Lila Leeds
Encyclopedia
Early life and career
Born Lila Lee Wilkinson in Iola, KansasIola, Kansas
Iola is a city situated along the Neosho River in the northwestern part of Allen County, located in Southeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 5,704. Iola is the county seat of Allen County. It is named in honor of Iola Colborn.-History:The...
, Leeds ran away from home as a teen. She worked as a dancer in St. Louis before moving to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. While working as a hatcheck girl at Ciro's
Ciro's
Ciro's was a nightclub in West Hollywood, California, at 8433 Sunset Boulevard, on the Sunset Strip, opened in January 1940, by entrepreneur William Wilkerson. Herman Hover took over management of Ciro's in 1942 until it closed its doors in 1957...
, she met and married actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, singer and conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
Jack Little
Little Jack Little
Jack Little , sometimes credited Little Jack Little, was a British-born American composer, singer, pianist , actor and songwriter whose songs were featured in several movies...
. The marriage was annulled when Leeds discovered that Little was still married. After taking an acting course at the Bliss-Hayden School of Acting, Leeds signed with MGM and began appearing in film roles.
Leeds appeared in the Red Skelton
Red Skelton
Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton was an American comedian who is best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, night clubs and casinos, all while pursuing...
film The Show-Off (1946); Lady in the Lake
Lady in the Lake
Lady in the Lake is a 1947 American film noir that marked the directorial debut of Robert Montgomery, who also stars in the film. The picture also features Audrey Totter, Lloyd Nolan, Tom Tully, Leon Ames and Jayne Meadows...
(1947), based on a Raymond Chandler
Raymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American novelist and screenwriter.In 1932, at age forty-five, Raymond Chandler decided to become a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in...
story; and in the Lana Turner
Lana Turner
Lana Turner was an American actress.Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget . She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy...
vehicle Green Dolphin Street
Green Dolphin Street
Green Dolphin Street is a 1947 historic drama film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.-Plot summary:In the 1840s, two sisters fall in love with the same man...
, where she played a Eurasian who drugs the leading man and rolls him for his money.
On September 1, 1948, Leeds gained notoriety for being arrested together with actor Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
on charges of marijuana
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
possession. She subsequently spent sixty days in jail.
Considered a Lana Turner look-alike, Leeds was 20 years old and engaged to Turner's ex-husband Stephen Crane at the time of her arrest. Cheryl Crane, Turner and Stephen's daughter, wrote that Leeds first tried marijuana with members of Stan Kenton
Stan Kenton
Stanley Newcomb "Stan" Kenton was a pianist, composer, and arranger who led a highly innovative, influential, and often controversial American jazz orchestra. In later years he was widely active as an educator....
's orchestra and that she was introduced to heroin while in jail. After Leeds was arrested, Stephen Crane fled to Europe rather than become entangled in scandal.
Although she starred in the Reefer Madness
Reefer Madness
Reefer Madness is a well-known 1936 American propaganda exploitation film revolving around the melodramatic events that ensue when high school students are lured by pushers to try "marijuana" — from a hit and run accident, to manslaughter, suicide, attempted rape, and descent into madness...
-style film She Shoulda Said No!
She Shoulda Said No!
"She Shoulda Said 'No'!" is a 1949 exploitation film that follows in the spirit of morality tales such as the 1936 films Reefer Madness and Marihuana...
(1949) following her release from prison, her acting career never recovered from the episode.
Later years and death
Leeds left California in 1949, moving throughout the Midwest where she worked in nightclubs, married and divorced twice, had three children Shawn, Ivan and Laura; they live in Southern California. She eventually traveled back to Los Angeles in 1966 where she began studying religion and volunteered at local missions.According to the Social Security Death Index
Social Security Death Index
The Social Security Death Index is a database of death records created from the United States Social Security Administration's Death Master File Extract. Most persons who have died since 1962 who had a Social Security Number and whose death has been reported to the Social Security Administration...
, Lila W. Leeds died on September 15, 1999.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1946 | I Love My Husband, But! | Blonde trying on Hat | Uncredited |
| 1946 | The Show-Off | Flo | |
| 1947 | Lady in the Lake Lady in the Lake Lady in the Lake is a 1947 American film noir that marked the directorial debut of Robert Montgomery, who also stars in the film. The picture also features Audrey Totter, Lloyd Nolan, Tom Tully, Leon Ames and Jayne Meadows... |
Receptionist | |
| 1947 | Green Dolphin Street Green Dolphin Street Green Dolphin Street is a 1947 historic drama film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.-Plot summary:In the 1840s, two sisters fall in love with the same man... |
Eurasian Girl | Uncredited |
| 1947 | Always Together | Blonde | Uncredited |
| 1948 | April Showers | Society Girl | Uncredited |
| 1948 | So You Want to Be a Detective | Veronica Vacuum | Uncredited |
| 1948 | Moonrise Moonrise (film) -Plot:Dane Clark plays Danny Hawkins, the son of a murderer who was hanged for his crimes. Haunted by his father's past, the young man is tormented by the young people of the small southern town in which he lives. Hawkins' only friend is Gilly Johnson , a girl who is quickly falling in love with... |
Julie | |
| 1949 | City Across the River | Undetermined Role | Uncredited |
| 1949 | She Shoulda Said No! She Shoulda Said No! "She Shoulda Said 'No'!" is a 1949 exploitation film that follows in the spirit of morality tales such as the 1936 films Reefer Madness and Marihuana... |
Anne Lester | |
| 1949 | The House Across the Street | Billie Martin | Uncredited |