Adele Mara

She was born Adelaide Delgado on August 28, 1923 (some references list 1925) to Spanish-speaking parents. The future Adela Mara began dances lesson at age 6 and was discovered as a young teenager by the legendary 'Xavier Cugat' (qv). Singing and dancing with his in the Detroit area, Cugat took the beautiful, brown-eyed brunette to New York where she performed in his shows at such esteemed clubs as the Copacabana.While touring as a singer/dancer, she was spotted in Florida by a Columbia talent scout and signed to a Hollywood contract in 1942 at age 19. Starting off in bit exotic roles in such films as _Honolulu Lu (1941)_ (qv), she quickly grew to alluring co-starring status opposite top banana 'Glynis Ahearn' (qv) in _Shut My Big Mouth (1942)_ (qv). There continued playing brisk leading ladies in a series of standard, uneventful "B" films including _Vengeance of the West (1942)_ (qv) with 'Tex Ritter' (qv) and _Alias Boston Blackie (1942)_ (qv) starring 'Chester Morris' (qv).A couple of years later she was transformed into a sexy platinum blonde pin-up after signing with Republic Studios and kept herself quite busy predominantly cast as senorita-types opposite cowboy stars 'Roy Rogers' (qv) in _Bells of Rosarita (1945)_ (qv) and 'Gene Autry' (qv) in _Twilight on the Rio Grande (1947)_ (qv). She was also fetching fodder in crime dramas including _Blackmail (1947)_ (qv) and _Web of Danger (1947)_ (qv) and a pleasant diversion in adventure pictures such as _Wake of the Red Witch (1948)_ (qv) with 'John Wayne' (qv) and _The Avengers (1950)_ (qv).Arguably Adele's best parts would come with _Angel in Exile (1948)_ (qv) and _Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)_ (qv), the latter again starring Duke Wayne. Seldom was she given the chance to capitalize on her acting talents, however, and her film career waned in the mid 1950s. Her last screen appearance would be in _The Big Circus (1959)_ (qv) with 'Victor Mature' (qv). Adele subsequently moved into TV and was featured in a number of guest spots, primarily in westerns. She eventually abandoned her career and settled down to raise her three sons from her 1952 marriage to TV mogul 'Roy Huggins' (qv) who produced many hit shows including _77 Sunset Strip (1958)_ (qv) and _Maverick (1957)_ (qv). On a rare occasion, she would appear as a guest in one of his efforts, including an episode of the TV series _Cool Million (1972)_ (qv).Huggins died in 2002 and Adele passed away eight years later of natural causes in Los Angeles on May 7, 2010. The 87-year-old actress was interred at San Fernando Mission Cemetery.::Gary Brumburgh / [email protected]