Noreen Nash is an actress best known for her work in projects like Southern, Ghost from Space, GiantAnd The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold, at the age of 99. Her eldest son Lee Siegel Jr. confirmed the news of her death, to Hollywood Reporter. Nash was born Norabelle Jean Ruth in Wenatchee, Washington on April 4, 1924. After her hometown was crowned “Queen of Apple Blossom” in 1942, she landed a contract as an MGM showgirl, which she initially turned down because she had plans to attend Stanford University, but eventually led to her appearance on screen in 1943’s Girl Crazy. Her first film role was as Becky Devers in the Academy Award-nominated 1945 film Southern. She soon changed her stage name to Noreen Nash, after being inspired by her on-screen father, J. Carroll Naish.
In the late 1940s, Nash began appearing in a series of B films, including The Devil on Wheels, The Great Fix, The Red Stallion, The Tender Years, The Adventures of Casanova, Dedicated to PerilAnd The checkered coat. Two of her most famous entries in the field are Barbara Randall’s in 1953 Phantom from space And Luna Lin in 1956 AD giant. She has also appeared in TV shows such as 77 Sunset Strip, Hopalong Cassidy, And Abbott and Costello Show.
Nash married Dr. Lee Siegel, medical director at 20th Century Fox, in 1942, and they had two children together. After Siegel’s death in 1990, she was married to Academy Award-nominated actor James Whitmore from 2001 until 2009. At the suggestion of her youngest son, Robert James Siegel, Nash quit acting in 1962.
“My son said, ‘Mom, I think they’re trying to tell you something.’” I think it’s time for her to quit acting and go to college” (because I got married when I was 18), Nash explained. In a later interview with Sydney Pose. ’ I said, ‘But I will be in my 40s before I graduate. He said, “My mom is going to be in your 40s anyway. So I quit acting and went to college. It took me six years because I was married, and when I graduated he said, ‘Now you have to write.’”
She went on to earn a BA in history from UCLA in 1971, and has published several books, including By fulfilling loveAnd Agnes Sorel, Lady of Beauty, And Titans muses: when Henri Miller met Jean Renoir.
Our thoughts are with Nash’s family, friends, and fans at this time.
