Coleen Gray

Acting

Coleen Gray

Born 1922-10-23 · Staplehurst, Nebraska, USA

Coleen Gray (born Doris Bernice Jensen; October 23, 1922 – August 3, 2015) was born in Staplehurst, Nebraska. After graduating from high school she studied dramatics at Hamline University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree, she then decided to see America and traveled to California, stopping off at La Jolla where she worked as a waitress. After several weeks there, she moved to L.A. and enrolled in a drama school. Her performances attracted a talent scout from 20th Century-Fox, with whom she signed a contract after a screen test. Although Fox put her in several good pictures (Kiss of Death (1947), Nightmare Alley (1947), The Razor's Edge (1946) in which she acquitted herself well, many of the roles they gave her were not worthy of her talent and she never became as big a star as many thought she should have. Still, she has an extensive list of credits in films, TV, radio and on the stage.  

Acting credits

Kansas City Confidential poster
7.0

An ex-convict sets out to uncover who framed him for an armored car robbery.

Kansas City Confidential

1952

Red River poster
7.3

Following the Civil War, headstrong rancher Thomas Dunson decides to lead a perilous cattle drive from Texas to Missouri. During the exhausting journey, his persistence becomes tyrannical in the eyes of Matthew Garth, his adopted son and protégé.

Red River

1948

The Killing poster
7.6

Career criminal Johnny Clay recruits a sharpshooter, a crooked police officer, a bartender and a betting teller named George, among others, for one last job before he goes straight and gets married. But when George tells his restless wife about the scheme to steal millions from the racetrack where he works, she hatches a plot of her own.

The Killing

1956

Nightmare Alley poster
7.2

A roustabout joins a traveling carny and schemes to figure out the mind-reading act of Mademoiselle Zeena and her alcoholic husband.

Nightmare Alley

1947

Star in the Dust poster
5.1

The sheriff of Gunlock is planning to hang Sam Hall, who shot three farmers found on cattle land, at sundown. At the casino, betting is 8 to 3 he won't make it. The cattlemen are set to rescue Sam; the farmers hope to lynch him before he can be rescued; and Hall schemes for escape with his girl Nellie. But Sheriff Jorden is most concerned with finding out who hired Hall: a leading suspect is the sheriff's future brother-in-law.

Star in the Dust

1956

The Sleeping City poster
6.0

A young doctor taking a break from work is shot in the head, and the police can't find a clue even as to a possible motive. Inspector Al Gordon (John Alexander) decides that he has to put some men on duty at the hospital, and one of them is Fred Rowan (Richard Conte), a detective with experience as an army medic, masquerading as an intern. What Rowan finds is a high-pressure world in which interns are hopelessly squeezed for time, sleep, energy, and -- most of all -- money, and walk a fine line on the edge of personal and professional disaster.

The Sleeping City

1950

Kiss of Death poster
7.1

An ex-con trying to go straight must face a crazed criminal out for revenge.

Kiss of Death

1947

The Vanquished poster
4.9

A man returns to his home -- a post Civil-War village -- and finds the law is in the hands of a few scrupulous people.

The Vanquished

1953

The Vampire poster
6.2

A small town doctor mistakenly ingests an experimental drug made from the blood of vampire bats which transforms the kindly medic into a bloodthirsty monster.

The Vampire

1957

The Black Whip poster
10.0

A gang of renegade Civil War soldiers terrorize four women and the owners of an inn as they plot to kidnap the new governor of the state. If all goes according to plan, the outlaws will murder their hostage after collecting a hefty ransom.

The Black Whip

1956

The Phantom Planet poster
4.0

After an asteroid draws an astronaut and his ship to its surface, he is miniaturized by the phantom planet's exotic atmosphere.

The Phantom Planet

1961

Death of a Scoundrel poster
6.0

A Czech refugee uses women to advance his business interest.

Death of a Scoundrel

1956

Town Tamer poster
6.8

A gunfighter is hired to clean up a wild frontier town, but there are forces afoot who want to keep the town as wide-open as it is. Lyle Bettger, Bruce Cabot and Richard Jaeckel co-star as the lawless bad guys in this Western based on a novel by Frank Gruber.

Town Tamer

1965

Apache Drums poster
6.3

A gambler is thrown out of a western town, but returns when the town is suddenly threatened by a band of marauding Apaches.

Apache Drums

1951

P.J. poster
5.7

Reluctant New York City private eye P.J. Detweiler is hired as a bodyguard to protect Maureen Preble, the mistress of shady millionaire William Orbison. In truth, Orbison plans a deadly intrigue in which P.J. is to play a central part. Meanwhile, complications ensue as P.J. gradually falls in love with Maureen.

P.J.

1968

Arrow In The Dust poster
6.3

A cavalry deserter poses as a major and leads a wagon train with a hidden cargo of repeating rifles.

Arrow In The Dust

1954

The Leech Woman poster
4.8

An endocrinologist in a dysfunctional marriage with an aging, alcoholic wife journeys to Africa seeking a drug that will restore youth.

The Leech Woman

1960

Riding High poster
6.1

A horse trainer who has fallen on hard times looks to his horse, Broadway Bill, to finally win the big race.

Riding High

1950

Tennessee's Partner poster
6.5

A tough, womanizing high-stakes gambler known only as Tennessee has an uneasy relationship with Duchess, madam of a thinly-disguised bordello, and no other friends at all. But he's saved from murder by a lonesome cowpoke ('My friends call me Cowpoke'), in town to meet his fiancée Goldie on the steamboat. When she arrives, there's a mysterious undercurrent between Goldie and Tennessee, whose newfound friendship with Cowpoke is destined to be severely tried...

Tennessee's Partner

1955

The Best Place to Be poster
7.5

A widow's life is thrown into turmoil by her hippie daughter, her rebellious teenage son, and an ill-starred love affair she is having with a much younger man -- and then a former suitor comes back into the picture.

The Best Place to Be

1979

Hollywood in the Atomic Age: Monsters! Martians! Mad Scientists! poster
4.7

A comprehensive story of Hollywood's horror and science fiction films of the 1950s, told by the people who made them.

Hollywood in the Atomic Age: Monsters! Martians! Mad Scientists!

2021

Johnny Rocco poster
5.6

Gangster and police look for a gangster's son who witnessed a murder.

Johnny Rocco

1958

Hell's Five Hours poster
6.3

The manager (Stephen McNally) of a rocket-fuel plant deals with a worker (Vic Morrow) threatening to blow himself up.

Hell's Five Hours

1958

Fury at Furnace Creek poster
6.3

The Arizona wilderness, 1880. Gen. Fletcher Blackwell sends a message telling Capt. Walsh, who is escorting a wagon-train through Apache territory, heading for the fort at Furnace Creek, that he should cancel the escort and rush to another town. Apache leader "Little Dog" is leading the attack on the wagon-train and massacring everyone at the poorly manned fort. As a result the treaty is broken with the Indians and the white settlers take over the territory with the help of the cavalry, as the Apaches are wiped out and only "Little Dog" remains at large. Gen. Fletcher Blackwell is court-martial-led for treason.

Fury at Furnace Creek

1948