Gloria Warren, a talented singer with a soprano voice, was briefly touted as a potential rival to Deanna Durbin. Born in Wilmington, Delaware, to a Russian-Jewish immigrant father, Herman Weiman, and a Hungarian Jewish émigré mother, Julia Weiss, Gloria was a child prodigy who began taking singing, dancing, and acting lessons at a young age.
She was tutored by Budapest-born concert pianist Agnes Laszlo and became adept at the instrument by the age of nine. Her ambitious mother, Julia, managed to secure a five-minute interview with a local radio producer, which led to a Hollywood talent scout assessing her abilities. Two years later, Gloria signed a seven-year deal with Warner Brothers.
The studio changed her surname to Warren and adopted it by her parents. Her brief motion picture career was launched with "Always in My Heart" (1942),a domestic melodrama with music, in which she played the teenage daughter of Kay Francis. The film's hackneyed and contrived screenplay did the cast no favors.
Gloria's next film, "Cinderella Swings It" (1943),was a comedy that failed on every level and was panned by critics and audiences alike. The film's sole bright spot was Gloria herself, who was generally regarded as the film's best performer.
After two films considered box-office poison, Gloria took a three-year hiatus from acting. She was cast as the female lead in three more films, including a lesser entry in the Charlie Chan series. By 1948, Gloria had given up on film acting to raise a family.
She married businessman Peter Gold, who would later become CEO and chairman of the Price Pfister Brass Manufacturing Company, and had two children. Gloria Warren died in Los Angeles on September 11, 2021, at the age of 95.
