Veronica Lake

Veronica Lake, born Constance Frances Marie Ockleman, also known as Constance Keane (14 November 1922, Brooklyn, New York – 7 July 1973, Colchester, Vermont) was a popular American film actress and pin-up model who achieved wide fame and critical praise, especially for her film noir roles during the 1940s. Described by Bette Davis as "the most beautiful person who ever came to Hollywood," her success was fleeting and after a string of broken marriages and long struggles with mental illness and alcoholism she died destitute and friendless at the age of 50.

Trivia

• She was reportedly only 4' 11" tall (although some accounts place her height two or three inches higher). According to Celebrity Sleuth magazine, Lake said her "measurements" were 33C - 21 1/2 - 33 1/2.
• The name of Archie comics character Veronica Lodge is remarkably similar to Veronica Lake, who was in the throes of her early celebrity when the comic book character was introduced in the spring of 1942.
• Veronica Lake is also the name of a fictional lake located near the small town of Frostbite Falls, Minnesota (a parody of International Falls) on the animated Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.
• Many women are said to have damaged their hair while trying to imitate her platinum blonde color during the 1940s.
• She learned to fly in 1946 and flew her small plane from Los Angeles to New York in 1948.
• Her close friendship with actress Rita Beery, former wife of actor Wallace Beery, has led to unconfirmed rumours she experimented with lesbianism.
• In 1997 the Academy Award-winning film L.A. Confidential paid homage to Lake's image and manner through Kim Basinger's starring role in an adaptation of James Ellroy's crime novel set in early 1950s Los Angeles. One scene even included a fragment from This Gun for Hire screening in the background.
• A somewhat bizarre twist came in 2004 when some of Lake's ashes were reportedly found in a New York antique store.