Frequently appearing for or alongside her actor/writer husband of 50
years, noted stage, screen and TV heavy and writer
Leo Gordon, actress Lynn Cartwright
is probably best remembered for one of her early screen roles as the
brusque, Brooklyn-accented switchboard operator in the cult horror
Die Wespenfrau (1959), and for her
touching final screen appearance as the older, sweet-faced WWII-era
baseball player Dottie Hinson (played throughout most the film by
Geena Davis)) in the final scenes of the
Penny Marshall-helmed comedy
Eine Klasse für sich (1992).
The willowy, auburn-haired performer with the highly distinctive cheek
bones was born on February 27, 1927, in McAlester, Oklahoma, the
daughter of U.S. Congressman Wilburn and his wife Carrie (née Staggs)
Cartwright. Lynn's younger sister, Wilburta, born a year later, went on
to become an artist. Other politically-minded Oklahomans from her
family tree include Legislator Buck Cartwright and former Attorney
General Jan-Eric Cartwright.
Lynn enrolled in acting lessons at the American Academy of Dramatic
Arts in New York in the late 1940s. Here is where she met Gordon, an
ex-con who was trying to turn his life around as an actor. The couple
married in February of 1950 and began married life touring together on
the Borscht Belt stages. They went on to have a daughter together, Tara
Gordon.
Leo's career took off after he landed an agent and moved the family
West to Los Angeles. His brutally hard looks and massive brick-wall
presence easily took on evil dimensions and after a chilling
breakthough perf in
Die Geier von Carson City (1953), cemented
his screen infamy with the powerful role of the psychotic prisoner in
director Don Siegel's
Terror in Block 11 (1954).
Lynn (using her real first name Doralyn before condensing it to Lynn)
found a couple of meager TV assignments ("Rin Tin Tin," etc.) during
this early time, but began finding more roles once Leo managed to
parlay his acting career into a successful writing one as well. Lynn,
in fact, made her film debut in the very first film script Leo sold,
Der Einäugige (1957), which included
parts for the two of them.
Lynn also appeared in her writer/husband's script
The Cry Baby Killer (1958)
which was produced by Roger Corman and
introduced Jack Nicholson to film
audiences, and can be spotted as one of
Zsa Zsa Gabor's Venusian sirens in the
campy cult opus
In den Krallen der Venus (1958).
She ended the decade with minor TV drama work in "Target," "Alfred
Hitchcock Presents," "Peter Gunn," "Bat Masterson" and "Highway
Patrol".
The 1960's proved to be lean years. Other than a couple of unbilled
film parts in Das Appartement (1960),
which won Oscar's "Best Picture" that year and the totally obscure
The Girls on the Beach (1965)
in which Lynn and Leo were glimpsed as waiters, acting offers were few
and far between. By the end of the decade she was appearing in her
husband's soft-erotica scripts, including
All the Loving Couples (1969),
which focused on wife swappers, and in
Robin Hood und seine lüsternen Mädchen (1969),
which is self-explanatory, as the villainous Lady Sallyforth. The
former was based on Leo's own written novel.
Lynn appeared without Leo in the sex-minded teaser film
Gabriela - Blutjung und unbefriedigt (1970)
and in
The Lucifer Complex (1978)
starring Robert Vaughn. She also
worked (with and without Leo) from time to time in association with
writer/director/producer Rod Amateau in such
frisky movie vehicles as
Wo tut's weh? (1972)
starring Peter Sellers and
The Seniors (1978) starring
Dennis Quaid and
Priscilla Barnes, as well as Amateau's
Nazi-themed lowbudget
Son of Hitler (1979) with 'Bud
Cort' in the unlikely title role, the teen-oriented
Lovelines (1984), and the bizarre and
controversial
Die Schmuddelkinder (1987).
On the small screen Lynn could occasionally be found on such 70s and
80s shows as "Adam 12," "Little House on the Prairie," "Dynasty" and
"Knot's Landing," some of which were scripted by her husband. In the
1970s Leo and Lynn joined the Group Repertory Theatre company in North
Hollywood, California, which was founded by actor
Lonny Chapman, where Leo tested and wrote
(while Lynn appeared in) several of his stage plays.
Lynn ended her career on a sentimental high note after being cast as
the senior version of Geena Davis' character
who revisits her baseball-playing alumni at the end of the comedy hit
film
Eine Klasse für sich (1992)
starring Davis and Tom Hanks. The facial
resemblance between the two actresses is so extraordinary that people
often assume it is Geena herself wearing old-age makeup. Part of this
mistaken belief has to to do with the confusion over Lynn's voice --
which was not used in the movie but dubbed in by Geena herself.
Illness dogged Leo's last years and he died in 2000 of cardiovascular
disease at age 78, after 50 years of marriage. Lynn was never able to
overcome her grief and her health quickly declined following his death
with the advancement of dementia. She died four years later after a
fall resulted in a hip fracture. She was interred at the Hollywood
Forever Cemetery.
