Get a closer look at some of Hollywood's perfect pairs.

Hollywood Power Couples

Get a closer look at some of Hollywood&#39;s perfect pairs.

Take a look at the IMDb staff picks for the best movies and series coming to theaters and streaming.

Staff Picks: What to Watch in February

This dainty brunette starlet of the 1950s was born Mary Ellen Keaggy of German, Swiss and Irish ancestry. She loved to sing and performed in front of audiences already by the tender age of six. Not surprising an aptitude, being raised in a family with an aunt who was an opera diva in New York, an uncle who was a lyric tenor and a grandfather who was a wiz on the guitar. By the age of 15, Mary Ellen hit the road with a local orchestra as a professional singer, and, just two years later, headlined at the Mayflower Ballroom in Inglewood, California. Her first proper acting gig on stage was as Meg in Little Women. Shortly after, she appeared with Leonard Nimoy in a play at the Glendale Centre Theatre. While studying at the Bliss-Hayden School of Theatre she was discovered by a talent scout and this led her on the road to tinseltown.

After a handful of bit parts at Columbia and RKO, Mary Ellen won an audition at Republic in January 1951 and was signed to a short-term contract. In just a single year, she managed to rack up a string of eleven screen credits, including six westerns with Rex Allen (whom she described as 'wholesome'). For The Last Musketeer (1952), she was trained in the running mount by Allen and by (ex-rodeo clown) Slim Pickens (whom she called 'a laugh-a-minute'). By the end of that brief tenure at Republic, Mary Ellen had become an adept horsewoman. This training paid dividends as it helped to keep her gainfully employed for the remainder of the decade. Towards the end of her Hollywood tenure, she made several television guest appearances in The Lone Ranger (1949) and on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950), eventually fading into retirement by the mid-60s.

Older sister of Christian rocker Phil Keaggy (and Glass Harp front man) <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm1385734/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Phil Keaggy</a>.

Daughter Molly (known as Moll Anderson) was born during Kay&#39;s first marriage to a New York cosmetics executive. She is a Lifestyle Expert/Celebrity Interior Designer in Nashville, TN, with one child, a son, Michael.

As of 2002 she was living in Phoenix, AZ.

In an interview from August 14, 2018, with the Cultivated Podcast, Kay&#39;s brother, Phil Keaggy, said that Mary Ellen had died recently, at the age of 88.

Son Bill was born during Kay&#39;s second marriage to Tim Ruffalo. Bill has three daughters -- Cortney, Tiffany and Molly.

Trivia

Mary Ellen Kay

Contribute to this page

More from this person

More to explore

Recently viewed