Cathy Downs
American actress (1926–1976)
title: "Cathy Downs" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1926-births", "1976-deaths", "people-from-port-jefferson,-new-york", "american-film-actresses", "american-television-actresses", "actresses-from-new-york-(state)", "burials-at-woodlawn-memorial-cemetery,-santa-monica", "20th-century-american-actresses"] description: "American actress (1926–1976)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathy_Downs" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American actress (1926–1976) ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Cathy Downs |
| image | Cathy downs dark corner.JPG |
| caption | in The Dark Corner (1946) |
| birth_name | Catherine N. Downs |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | Port Jefferson, New York, U.S. |
| death_date | |
| death_place | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| resting_place | Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery, Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
| yearsactive | 1945–1965 |
| occupation | Actress |
| spouse | {{plainlist |
| * {{marriage | Robert Brunson |
| * {{marriage | Joe Kirkwood, Jr. |
| :: |
| name = Cathy Downs | image = Cathy downs dark corner.JPG | imagesize = | caption = in The Dark Corner (1946) | birth_name = Catherine N. Downs | birth_date = | birth_place = Port Jefferson, New York, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S. | resting_place = Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery, Santa Monica, California, U.S. | yearsactive = 1945–1965 | occupation = Actress | spouse = {{plainlist|
Catherine N. Downs (March 3, 1926 – December 8, 1976) was an American film actress.
Biography
Downs was born in Port Jefferson, New York. She was the daughter of James Nelson Downs and Edna Elizabeth Newman.
A model for the Walter Thornton Agency, she was brought to Hollywood in 1944 by a 20th Century Fox talent scout. The studio initially used her as a model, giving her limited opportunities to act.
She began her film career with small roles in State Fair (1945) and The Dolly Sisters (1945). In 1946, she played the title role in My Darling Clementine and Clifton Webb's unfaithful wife in The Dark Corner. Following the success of My Darling Clementine, Downs was cast in a prison drama For You I Die (1947), an Abbott and Costello comedy The Noose Hangs High, and several Western films. In 1947, Downs was dropped by Fox for unknown reasons, and was never employed by another major studio. In 1949, she participated in a later famous Life magazine photo layout, in which she posed with other up-and-coming actresses, Marilyn Monroe, Lois Maxwell, Suzanne Dalbert, Laurette Luez, Jane Nigh, and Enrica Soma. By the early 1950s, she was appearing in low-budget films, including some science-fiction (sci-fi) stories, including the 1958 sci-fi/fantasy Missile to the Moon. She appeared in a television episode of The Lone Ranger in 1952. She portrayed Ann Howe in the syndicated TV series The Joe Palooka Story (1954). In 1959, she portrayed "Amelia Roberts" in the episode "Marked Deck" (S1E21) of the western TV series Bat Masterson. Downs worked sporadically on TV during the 1960s, with her final appearance in 1965 on Perry Mason as murder victim and title character Millicent Barton in "The Case of the Hasty Honeymooner".
Downs has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to television, at 6646 Hollywood Boulevard.
Personal life
On October 8, 1949, in Las Vegas, Downs married Joe Kirkwood Jr., who played the character Joe Palooka in films and on TV. The couple divorced on February 24, 1955. On July 21, 1956, Downs married Robert M. Brunson, an electronics executive. They divorced on July 29, 1963.
Downs died December 8, 1976 of cancer in Los Angeles, California.
She is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery, Santa Monica, California.
Filmography
::data[format=table]
| Year | Film | Role | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1945 | Diamond Horseshoe | Miss Cream Puff | Uncredited |
| State Fair | Girl on carousel | Uncredited | |
| The Dolly Sisters | Miss Mascara | Uncredited | |
| 1946 | The Dark Corner | Mari Cathcart | |
| Do You Love Me | Clothes model | Uncredited | |
| My Darling Clementine | Clementine Carter | ||
| 1947 | For You I Die | Hope Novak | |
| 1948 | The Noose Hangs High | Carol Scott | |
| Panhandle | Jean 'Dusty' Stewart | ||
| 1949 | Massacre River | Katherine 'Kitty' Reid | |
| 1950 | The Sundowners | Kathleen Boyce | |
| Short Grass | Sharon Lynch | ||
| 1951 | Joe Palooka in Triple Cross | Anne Palooka | |
| 1952 | Best Laid Plans | Mary Seaton | |
| Gobs and Gals | Betty Lou Prentice | ||
| 1953 | Bandits of the West | Joanne Collier | |
| The Flaming Urge | Charlotte Cruickshank | ||
| 1955 | The Big Tip Off | Sister Mary Joan of Arc | |
| Kentucky Rifle | Amy Connors | ||
| The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues | Lois King | ||
| 1956 | The Oklahoma Woman | Susan Grant | |
| The She Creature | Dorothy Chappel | ||
| 1957 | Curfew Breakers | Mrs. Bowman | |
| The Amazing Colossal Man | Carol Forrest | ||
| 1958 | Missile to the Moon | June Saxton | |
| 1958 | Tombstone Territory | Patricia Camden | |
| :: |
Television
::data[format=table]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | Rawhide | Jenny Stone | S3:E27, "Incident Before Black Pass" |
| :: |
References
References
- (2016). "Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.". McFarland.
- "Cathy Downs - The Private Life and Times of Cathy Downs. Cathy Downs Pictures.". glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com.
- Thornton, Walter. (2022). "I've Been Wrong".
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=lVDmAgAAQBAJ&dq=cathy+downs+vogue&pg=PA163 ''Women in the Films of John Ford'']
- (January 11, 1948). "Cathy Downs Surmounts Her Handicap of Beauty". Los Angeles Times.
- (2011). "Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010". McFarland & Company.
- "Hollywood Walk of Fame".
- (October 10, 1949). "Cathy Downs Married to Joe Kirkwood". Los Angeles Times.
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110521050730/http://movies.nytimes.com/person/19964/Cathy-Downs/biography Downs' biodata at ''The New York Times'']
- (February 25, 1955). "Cathy Downs Divorces Actor Joe Kirkwood". Los Angeles Times.
- (July 30, 1963). "Cathy Downs Awarded Divorce". The News Journal.
- "Cathy Downs Hollywood Star Walk". [[Los Angeles Times]].
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