Born Mildred Linton in Ottumwa, Iowa on December 12, 1909, Karen Morley was adopted by a well-to-do family who moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1920s. She enrolled at Hollywood High School and studied for a career in medicine at UCLA, but a class in theater changed her career ambitions. After studying at Pasadena Playhouse, she was signed by Fox Studios and her big chance came when producer 'Howard Hughes . In 1954, she ran unsuccessfully as a New York lieutenant governor candidate for the American Labor Party. Morley died March 8, 2003 at the Motion Picture Country House in Woodland Hills.
Originally a pretty starlet/ingenue in Hollywood, Morleys career was ruined 50 years ago by the Hollywood Blacklist/McCarthyism. She has long been a staunch left-wing activist around the San Francisco area. Now in her 90s, she appeared in a Vanity Fair photoshoot featuring other surviving victims of the Blacklist in December, 1999.
In 1954, she ran unsuccessfully as a New York lieutenant governor candidate for the American Labor Party.
She only made one film, an independent western called Born to the Saddle after testifying before the Senate Committee hearing alongside her second husband Lloyd Gough , who shared her leftist views. Both then dropped completely out of sight. He eventually came back in the 60s, she didnt.
Hollywood folklore has it that she broke into films when she read lines with actors being tested for Greta Garbo s movie Inspiration in 1931. She was so convincing that director Clarence Brown cast her in a prime role.
Had a son Michael by first husband Charles Vidor.
Her MGM career fell apart after marrying director Charles Vidor , one of Hollywoods bright promises at the time. It seems it didnt sit well that she had nabbed him over prettier stars and it affected the way the public viewed her as an ingenue. By the late 30s she was reduced to small roles.
Had been considered for the role of Mrs. Connelly in the 2003 Drew Barrymore film, Duplex . Had she received the role, it would have been her fifth with a member of the Barrymore family.
She had one child, a son, Michael Karoly Vidor born on August 26, 1933. He was 66 years old when he died March 30, 2000 in the town of Eastsound on Orcas Island, Washington.
Nobody could imagine just how terrible McCarthyism would be. So many,careers went down the toilet.
I think Poppy (Scarface (1932) ) was my favorite role. . . I,always liked playing poor girls who have their sights on something.
