Leading Ladies Adele Mara
Bells Of Rosarita/ Patty Phillips
Wake Of The Red Witch/ Teleia Van Schreeven
Back From Eternity/ Maria Alvarez
California Passage/ Beth martin
Per Quinlan's Film Stars:
Slinky, brown eyed blonde dancer, singer and actress who moved from Columbia to Republic in 1943 and was immediately worked overtime by that studio as the heroine-sometimes bad girl- of numerous second features throughout the decade.
Of Spanish parents, Adele Mara was born Adelaide Delgado at Highland Park, MI in 1925.
Ms Mara started out as a singer with the band of Xavier Cugat. Mr Cugat took the beautiful brown eyed brunette to New York where she was spotted by a Columbia Studio talent scout and was signed up by that studio in 1942 where she then played brisk leading ladies in mostly "B" pictures.
A few years later Ms. Mara was signed up at Republic Studios and was transformed into a sexy platinum blonde where she played a lot of senorita types opposite various cowboy stars. She also starred in some crime melodramas as well. Her best performances were Angel In Exile (1948) and The Sands Of Iwo Jima (1949) with John Wayne.
Ms. Mara's career slackened in the 1950's and her last screen appearance would be in 1959 in the film The Big Circus where thereafter she moved into television.
Some of the film roles of Adele Mara were:
Honolulu Lu (1941) as Debutante
Blondie Goes To College (1942) as Babs Connelly
Shut My Big Mouth (1942) as Conchita Montoya
Alias Boston Blackie (1942) as Eve Sanders
Vengeance Of The West (1942) as Anita Morell
You Were Never Lovelier (1942) as Lita Acuria
Reveille With Beverly (1943) as Evelyn Ross
Riders Of The Northwest Mounted (1943) as Gabrielle Renaud
Redhead From Manhattan (1943) as Check Girl
Crime Doctor (1943) as Nurse
Good Luck Mr. Yates (1943) as Welder
The Fighting Seabees (1944) as Twinkles Tucker
Call Of The South Seas (1944) as Aritana
Atlantic City (1944)m as Adele The Barmaid
Faces In The Fog (1944) as Gertrude
Thoroughbreds (1944) as Sally Crandall
Grissly's Millions (1945) as Maribelle
The Vampires Ghost (1945) as Lisa
Flame Of Barbary Coast (1945) as marie
Bells Of Rosarita (1945) as Peggy Phillips
Girls Of The Big House (1945) as Harriet
The Tiger Woman (1945) as Sharon Winslow
Song Of Mexico (1945) as Carol Adams
A Guy Could Change (1946) as Bernice
The Catman Of Paris (1946) as Margurite Duval
Passkey To Danger (1946) as Renee Beauchamps
Traffic In Crime (1946) as Silk Cantrell
Night Train To Memphis (1946) as Constance Stephenson
The Inner Circle (1946) as Geraldine Travis alias Gerry Smith
The Last Crooked Mile (1946) as Bonnie
The Invisible Informer (1946) as Marie Ravelie
The Magnificent Rogue (1946) as Sugar Lee
I've Always Loved You (1946) as Senorita Fortaleza
Twilight On The Rio Grande (1947) as Elena Del Rio
Web Of Danger (1947) asm Peg Mallory
The Trespasser (1947) as Dee Dee
Robin Hood Of Texas (1947) as Julie
Blackmail (1947) as Sylvia Duane
Exposed (1947) as Belinda Prentice
The Main Street Kid (1948) as Gloria
Campus Honeymoon (1948) as Bessie Ormsbee
The Gallant Legion (1948) as Catalina
I, Jane Doe (1948) as Marga Jane Hastings
Angel In Exile (1948) as Raquel Chavez
Night Time In Nevada (1948) as Jean Andrews
Wake Of The Red Witch (1948) as Teleia Van Scheevan
Rock Island Trail (1950) as Constance Strong
The Avengers (1950) as Maria Moreno
California Passage (1950) as Beth Martin
The Sea Hornet (1951) as Suntan Radford aka Goldbraid
Count The Hours (1953) as Gracie Sager
Back From Eternity (1956) as Stewardess Maria Alvarez
The Black Whip (1956) as Ruthie Dawson
Curse Of The Faceless Man (1958) as Maria Fiorillo
The Big Circus (1959) as Maria "Mama" Colino
Ms. Mara also appeared on television in such programs as The Lone Wofk, The Adventures Of The Falcon, Big Town, Studio 57, The Millionaire, The Adventures Of Rin Tin Tin, Conflict, The Adventures Of McGraw, Walt Disney's Wonderful World Of Color, Casey Jones, Cheyenne, Bat Masterson, Tales Of Wells Fargo, 77 Sunset Strip, Maverick, Laramie, Markham, The Red Skelton Hour, Lock Up, Bachelor Father, The Life And Legend Of Wyatt Earp, Boris Karloff's Thriller, The Tall Man and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour among others.
Ms. Mara married TV mogul Roy Huggins in 1952 and settled down to family life with some acting appearances along the way. The couple had three children. Ms. Mara was widowed in 2002 when her husband passed away.
It's too bad that she was not given more substantial roles. She was quite talented and beautiful as well.
Adele Mara passed away in 2010 of natural causes at age 87.
I enjoyed Ms. Mara in the films Sands Of Iwo Jima, The Wake Of The Red Witch, Angel In Exile, Robin Hood Of Texas, Bells Of Rosarita and Back From Eternity.
Louie The Movie Buff