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Veronica Lake, born Constance Frances Marie
Ockleman, also known as Constance Keane (14
November 1919, Brooklyn, New York – 7 July
1973, Colchester, Vermont) was a popular United
States|American film actor|actress and Pin-up
girl|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 53.

==Early life and career==
Constance's father worked on a ship for an oil
company. When she was about a year old the family
moved to Florida but had returned to Brooklyn
before she was five. According to some accounts
she was beaten as a child. Her father died in an
industrial explosion when she was 12. Her mother
married Anthony Keane a year later and Constance
began using his last name. They are said to have
lived in Canada, New York state and Miami, Florida
where she graduated from high school. A troubled
teenager, she had been diagnosed as a paranoid
schizophrenic during her childhood at a time when
therapy for such conditions was usually limited to
long-term institutionalization. Having already
achieved minor celebrity in Miami for her beauty,
in 1938 Constance moved with her mother and
step-father to Beverly Hills, California where
Mrs. Keane enrolled her daughter in Hollywood's
Bliss Hayden School of Acting.


Her first appearance on screen was for RKO,
playing a small a role among several coeds in
Sorority House (1939). Similar roles followed,
including All Women Have Secrets and Dancing
Co-Ed. However her contract was dropped by RKO.
She married art director John Detlie in 1940.
Another small role in the comedy movie 40 Little
Mothers brought unexpected attention and in 1941
she was signed to a long term contract by
Paramount, adopted her stage name Veronica Lake
and on August 21 gave birth to a daughter, Elaine
Detlie.

==An icon of the 1940s==
Her breakthrough film was I Wanted Wings (1941), a
major hit in which she had the second female lead
and was said to have stolen scene after scene from
the rest of the cast. This success was followed by
another, Hold Back the Dawn (1941). She was soon
noted as a witty, intelligent and trend-setting
actress and had starring roles in more popular
film|movies including Sullivan's Travels (1941),
This Gun for Hire (1942), I Married a Witch (1942,
later used as a basis for the 1960s hit television
series Bewitched), The Glass Key (1942) and So
Proudly We Hail! (1943).


For a short time during the early 1940s Veronica
Lake was considered one of the most reliable box
office draws in Hollywood and was also known for
her onscreen pairings with actor Alan Ladd. A
stray lock of hair during a publicity photo shoot
led to her iconic peekaboo hairstyle which hid one
eye with her shoulder-length blonde hair and was
widely imitated. During World War II she changed
her trademark image as a publicity move to
encourage women working in war industry factories
to adopt more practical hairstyles. Some critics
have speculated that the loss of her peekaboo look
diminished the mystery and allure of her on screen
image, damaging her box office appeal. Given the
fickle nature of movie audiences there could have
been some truth to this initially but other
factors were at work.

Although widely popular with the public, Lake had
a complex personality and professionally she had
developed a reputation for being difficult to work
with. Eddie Bracken, her co-star in Star Spangled
Rhythm (1942), was quoted as saying "She was known
as The Bitch and she deserved the title." However,
in that same movie Lake took part in a song
lampooning her own hair style, "A Sweater, A
Sarong and a Peekaboo Bang."

Lake's career stumbled with her role as Nazi
sympathizer Dora Bruckman in The Hour Before Dawn
(released in 1944). During filming she had tripped
on a lighting cable and her second child was born
prematurely on July 8, 1943. William Detlie died a
week later from uremic poisoning and there are
indications she may have deliberately attempted to
miscarry him. By the end of 1943 her first
marriage had ended in divorce. Meanwhile
scathingly poor reviews of The Hour Before Dawn
included criticism of her unconvincing German
accent which was also said to have interfered
disasterously with her acting. Nevertheless Lake
was making $4500 per week under her contract with
Paramount when she married director André de Toth
in 1944. Their son, André Michael de Toth III,
was born October 25, 1945. Lake is said to have
begun drinking more heavily during this period and
people began plainly refusing to work with her.
She had been seeing psychiatrists for years but de
Toth didn't approve and according to a published
account, once suggested Constance spend the $50
she would otherwise pay for a doctor’s
appointment on a new hat. Meanwhile Paramount cast
Lake in a string of mostly forgotten films. A
notable exception was The Blue Dahlia (1946) in
which she again co-starred with Alan Ladd (who
reportedly was less than fond of her) but
Paramount decided not to renew her contract in
1948.

