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IMDbPro

Gypsy Rose Lee(1911-1970)

  • Actress
  • Writer
  • Soundtrack
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
Gypsy Rose Lee c. 1937
An ornithologist battles a family of bird poachers in the Florida Everglades.
Play trailer1:53
Wind Across the Everglades (1958)
1 Video
31 Photos
Born Rose Louise Hovick in Seattle, Washington, in 1911, but called Louise from early childhood, Gypsy Rose Lee was the daughter of a mild-mannered businessman and a restless, fiery young woman named Rose, who was determined to get out of Seattle and make a life for herself and her daughter in show business. In 1912, Rose had another child, June. Rose thought June was much more beautiful, photogenic and talented than Louise apparently could ever hope to be, which soon caused her to pack up her two children and search for a career in vaudeville (she divorced her husband when he objected to a career in show business). By the time Louise was seven and June five, they had put together a very successful act, Baby June and Her Farmboys. June was, of course, the star, and Louise was put in the chorus, though she did get an occasional moment in the spotlight. The act was making $1500 a week, but the family was not exactly living in high style, having to scrimp and save much of the time in order to buy food, and often in debt. There are many who believe that Rose was squandering the money.

There were also rumors about Rose during this time, about how she had to dodge the police, who enforced strict child labor laws, and even about how she may have murdered a man she thought was pestering her children. Despite these rumors, June and Louise's act continued to be successful throughout the 1920s. At the end of the decade June was 13 and had been re-christened Dainty June. By this time it was clear that vaudeville was a dying art form. Rose, however, still chased after her dream, and still made June up to be a cute baby. June resented it, and finally she married one of the chorus boys in the act (she was still only 13) and ran away with him. Not even this could stop Rose, however. This time she formed a new act, centering it around Louise. Called Rose Louise and Her Hollywood Blondes, she and her chorus girls performed slightly risqué musical numbers, and were moderately successful. Still, vaudeville continued to die out, which hurt the act. However, there was one form of vaudeville that still drew crowds: burlesque. Eventually, Rose, Louise and company had to take a job in a burlesque house. Sometime during their stay there the star stripper was not able to go on for a performance. Rose, never one to pass up an opportunity, volunteered Louise for the job. So Louise, just 15 at the time, stepped on stage, wearing not much more than a grass skirt, and slowly and teasingly . . . didn't take much off. Audiences responded favorably to this new kind of striptease act, which was more "tease" than "strip," more tantalizing than tawdry. Louise had finally found her calling.

For her stage name she took Gypsy, a nickname she derived from her hobby of reading tea leaves, and combined it with her real first name, Rose, and Lee, which she added on a whim. As Gypsy Rose Lee she launched a hugely successful career in burlesque, incorporating humor and intelligence, as well as the requisite removal of various articles of clothing, into her act. She became extremely popular, even appearing at the last place anyone would expect, high society balls. Once she had conquered the stages of burlesque, she decided to try her hand at movies. Billed under her real name, Louise Hovick--because the studio heads were afraid her stage name would scare people away--she made her film debut in Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937). It was a forgettable film, and her performance wasn't much more memorable. She appeared in three more films in the 1930s, and two more in the 1940s, but her film career was pretty much a bust. She tried her hand at writing with the "burlesque mystery" novel "The G-String Murders" (1941), which was made into the film Lady of Burlesque (1943), starring Barbara Stanwyck. By the 1950s, however, she was comfortable just being a sort of queen mother of burlesque. She had gone through three unhappy marriages, as well as affairs with showman Mike Todd and director Otto Preminger; the latter was the father of her only child, Erik Lee Preminger. She was not close to her sister June, who by this time had changed her name and was known as actress/dancer June Havoc. She also still had to contend with Mama Rose, who constantly tried to extort money from her with vicious threats. It wasn't until Rose died from terminal cancer in 1954 that Gypsy truly felt safe to write her memoirs, without having to worry anymore about her mother's repercussions. Her autobiography, "Gypsy", was published in 1957. Detailing her childhood in vaudeville and her relationship with her mother. It was an immediate bestseller. Broadway producers also noticed it and decided it would make a great musical, and so was born what many consider the best Broadway musical of all time: "Gypsy". With book by Arthur Laurents, music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, it premiered in 1959 and was an immediate smash. However, though Gypsy was an important character, of course, it did not focus on her alone, but rather on the hard-boiled, driven, single-minded, even monstrous stage mother that was Mama Rose.

This time it was Rose who was the star, which, as the musical implies, was perhaps what she always wanted. The musical has been frequently revived and been made into two films. The role of Mama Rose has been played by, among others, Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Bette Midler and Betty Buckley. Gypsy Rose Lee was able to enjoy the musical's success in her last years. She had appeared in three films in the 1950s, and made three more in the 1960s, including a cameo in, of all films, the family comedy The Trouble with Angels (1966), opposite Hayley Mills and Rosalind Russell, who played Mama Rose in the first screen version of the play, Gypsy (1962). The real Gypsy even hosted two incarnations of her own talk show. She died of cancer in 1970. Even if her film career wasn't spectacular, she was immortalized on the stage of both burlesque and Broadway.
BornJanuary 8, 1911
DiedApril 26, 1970(59)
BornJanuary 8, 1911
DiedApril 26, 1970(59)
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
  • Awards
    • 1 win total

