Actress Jeanne Crain dies at 78

Oscar-nominated actress Jeanne Crain dies at 78


LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Jeanne Crain, the winsome beauty who starred in lightweight 1940s romances and comedies and won an Academy Award nomination as the black girl passing for white in the controversial "Pinky," has died. She was 78.

Crain died of a heart attack at her Santa Barbara home early Sunday morning, according to her son, Paul Brinkman Jr. She appeared in 64 films and many television shows during her long career, playing opposite such stars as Frank Sinatra, Kirk Douglas and William Holden.

With her lovely features, slender, appealing figure and demure, feminine manner, she became a leading star in the wartime and postwar years. For faraway GI's she seemed the ideal girl back home. At 20th Century-Fox studio, her fan mail was second only to pin-up queen Betty Grable.

Crain's 1943 movie debut followed the Hollywood cliche: she appeared in a swimming suit beside a pool in the all-star "The Gang's All Here." She was elevated to leading roles in her next films -- "Home in Indiana," "In the Meantime, Darling." "Winged Victory" and "State Fair," which featured Rodgers and Hammerstein's only original score for a movie.

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Movies/12/14/obit.jeanne.crain.ap/