Marie McDonald, born Cora Marie Frye in 1923, was a Kentucky-born, voluptuous blonde starlet who pursued a career with unrelenting fervor, despite ultimately finding little reward. Her mother, a former Ziegfeld girl, and her grandmother, an operatic singer, instilled in Marie a deep appreciation for the arts. Her father, a warden at Leavenworth Prison, however, was not artistically inclined. The couple divorced when Marie was just six years old, and her mother remarried, moving the family to Yonkers, New York.
Marie attended Roosevelt High School, where she excelled in piano and wrote for the school newspaper. Although she was offered a college scholarship by Columbia University in journalism, Marie's striking beauty and physical assets propelled her to pursue a career in business show. At 15, she became a Powers model, lying about her age to do so. She quit high school and started entering beauty contests, winning titles such as "Miss Yonkers" and "The Queen of Coney Island."
In 1939, Marie was crowned "Miss New York," but lost at the "Miss America" pageant. However, the attention she received from her beauty titles led her to the Broadway stage, where she appeared in "George White's Scandals of 1939." This ultimately led to her move to Los Angeles, where she found work in the chorus line while trying to break into pictures.
Marie found her first singing work with Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra on his radio show and eventually joined other bands as well. Although Universal signed her up, she couldn't secure significant roles, and she knew that publicity would be her key to success. Press agents dubbed Marie "The Body," and the nickname eventually stuck.
Although her physical attributes were impressive, her talent was less so. Marie managed to secure roles in films such as "Guest in the House" (1944),"Living in a Big Way" (1947) with Gene Kelly, and "Tell It to the Judge" (1949). She was once in contention for the Billie Dawn role in "Born Yesterday," but lost out to Judy Holliday. Despite her physical appearance and numerous tabloid headlines, Marie's career eventually stalled, and she turned to drink, drugs, and despair.
Marie's life was marked by frequent skirmishes with the law and nervous breakdowns. Her last effective role was in the Jerry Lewis starrer "The Geisha Boy" (1958),where she gamely played a snippy movie star at the mercy of the comedian's outrageous slapstick. In 1965, at the age of 42, Marie finally decided to end it all with an overdose of pills.
