, who lived in Las Vegas, move temporarily into their guest house.
- Was diagnosed with skin cancer after a melanoma was found on her back in 1972 She had invasive surgery to remove the growth but, in 1981, the cancer returned and she died the following May (1982).
- Born in Memphis, her father was an employee for the government and died when Leigh was 3. He reportedly slipped off a Mississippi River barge on Christmas Eve and drowned. His body was never found. Leigh and her mother Catherine moved to nearly Covington after his tragic death.
- Long after leaving the Hollywood acting arena, Leigh played Maggie in a stage production of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" at the Fresno Community Theater and won a local award.
- I knew I was no Katherine Cornell, so I just chose my studio like I'd choose a college. I figured I had lots to learn and U-I was the best teacher. -- LS, in a 1956 interview with James Bacon.
- I wouldn't take anything for the training and experience I got at U-I [Universal-International] and for the wonderful people I met there. -- LS, in a 1956 interview with James Bacon.
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