1. Mary Frances Gifford was an American actress who played leads and supporting roles in many 1930s and 1940s movies.
11 Facts About Frances Gifford
1. 2.
Frances Gifford played several more minor roles before she was, in 1941, lent to Republic Pictures and cast in the role which would arguably produce her most enduring fame: as the semiclad Nyoka in Jungle Girl, a 15-chapter movie serial, based very loosely on the novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
3.
Frances Gifford left RKO for Paramount Pictures, where she acted in several films, including The Glass Key in which she portrayed the same small role of "Nurse" that Ann Sheridan had played in the 1935 original version, albeit expanded in the remake.
4.
Frances Gifford played in supporting roles, including Thrill of a Romance with Esther Williams, and Luxury Liner with Jane Powell.
5.
On December 31,1947, Frances Gifford was almost killed in a car accident at age 27 in which she received severe head injuries, resulting in a drastic change in her personality.
6.
Frances Gifford began to lose confidence in her abilities and found it difficult to come back to films.
7.
Frances Gifford spent almost the entire next 25 years in and out of various institutions.
8.
Frances Gifford spent her final years in quiet obscurity and died of emphysema in a convalescent center in Pasadena at the age of 73.
9.
Frances Gifford's cremains are interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.
10.
Frances Gifford was of the Roman Catholic faith and a lifelong Democrat who supported Adlai Stevenson's campaign during the 1952 presidential election.
11.
In 1941, Frances Gifford was selected as "the ideal Pan-American girl" by 200 chapters of the Pan-American League on college campuses across the United States.