Celebrity Deathwatch: Arlene Francis, TV Personality, 92

["Deathwatch Central" <cdw@slick.org>]

http://www.cnn.com/2001/SHOWBIZ/TV/06/01/obit.francis.ap/index.html

Actress, TV personality Arlene Francis dead at 92
June 1, 2001 Posted: 9:58 AM EDT (1358 GMT)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Arlene Francis, the witty actress and television
personality who was a panelist on the popular "What's My Line?" show for its
25-year run, has died. She was 92.

Francis died Thursday at Kaiser Hospital in San Francisco. Medical
Examiner's Investigator David Le Noue said she had been admitted within the
past day and had died of natural causes.

With her warmth, quick wit and infectious laugh, the fashionably dressed
Francis was one of the busiest personalities on television in the 1950s.

At one point, she was host of "Home" -- a daytime magazine program -- on NBC
five days a week, mistress of ceremonies of "Talent Patrol" on ABC Thursday
nights and panelist on "What's My Line?" on CBS Sunday nights.

"I started out with one goal," she said. "I wanted to be a serious actress."
She did many plays and a number of movies, but it was television that
brought her fame and considerable fortune.

Theater came first
She did make several films, including 1932's "Murders in the Rue Morgue,"
1943's "Stage Door Canteen," 1948's "All My Sons," Billy Wilder's "One, Two,
Three" in 1961 and "The Thrill of it All" in 1963.

The theater, however, was her first love.

She made her Broadway debut in 1936 and had her first major role -- as a
Spanish beauty -- in George Abbott's "All That Glitters" two years later.

She appeared with Orson Welles and Joseph Cotton in the Mercury Theatre
production of "Danton's Death" in 1938 and in Maxwell Anderson's "Journey to
Jerusalem" in 1940.

Her first real hit was "The Doughgirls" in 1942, a racy comedy about wartime
Washington in which she played a funny Russian sniper. It ran for a year and
a half.

A woman of enormous energy, she would appear in summer stock or a Broadway
show when her television schedule allowed.

All over the dial
She auditioned for her first radio part at the same time she was getting
started in the theater.

"Radio came easily," she recalled. "It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but it
was a crutch that paid well -- and I never stopped working."

In the 1940s she played in as many a five radio serials a day. She also was
host of a dating show called "Blind Date" which was transplanted to
television in 1949.

"What's My Line?" began in 1950 and was a success from the start.
Contestants came on and the panel tried to guess their interesting or
unusual occupations by asking yes-or-no questions.

Francis, Dorothy Kilgallen and Bennett Cerf were longtime permanent panel
members. The game show ran 17 years on CBS; Francis continued as a panelist
in a syndicated version that ran until 1975.

"Home" was an ambitious series NBC created in 1954 to follow the "Today"
show. To boost ratings it traveled around the country to originate from
different cities.

Once, before a live TV camera, Francis descended to the Pacific Ocean bottom
off Santa Catalina in a diving bell. Something went wrong and the bell shot
to the surface as Francis screamed.

Regaining her composure, she quipped, "Wow, now I know what it feels like to
be a champagne cork."

Born Arlene Francis Kazanjian on October 20, 1908, in Boston, she was the
daughter of a well-known portrait photographer.

After overcoming her parents' opposition, she studied at the Theatre Guild
School. She dropped her surname when she went to Hollywood.

She was married twice: to movie executive Neil Agnew in 1935 and, after
their divorce 10 years later, to actor Martin Gabel in 1946. Gabel died in
1986. They had a son, Peter.

Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This mailing list is brought to you by Slick.ORG at http://www.slick.org
to remove yourself from the list, send e-mail to majordomo@slick.org
and include the words "unsubscribe deathwatch" in the message (not in the
subject).  For web-based help, go to:

http://www.slick.org/cgi-bin/majordomo

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *