Evelyn Keyes

Aug 1 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

Evelyn Keyes

IT WAS perhaps unfortunate that the sultry actress, whose bed was rarely cold, could have been married to her third husband at the time he was presented with a self-willed chimpanzee by another Hollywood siren,

It was perhaps even more unfortunate that Evelyn Keyes should, in a moment of pique, have issued an ultimatum, requiring John Huston, the distinguished director, to choose between her and the “monkey”.

We were presented with two accounts of what happened next.

According to the version written in the memoirs of David Niven, the suave English actor, Huston, chose the chimp given to him by Jennifer Jones.

Miss Keyes’ recollection was rather different. She maintained that Huston, director of such films as the Maltese Falcon and Key Largo, chose her.

It didn’t matter greatly as her marriage to Huston only lasted from 1946 to 1950.

Although she won praise for her leading performances in a string of successful movies, including Scarlett O’Hara’s sister, Suellen, in Gone with the Wind (1939), Miss Keyes probably sealed her lasting reputation with a breathless autobiography, filled with stories of her four marriages and numerous love affairs, as well as the usual tittle-tattle.

“I was always interested in the man of the moment, there were many such moments,” she once said.

With a resigned shrug, she called the book Scarlett O’Hara’s Younger Sister: My Lively Life In and Out of Hollywood.

The life started in Port Arthur, Texas. Her father died when she was young and the family moved to Atlanta. She quickly exploited her fine figure and good looks as a night-club dancer. This led to Hollywood, where she made her screen debut in The Buccaneer (1938), quickly followed by Union Pacific. That year she marred Barton Bainbridge, an older English businessman, who shot himself after she ran off and then married Charles Vidor, the film director. That marriage ended quickly and then she linked up with Huston. However, her final marriage to Artie Shaw, the band leader, ran from 1957 until 1985.

Along the years, Miss Keyes was in some fine films, including The Face Behind the Mask, The Jolson Story, Johnny O’Clock, The Killer that Stalked New York and The Prowler.

She continued acting until late in her career with appearances in A Return to Salem’s Lot (1987) and Wicked Stepmother (1989).

Evelyn Keyes, actress, born November 20, 1916; died July 4, 2008.