Minor league singer/actress Gale Robbins was a knockout-looking hazel-eyed redhead who made a modest dent in post-war Hollywood films. Born Betty Gale Robbins in Chicago, Illinois 's musical "Company" in 1975. She also made ends meet as an interior decorator. Gale died of lung cancer in February of 1980, and interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery.
Once chairwoman of the Asthmatic Foundation in Arizona. She also was a fundraiser for such charities as the City of Hope.
Turned down a lead role on Broadway in "Finians Rainbow" in favor of a support role in the film My Dear Secretary at RKO.
Gales husband of 25 years, Robert Olson, a building contractor, was killed in 1967 when he fell off a wall in an Encino parking lot. He was also survived by their two children.
In the late 1940s, she was offered a long-term contract from MGM, but she turned it down and remained a freelancing talent.
According to Laura Wagner in her full-length article on Gale, the actress/singer once was supposed to replace actress Rose Marie in the Broadway hit "Top Banana" but had to drop out due to illness. She later turned down a lead role with Alfred Drake in the Broadway musical "Kismet" because she did not want to commit to a years contract.
