Sally Blane Pics

Sally

Blane

11 July 1910

64.5

Slim

Brown - Dark

Brown - Light

Salida, Colorado

Cancer

27 August 1997

Los Angeles, California

Cancer

White

Roman Catholic

Jane

American

Female

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Sally Blane (July 11, 1910 – August 27, 1997) was an American actress. Blane was the sister of actresses Polly Ann and Loretta Young, and half-sister to actress Georgiana Young, the wife of actor Ricardo Montalban. She appeared in over 70 movies.

Although this lovely, light brown-haired leading lady would wind up better known as one of Loretta Young`s three acting sisters, Sally Blane nevertheless enjoyed a modest "B" film career during the late 20s and 30s. The resemblance to her "A" level sister was very strong -- the same graceful, elongated face and fawn-like, wide-set eyes. Unlike her sister, however, Sally lacked strong determination and ambition. Although she remained on the second or third Hollywood tier throughout her career, her film output was considerable if mostly routine. Sally was born Elizabeth Jane Young in Salida, Colorado, in 1910 while her mother was en route by train to the family home in Salt Lake City. The train actually had to make an unscheduled stop so that her mother could give birth. Her parents separated when she was five and her mother moved the four girls and one boy to Hollywood where a sister lived. All the children pitched in financially by becoming movie extras. Sally and her brother John R. Young (better known as Jack) both appeared uncredited in the silent film Sirens of the Sea (1917) starring Jack Mulhall in which she played a sea nymph. She also had an unbilled part in Rudolph Valentino`s smoldering classic The Sheik (1921). Sally`s beauty only heightened as she grew up. Director Wesley Ruggles noticed the teen dancing at the Cafe Montmarte and tested her for the "Collegian" film series. She was cast and soon signed by Paramount who insisted on the new marquee name of Sally Blane. Around the same time, younger sister Loretta (by three years) signed with First National Studios. During their early build-up both Sally and Loretta were dubbed "Wampas Baby Stars of 1929". Throughout this time their mother maintained a firm hand in the girls` personal and professional lives. One of Sally`s first leading roles was in the western silent Shootin` Irons (1927) and she went on to play a number of prairie flowers opposite Hollywood`s top cowboys. She played opposite Tom Mix in three: A Horseman of the Plains (1928), King Cowboy (1928) and Outlawed (1929). Her career peaked early and Sally seemed content to freelance for such "poverty" studios as Monogram, Escelsior, Chesterfield and Artclass in a variety of genres -- crimers, light comedy, mysteries, action adventures. Developing a "nice girl" image, other male co-stars she shared the screen with, both rising and established, included Rudy Vallee in The Vagabond Lover (1929), Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in Little Accident (1930), Lew Ayres in The Spirit of Notre Dame (1931), Walter Huston in The Star Witness (1931), Richard Cromwell in Shanghaied Love (1931), Edmund Lowe in both Trick for Trick (1933) and No More Women (1934), Lee Tracy in Advice to the Lovelorn (1933), Buster Crabbe in She Had to Choose (1934), and Joel McCrea in Half a Sinner (1934). A two-year lull occurred following the filming of Fox`s This Is the Life (1935), and Sally never tried very hard to regain her momentum. Much of this had to do with her meeting of (in 1935) and marriage to (in 1937) director and one-time actor Norman Foster, who had once dated her sister Loretta. Although Sally returned to films in 1937, she was already focused on her marriage and having a family. She and sisters Polly Ann Young and Georgiana Young, however, did make it a family affair at Loretta`s insistence when they were given featured roles in Loretta`s biopic The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939). They all played, of course, Loretta`s sisters and this was to be the only time all four girls ever appeared together. One of Sally`s last pictures was in the whodunnit Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (1939) directed by her husband. During WWII, the family, which now included a son and daughter, lived in Mexico where Foster helmed Spanish-language pictures. She appeared in one of them. Later the family relocated to Beverly Hills and Sally officially ended her cinematic career with an isolated part in A Bullet for Joey (1955). Comfortably retired for many decades, Foster died of cancer in July of 1976. Sally herself succumbed to cancer two decades later on August 27, 1997. Cancer claimed sister Polly just months earlier and sister Loretta would die of ovarian cancer in 2000. Sally was survived by her two children, Robert and Gretchen. Sister Loretta`s real name was Gretchen and Sally had named her daughter in honor of her.

Elisabeth Jane Young

WAMPAS Baby Star of 1929

John Earl Young

Gladys Royal Young

Loretta Young, Georgia Montalban, Polly Ann Young

George Belzer (step father)

Actor/Actress

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