Actress. Dubbed “Hollywood’s blonde menace,” Marion was born Marion Suplee, to a wealthy Bethlehem Steel executive. She attended exclusive schools until the family fortune was wiped out in the stock market crash of 1929. Forced to work, she found employment as a chorine in one of Earl Carroll’s New York stage revues. Florenz Ziegfeld got a gander at the dazzling beauty and signed her to replace Gypsy Rose Lee in his Follies of 1933 wearing little but “a feather and some beads.” After a few other fetching Broadway appearances, she was signed by Universal in 1938 and adopted the stage name of Marion (or sometimes Marian) Martin. At first she was placed in short films, and received her big break in Sinners in Paradise (1938), a downed plane on a desert island adventure which emphasized her physical attributes. Quickly typed as strippers, chorus girls and brazen, gold-digging felines, her roles actually belied her true nature as a shy, intelligent, and chic lady. In the 1940s she played sexy foils to the Marx Brothers and dug up supports in mostly secondary features. Her career never rising above the “B” level ranks, she happily retired in 1951 and found stability in marriage, donating much of her time to charitable causes. (bio by: Noni)