Photos31

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Known for

Randolph Scott, Bob Burns, Jane Hale, Gypsy Rose Lee, Wanda McKay, Dinah Shore, and Charles Winninger in Belle of the Yukon (1944)
Belle of the Yukon
5.3
  • Belle De Valle
  • 1944
Eddie Cantor, June Lang, Gypsy Rose Lee, and Roland Young in Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937)
Ali Baba Goes to Town
6.3
  • Sultana
  • Louise Hovick(as Louise Hovick)
  • 1937
William Terry and Cheryl Walker in Stage Door Canteen (1943)
Stage Door Canteen
6.2
  • Gypsy Rose Lee
  • 1943
Brian Donlevy, Gypsy Rose Lee, and Victor McLaglen in Battle of Broadway (1938)
Battle of Broadway
6.0
  • Linda Lee(as Louise Hovick)
  • 1938

Credits

Edit
IMDbPro

Actress



  • Jack Elam in The Over-the-Hill Gang (1969)
    The Over-the-Hill Gang
    6.0
    TV Movie
    • Cassie
    • 1969
  • The Name of the Game (1968)
    The Name of the Game
    7.5
    TV Series
    • Rosetta Stewart
    • 1968
  • Richard Deacon and Phyllis Diller in The Phyllis Diller Show (1966)
    The Phyllis Diller Show
    6.9
    TV Series
    • Regina
    • 1966
  • The Trouble with Angels (1966)
    The Trouble with Angels
    7.3
    • Mrs. Phipps
    • 1966
  • Who Has Seen the Wind? (1965)
    Who Has Seen the Wind?
    7.0
    TV Movie
    • Proprietress
    • 1965
  • Burke's Law (1963)
    Burke's Law
    7.3
    TV Series
    • Miss Bumpsy Cathcart
    • 1964
  • The Stripper (1963)
    The Stripper
    6.6
    • Madame Olga
    • 1963
  • Wind Across the Everglades (1958)
    Wind Across the Everglades
    6.5
    • Mrs. Bradford
    • 1958
  • Anita Ekberg in Screaming Mimi (1958)
    Screaming Mimi
    5.7
    • Joann 'Gypsy' Masters
    • 1958
  • Modern Romances (1954)
    Modern Romances
    6.0
    TV Series
    • 1958
  • Kraft Theatre (1947)
    The United States Steel Hour
    7.7
    TV Series
    • Lorraine Anderson
    • Wendy Graves
    • 1956–1958
  • Paulette Goddard, Maruja Coral, and María del Amor in Muchachas de Bagdad (1953)
    Muchachas de Bagdad
    4.9
    • Zohara
    • 1953
  • Babes in Bagdad (1952)
    Babes in Bagdad
    4.1
    • Zohara
    • 1952
  • Randolph Scott, Bob Burns, Jane Hale, Gypsy Rose Lee, Wanda McKay, Dinah Shore, and Charles Winninger in Belle of the Yukon (1944)
    Belle of the Yukon
    5.3
    • Belle De Valle
    • 1944
  • William Terry and Cheryl Walker in Stage Door Canteen (1943)
    Stage Door Canteen
    6.2
    • Gypsy Rose Lee
    • 1943

Writer



  • Imelda Staunton in Gypsy: Live from the Savoy Theatre (2015)
    Gypsy: Live from the Savoy Theatre
    8.1
    TV Movie
    • memoirs
    • 2015
  • Bette Midler in Gypsy (1993)
    Gypsy
    7.1
    TV Movie
    • memoirs: "Gypsy, A Memoir"
    • 1993
  • Natalie Wood, Karl Malden, and Rosalind Russell in Gypsy (1962)
    Gypsy
    7.1
    • from the memoirs of
    • 1962
  • Carmen Miranda, Vivian Blaine, Perry Como, Stephen Dunne, Dennis O'Keefe, and Martha Stewart in Doll Face (1945)
    Doll Face
    5.8
    • play "The Naked Genius" (as Louise Hovick)
    • 1945
  • Barbara Stanwyck and Michael O'Shea in Lady of Burlesque (1943)
    Lady of Burlesque
    6.2
    • novel "The G-String Murders"
    • 1943

Soundtrack



  • Anita Ekberg in Screaming Mimi (1958)
    Screaming Mimi
    5.7
    • performer: "Put the Blame on Mame" (uncredited)
    • 1958
  • Randolph Scott, Bob Burns, Jane Hale, Gypsy Rose Lee, Wanda McKay, Dinah Shore, and Charles Winninger in Belle of the Yukon (1944)
    Belle of the Yukon
    5.3
    • performer: "Every Girl Is Different"
    • 1944

  • In-development projects at IMDbPro

Videos1

Trailer
Trailer 1:53
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Personal details

Edit
  • Alternative names
    • Louise Hovick
  • Height
    • 5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
  • Born
    • January 8, 1911
    • Seattle, Washington, USA
  • Died
    • April 26, 1970
    • Los Angeles, California, USA(lung cancer)
  • Spouses
      Julio De DiegoMarch 19, 1948 - August 8, 1955 (divorced)
  • Children
    • Erik Lee Preminger
  • Parents
      John Hovick
  • Relatives
      April Kent(Niece or Nephew)
  • Other works
    Novel: "The G-String Murders". NOTE: Filmed as Lady of Burlesque (1943).
  • Publicity listings
    • 5 Biographical Movies
    • 6 Print Biographies
    • 2 Portrayals
    • 30 Articles
    • 10 Pictorials
    • 7 Magazine Cover Photos

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    Although she was a "stripper," she never actually got undressed.
  • Quotes
    I have everything I had twenty years ago--except now it's all lower.

FAQ16

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