Actress. In the 1930s, her mother moved the family to California to get her daughter into motion features. There Claire James became a beauty queen being named “Miss Los Angeles” in 1938 and placed third in the “Queen of Queens” of Southern California that same year. In August 1938, she was crowned “Miss California” and was first runner-up in the Miss America pageant of 1938. Hired as an movie extra in Hollywood, she had a speaking part in “Gone with the Wind” (1939). In 1941, she was selected as one of the “The Navy Blues Sextet” for US Navy Blues and later toured to create moral during World War II. Signed to 20th Century Fox, she appeared in films to include “Navy Blues” (1941), “Coney Island” (1943), “Mr. Noisy” (1946), “Jack Armstrong” (1947), “The One and Only” (1950), “Women of Twilight” (1953) and “The Revolt of Mamie Stover” (1956). (bio by: John “J-Cat” Griffith)  Family links:  Parents:  Clarence Frederick James (1893 – 1953)  Helen Elizabeth James (1888 – 1969)  Spouse:  Busby Berkeley (1895 – 1976)*  Children:  Blake James Hoffman (1950 – 1987)* *Calculated relationshipCause of death: Cyrrhosis of liver