Alice Faye
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Born

  • May 15, 1915
  • New York, NY

Died

  • May 9, 1998
  • Rancho Mirage, CA

Real Name

  • Alice Jeanne Leppert

Marriages / Children

  • Tony Martin (1936-1940)
  • Phil Harris (1941)
  • Alice, Jr. (b. 1942)
  • Phyllis (b. 1944)

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Alice Faye

Actress and singer Alice Faye was one of the most popular Hollywood performers of the late 1930s and early 1940s. Starring in many of the era's top musicals she introduced more Hit Parade songs in her films than any of her contemporaries and was a favorite of composer Irving Berlin. She is still remembered fondly today by fans and revivalists.

Born Alice Jeanne Leppert and raised in New York's Hell's Kitchen, Faye showed an early talent for singing and dancing. In 1928 she landed her first professional job in the chorus of Earl Carroll's Vanities. Though only 13 years old at the time she lied about her age during the audition, making herself three years older.* She eventually let her real age slip and was promptly fired. A year later she was back on Broadway, working in George White's Scandals.

In 1932 Faye landed a job as vocalist on Rudy Vallee's Fleischmann Hour radio program, where she gained national recognition. In 1934 she went with Vallee to Hollywood to film the big screen version of George White's Scandals. Faye was slated to sing one song in the film, but when star Lillian Harvey walked off the set she was offered the lead. Her performance won her a contract with Fox studios.

In her early roles Fox saw Faye as a potential Jean Harlow clone. Her hair was dyed platinum blonde, her eyebrows were plucked, and she was cast in ''tough girl'' roles. When Fox merged with 20th Century Pictures in 1935 new studio head Darryl F. Zanuck softened Faye's image. With her natural hair and eyebrows Faye was cast in a series of ''nice girl'' roles. Zanuck's tactic paid off, and Faye quickly became the studio's top box office draw.

Though she also was a great dramatic actress Faye starred in many of Fox's most memorable musicals of that period, including Alexander's Ragtime Band, Tin Pan Alley, That Night in Rio, and Weekend in Havana. In 1943 she starred in Hello, Frisco, Hello, in which she introduced the Oscar-winning song ''You'll Never Know,'' the number most associated with her.

Faye was married to singer Tony Martin from 1936 to 1940. In 1941 she married bandleader Phil Harris. A year later she took time off from performing to have the couple's first child. Returning to the studio she made three more films. After completion of the Busby Berkeley spectacular The Gang's All Here in 1943 she took another year off to have their second child.

That absence essentially spelled the end of Faye's reign at Fox. Betty Grable had become the studio's new box office darling. When Faye returned to work in 1945 she was cast in the drama Fallen Angel, with Linda Darnell as co-star. Many of Faye's scenes ended up on the cutting room floor in favor of the younger actress, who was being groomed by Fox. When Faye finally saw the film she promptly announced her resignation and drove off the lot. Zanuck blackballed her from Hollywood for breaking her contract, and her film career was effectively over.

Faye settled into raising her family, though she didn't leave show business behind entirely. She and Harris starred in the Fitch Bandwagon radio series from 1946 to 1948 and had their own weekly program from 1948 to 1954. In 1962 she decided to return to Hollywood to star in a remake of State Fair. Sadly disappointed with the current state of the motion picture industry she promptly retired again after completion of the film.

Faye turned up on television occasionally during the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1970s she also made a cameo appearance in the film Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood and starred in two other films, The Magic of Lassie and Every Girl Should Have One, the latter a comedy with Zsa Zsa Gabor. She also starred on Broadway and in the national tour of the hit show Good News. In the 1980s Faye worked for the pharmaceutical company Pfizer as their spokesman for senior citizen health and fitness. Alice Faye passed away in 1998 after a battle with stomach cancer.

*This accounts for Faye's year of birth sometimes appearing as 1912 instead of 1915.