1912-07-22 ( 112 years old ) in Los Angeles, California, USA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Luana Walters (July 22, 1912 - May 19, 1963) was a motion picture actress from Los Angeles, California.
Walters was an expert horsewoman which led to her discovery as an actress at a rodeo in Palm Springs, California. She won a woman's bucking contest which was being watched by a movie scout, who noticed her.
Her film career began when she visited a friend on a United Artists lot. Douglas Fairbanks Sr. was excited about her screen possibilities and arranged for a film test. However, only three days later Fairbanks went to Europe, and the test was never completed. Not long afterwards Joe Schenck saw Walters on the dance floor at the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles, California. After viewing the abbreviated test made by Fairbanks, Schenck offered her a contract with United Artists. The studio did not make a movie in the next six months so Walters' option was not taken up.
Walters' screen credits start with an uncredited role in Reaching For The Moon (film) (1930). Her skill as an equestrian helped her in parts in westerns like Ride 'Em Cowboy (1936), Where The West Begins (1938), Mexicali Rose (1939), and Law Of The Wolf (1939).
On many occasions Walters made films in which her role was cut out. This began when she made Reaching for the Moon (film) with Fairbanks. Her parts were also deleted from Spawn of the North (1938) and Souls At Sea (1937). The former was a Carole Lombard feature and the latter paired Walters with Robert Cummings.
Walters was the first actress to portray Superman's biological mother Lara in a live-action format. She appeared in "Superman Comes to Earth", the first chapter of the 1948 Superman movie serial. Portions of this depiction appear in flashback in "At the Mercy of Atom Man!", the seventh chapter of the 1950 serial Atom Man vs. Superman.
In the latter portion of her career Walters was in a number of B-Movie films, most of them of the sci-fi and horror genres. She plays a female reporter on the trail of a fiend's story in The Corpse Vanishes (1942), with Bela Lugosi. She appears as a cellblock guard in Girls In Prison (1956). Her final role came in The She Creature (1956).
Luana Walters died of liver failure due to alcoholism in Los Angeles in 1963.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Luana Walters, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Movies
Girls in Prison
1956-07-01
Arthur Takes Over
1948-04-07
Shoot to Kill
1947-03-15
Drums of Fu Manchu
1943-11-27
Bad Men of the Hills
1942-08-13
Thundering Hoofs
1942-07-24
Down Texas Way
1942-05-22
The Corpse Vanishes
1942-05-08
Inside the Law
1942-05-08
Lawless Plainsmen
1942-03-17
Captain Midnight
1942-02-15
The Lone Star Vigilantes
1942-01-01
No Greater Sin
1941-08-29
Arizona Bound
1941-07-19
Across the Sierras
1941-02-13
The Kid's Last Ride
1941-02-10
Misbehaving Husbands
1940-12-20
Blondie Plays Cupid
1940-10-31
The Range Busters
1940-08-22
The Tulsa Kid
1940-08-16
The Durango Kid
1940-08-15
The Return of Wild Bill
1940-06-26
Drums of Fu Manchu
1940-03-15
Millionaire Playboy
1940-03-14
Eternally Yours
1939-10-07
Honeymoon in Bali
1939-09-29
Mutiny on the Blackhawk
1939-07-31
Law of the Wolf
1939-06-15
Hotel Imperial
1939-05-11
Mexicali Rose
1939-03-26
King of Chinatown
1939-03-17
Cafe Society
1939-03-03
Paris Honeymoon
1939-01-27
Fangs of the Wild
1939-01-01
Say It in French
1938-11-25
Thanks for the Memory
1938-11-11
Marie Antoinette
1938-08-26
Assassin of Youth
1938-02-23
The Buccaneer
1938-02-04
Where the West Begins
1938-02-02
Youth on Parole
1937-10-04
Under Strange Flags
1937-04-11
Shadow of Chinatown
1936-10-17
Shadow of Chinatown
1936-10-10
Ride 'Em Cowboy
1936-09-20
Aces and Eights
1936-06-06
The Speed Reporter
1936-05-13
The Third Sex
1934-11-08
Fighting Texans
1933-06-15
End of the Trail
1932-12-19
Two Seconds
1932-05-28
Miss Pinkerton
1932-05-27
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