Joyce Reynolds (actress)

Helen Joyce Reynolds was born in San Antonio, Texas on October 7, 1924^[1] to Joel B. Reynolds and Mary (Dunn) Reynolds. She attended the University of California, Los Angeles. A talent scout who saw her in a play there arranged for a screen test, which led to a film contract.^[3]

Reynolds made her acting debut with a small part in the 1942 film Yankee Doodle Dandy (she is the enthusiastic teen asking the retired George M. Cohan about his show-business background). Her roles became more substantial throughout the decade, appearing in movies such as George Washington Slept Here as Madge, The Constant Nymph as Paula Sanger, and The Adventures of Mark Twain as Clara Clemens. She had top billing in the musical comedy film Janie as Janie Conway, directed by Michael Curtiz.^[4]

In 1944, she appeared in Hollywood Canteen as herself.^[5] In 1945, Warner announced that Reynolds was retiring to resume her education, and that her contract with the studio had been abrogated.^[6] Her final leading role on the big screen came in Girls' School, a 1950 melodrama for Columbia Pictures. Her Hollywood career ended in 1950, with ten credits to her name.

On January 11, 1945, Reynolds married Lieutenant Robert Floyd Lewis of Houston, Texas, in Hollywood.^[7][8][9] They separated in early 1947.^[10] On October 24, 1947, she married Donald Michael Gallery, the adopted son of ZaSu Pitts, in Hollywood.^[11] By 1950 the couple were estranged,^[12] and the marriage ended in divorce.^[13]

By 1951, Reynolds was running a nursery in Brentwood, California. That same year she married Dr. Carlyle L. Ahrens.^[14] Ahrens was 31 years her senior, and they divorced in March 1953.^[15] Reynolds married fourth Melvin Shaw in Arlington, Virginia on May 1, 1957,^[16] and then finally to Arthur George White in Clark County, Nevada on December 7, 1963.^[17] White died in Malibu, California on April 7, 1980, at the age of 60.^[18]

Reynolds died in Los Angeles on September 24, 2019, at the age of 94.^[19][20]