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Leila Hyams (May 1, 1905 – December 4, 1977)
was an United States|American film actor|actress.

Born in New York, New York to vaudeville comedy
performers John Hyams and Leila McIntyre, Hyams
appeared on-stage with her parents while still a
child.  As a teenager she worked as a model
(person)|model and become well known across the
United States after appearing in a successful
series of newspaper advertising|advertisements. 
This success led her to Hollywood,
California|Hollywood.  She made her first film in
1924, and with her blonde hair, delicate features,
and good natured demeanour, was cast in a string
of supporting roles, where she was required to do
very little but smile and look pretty.  She proved
herself capable of handling the small roles she
was assigned, and over a period of time she came
to be taken seriously as an actress.  By 1928 she
was playing starring roles, achieving success in
Alias Jimmy Valentine (1928).  The following year
she appeared in the popular murder mystery The
Thirteenth Chair, a role that offered her the
chance to display her dramatic abilities as a
murder suspect.  

As Robert Montgomery (actor)|Robert Montgomery's
sister in the Chester Morris prison drama The Big
House (1930), Hyams once again received positive
reviews and the quality of her parts continued to
improve.

Although she succeeded in films that required her
to play pretty ingenues, and developed into a
capable dramatic actress in 1930s crime
melodramas, she is perhaps best remembered for two
early 1930s horror movie|horror movies,  as the
wise-cracking but kind hearted circus performer in
Freaks (1932), and as the heroine in Island of
Lost Souls (1933).   

She also appeared in the controversial Jean Harlow
film Red-Headed Woman (1932), the musical comedy
The Big Broadcast (1932) with Bing Crosby, George
Burns and Gracie Allen, and was widely praised for
her comedic performance in Ruggles of Red Gap
(1935). 

After ten years and fifty films, Hyams retired
from acting in 1936, but remained part of the
Hollywood community for the rest of her life.  She
was married to the agent Phil Berg from 1927 until
her death in Bel Air, California.

==Trivia== 
Hyams was the original choice to play Jane in
Tarzan the Ape Man (1932), but turned it down. 
The role was ultimately played in several Tarzan
films by Maureen O'Sullivan.