Brown-eyed former child actress, with fair complexion and birdlike features. She had a very successful 25-year career on the stage, which were never matched by her later performances on screen. According to actor Roddy McDowell, who knew her as a child, she suffered from mental illness from very early on. Her condition deteriorated -- exacerbated by alcoholism and an addiction to amphetamines -- as the years went on and her career began to peter out. She became more and more reclusive and bitter, her marriage to Vincent Price ending in an acrimonious divorce. Though she received alimony, her addictions left her continually destitute. She died in a nursing home of a heart attack in 1977. Her decline is well documented by Victoria Price's excellent biography of her father ("Vincent Price", St. Martin's Griffin, Oct.2000).
