Luana Walters
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Luana Walters (July 22, 1912 - May 19, 1963) was a motion picture actress from Los Angeles, California. Walters was an expert horsewoman which led to her discovery as an actress at a rodeo in Palm Springs, California. She won a woman's bucking contest which was being watched by a movie scout, who noticed her. Her film career began when she visited a friend on a United Artists lot. Douglas Fairbanks Sr. was excited about her screen possibilities and arranged for a film test. However, only three days later Fairbanks went to Europe, and the test was never completed. Not long afterwards Joe Schenck saw Walters on the dance floor at the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles, California. After viewing the abbreviated test made by Fairbanks, Schenck offered her a contract with United Artists. The studio did not make a movie in the next six months so Walters' option was not taken up. Walters' screen credits start with an uncredited role in Reaching For The Moon (film) (1930). Her skill as an equestrian helped her in parts in westerns like Ride 'Em Cowboy (1936), Where The West Begins (1938), Mexicali Rose (1939), and Law Of The Wolf (1939). On many occasions Walters made films in which her role was cut out. This began when she made Reaching for the Moon (film) with Fairbanks. Her parts were also deleted from Spawn of the North (1938) and Souls At Sea (1937). The former was a Carole Lombard feature and the latter paired Walters with Robert Cummings. Walters was the first actress to portray Superman's biological mother Lara in a live-action format. She appeared in "Superman Comes to Earth", the first chapter of the 1948 Superman movie serial. Portions of this depiction appear in flashback in "At the Mercy of Atom Man!", the seventh chapter of the 1950 serial Atom Man vs. Superman. In the latter portion of her career Walters was in a number of B-Movie films, most of them of the sci-fi and horror genres. She plays a female reporter on the trail of a fiend's story in The Corpse Vanishes (1942), with Bela Lugosi. She appears as a cellblock guard in Girls In Prison (1956). Her final role came in The She Creature (1956). Luana Walters died of liver failure due to alcoholism in Los Angeles in 1963. Description above from the Wikipedia article Luana Walters, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
Credits
- 1986 · Horrible Horror as Patricia Hunter in 'The Corpse Vanishes'
- 1956 · Girls in Prison as Cellblock guard
- 1948 · Arthur Takes Over as Newspaper Woman
- 1947 · Shoot to Kill as Marian Langdon (as Susan Walters)
- 1943 · Drums of Fu Manchu as Mary Randolph
- 1942 · Bad Men of the Hills as Laurie Bishop
- 1942 · Thundering Hoofs as Nancy Kellogg
- 1942 · Down Texas Way as Mary Hopkins
- 1942 · The Corpse Vanishes as Patricia Hunter, Reporter
- 1942 · Inside the Law as Dora Mason
- 1942 · Lawless Plainsmen as Baltimore Bonnie Dixon
- 1942 · Captain Midnight as Fury Shark
- 1942 · The Lone Star Vigilantes as Marcia Banning
- 1941 · No Greater Sin as Sandra James
- 1941 · Arizona Bound as Ruth Masters
- 1941 · Across the Sierras as Anne Woodworth
- 1941 · The Kid's Last Ride as Sally Rowell
- 1940 · Misbehaving Husbands as Jane Forbes
- 1940 · Blondie Plays Cupid as Millie
- 1940 · The Range Busters as Carol Thorp
- 1940 · The Tulsa Kid as Mary Wallace
- 1940 · The Durango Kid as Nancy Winslow
- 1940 · The Return of Wild Bill as Kate Kilgore
- 1940 · Drums of Fu Manchu as Mary Randolph
- 1940 · Millionaire Playboy as Resort Girl
- 1939 · Eternally Yours as Girl at Shower (uncredited)
- 1939 · Honeymoon in Bali as Girl Having Her Fortune Told (uncredited)
- 1939 · Mutiny on the Blackhawk as
- 1939 · Law of the Wolf as Ruth Adams
- 1939 · Hotel Imperial as Nurse (uncredited)
- 1939 · Mexicali Rose as Anita Loredo
- 1939 · Cafe Society as Cigarette Girl
- 1939 · Paris Honeymoon as Angela
- 1939 · Fangs of the Wild as Carol Dean
- 1938 · Say It in French as Hat Check Girl
- 1938 · Thanks for the Memory as Model (uncredited)
- 1938 · Marie Antoinette as Woman in Gaming House (uncredited)
- 1938 · Assassin of Youth as Joan Barry
- 1938 · The Buccaneer as Suzette
- 1938 · Where the West Begins as Lynne Reed
- 1937 · Youth on Parole as Salesgirl (uncredited)
- 1937 · Under Strange Flags as Dolores de Vargas
- 1936 · Shadow of Chinatown as Sonya Rokoff
- 1936 · Shadow of Chinatown as Sonya Rokoff
- 1936 · Ride 'Em Cowboy as Lillian Howard
- 1936 · Aces and Eights as Juanita Hernandez
- 1936 · The Speed Reporter as May
- 1934 · The Third Sex as Elinor Gordon
- 1933 · Fighting Texans as Jo Ann Carver
- 1932 · End of the Trail as Luana
- 1932 · Two Seconds as Tart (uncredited)
- 1932 · Miss Pinkerton as First Nurse (uncredited)