Kay Linaker

Linaker was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and graduated from a private school in Connecticut and from New York University. She went on to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.^[3]

Linaker acted in supporting roles on Broadway before signing a film contract with Warner Bros.^[1] She was signed by the studio after a talent scout saw her in Jackson White at the Providencetown Theater.^[4] Her Broadway credits included Every Man for Himself (1940), and Yesterday's Orchids (1934).^[5]

In 1935, she briefly changed her name to Lynn Acker "for screen purposes",^[6] but she soon dropped that name.^[7] Most of her film work had her in limited roles, with one of her notable leading parts coming in The Girl from Mandalay (1936).^[2] Her screen debut was in The Murder of Dr. Harrigan (1936).^[8]

Linaker wrote for the Voice of America during World War II in addition to working for the Red Cross.^[2]

She later taught in the film studies department at Keene State College in New Hampshire from 1980 to 2006.^[9]

From the 1960s to her death, Linaker dedicated much of her time to education. She went on to teach acting and screenwriting at Hampshire Country School in Rindge, New Hampshire.^[10]

Linaker – on June 9, 1953, in Bedford, New York – married Howard Baron Phillips (1909–1985), who initially was a baritone and writer but later worked as an executive with NBC television.^[11] In December 1936, for about a year, Phillips sang with Ray Noble under the pseudonym Howard Barrie.

See "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm"^[12]

On April 18, 2008, Linaker died in Keene, New Hampshire.^[2]