==Tragic spiral==
Her fourth child, Diana de Toth, was born October
16, 1948. Lake was also sued by her mother for
support payments that year. After a single film
for 20th Century Fox her career collapsed
catastrophically. By the end of 1952 she had
appeared in one last film (Stronghold, which she
later described as "a dog") had filed for
bankruptcy and divorced de Toth. The IRS siezed
what was left for unpaid taxes. Lake resorted to
television and stage work and in 1955 married
songwriter Joseph A. McCarthy. 

After severely breaking her ankle in 1959 Lake was
unable to continue working as an actress. She and
McCarthy divorced and she drifted between cheap
hotels in Brooklyn and New York City and was
arrested several times for public drunkness and
disorderly conduct. A reporter eventually ran
across her working as a barmaid (with easy access
to alcohol) and wrote a widely distributed story
which led to some television and stage
appearances. In 1966 she had a brief stint as a TV
hostess in Baltimore, Maryland along with a
largely ignored film role (Footsteps in the Snow).
Her physical and mental health declined steadily
and by the late 1960s Lake was in Hollywood,
Florida, apparently immobilized by paranoia (which
included claims she was being stalked by the FBI).

She published her autobiography Veronica amid much
publicity and positive reviews. With the proceeds
Lake co-produced and starred in her last film,
Flesh Feast (1970), a very low budget horror movie
with a Nazi-myth storyline. She then moved to the
UK where she had a short-lived marriage with
"English sea captain" Robert Carelton-Munro before
returning to the US in 1973, having filed for
divorce. Lake was immediately hospitalized and
although she is said to have made a cheerful and
positive impression on the nurses who cared for
her, she had no guests or visitors and was again
financially destitute. Lake was 53 when she died
of hepatitis and acute renal failure
(complications of her alcoholism) near Burlington,
Vermont. Her ashes were scattered off the Virgin
Islands.

Veronica Lake has a star on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame at 6918 Hollywood Boulevard for her
contributions to the motion picture industry.

==Quotes==
"I wasn't a sex symbol, I was a sex zombie."

"You could put all the talent I had into your left
eye and still not suffer from impaired vision."

"I've reached a point in my life where it's the
little things that matter... I was always a rebel
and probably could have got much farther had I
changed my attitude. But when you think about it,
I got pretty far without changing attitudes. I'm
happier with that." (1970)

==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,
Minnesota|International Falls) on the
animation|animated The Rocky and Bullwinkle
Show|Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

* Many women are said to have damaged their hair
while trying 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.

==Filmography==
*Sorority House (1939)
*The Wrong Room (1939) (short subject)
*Dancing Co-Ed (1939)
*All Women Have Secrets (1939)
*Young as You Feel (1940)
*Forty Little Mothers (1940)
*I Wanted Wings (1941)
*Hold Back the Dawn (1941) (Cameo)
*Sullivan's Travels (1941)
*The Eyes Have It (1942) (short subject)
*This Gun for Hire (1942)
*The Glass Key (1942)
*I Married a Witch (1942)
*Star Spangled Rhythm (1942)
*So Proudly We Hail! (1943)
*The Hour Before the Dawn (1944)
*Bring on the Girls (1945)
*Out of This World (1945)
*Duffy's Tavern (1945) (Cameo)
*Hold That Blonde (1945)
*Miss Susie Slagle's (1946)
*The Blue Dahlia (1946)
*Ramrod (1947)
*Variety Girl (1947) (Cameo)
*Saigon (1948) 
*The Sainted Sisters (1948)
*Isn't It Romantic? (1948)
*Slattery's Hurricane (1949)
*Stronghold (1951)
*Footsteps in the Snow (1966)
*Flesh Feast (1970)

==External links==

* imdb name|name=Veronica Lake|id=0000043
*http://come.to/peekaboobang_uk/ Veronica Lake Fan
Site