Mildred Helen Shay was an American film actress of the 1930s whose affairs, marriages and glamorous social life became a popular subject for gossip columnists.
15 Facts About Mildred Shay
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At five-feet tall, Shay was dubbed the "Pocket Venus" by Hollywood gossip columnists.
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Mildred Shay attended New York schools and a Swiss finishing school in France until age 14, when her father moved her and her younger sister, Adeline, to London.
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When Mildred Shay was 19 years old, the family moved to Hollywood because of her father's work on behalf of various movie studios.
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Mildred Shay lived with her mother and sister at the Garden of Allah apartments which was populated by film stars.
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The family's friends and neighbors included Laurence Olivier, Harpo Marx, Gary Cooper and Ginger Rogers whom Mildred Shay said was her spa and skinny-dipping partner.
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When Mildred Shay decided she wanted to be an actress, her father contacted the heads of Fox and Paramount movies studio for their help.
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Laurence Olivier Ginger Rogers Gary Cooper Harpo Marx Greta Garbo Lion Gardiner Gordon Waller 8.
Mildred Shay dubbed the voice of Greta Garbo in Grand Hotel.
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Mildred Shay took a break from acting during her first marriages.
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Mildred Shay then returned to Hollywood in 1939 to play Joan Crawford's scene-stealing French maid in The Women.
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Mildred Shay appeared in the 1974 remake of The Great Gatsby.
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Mildred Shay was chauffeured around Hollywood in a Mercedes-Benz limousine, to the studios as well as parties and events.
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Mildred Shay remarried in 1936 to Winthrop Gardiner, a member of a prominent New York family descended from Lord Lion Gardiner.
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In 1940, Mildred Shay met British army captain Geoffrey Steele and fell in love.
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Mildred Shay died at the age of 94 in California while visiting her daughter, Georgiana Waller, the former wife of musician Gordon Waller.