Sheree North

Biography: Actress Sheree North wasted no time reaching adulthood: a professional dancer from the age of ten, she was married five years later, and two years after that made her official film debut in MGM's Excuse My Dust (1951). Attaining minor stardom with her energetic rock & roll dance number in the 1953 Broadway musical Hazel Flagg, she was brought to Hollywood the following year to repeat her role in the film version, which by now had metamorphosed into the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedy Living It Up. She was promptly hired by 20th Century Fox as a potential replacement for Marilyn Monroe, but before long North had developed her own screen personality and was enjoying a wider range of roles than Monroe could ever hope for (ironically, she would later be cast as Monroe's mother in the 1980 TV biopic Marilyn: The Untold Story). Proving herself an able dramatic actress as Tony Randall's long-suffering spouse in No Down Payment (1957), she alternated between comedy and drama for theActress Sheree North wasted no time reaching adulthood: a professional dancer from the age of ten, she was married five years later, and two years after that made her official film debut in MGM's Excuse My Dust (1951). Attaining minor stardom with her energetic rock & roll dance number in the 1953 Broadway musical Hazel Flagg, she was brought to Hollywood the following year to repeat her role in the film version, which by now had metamorphosed into the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedy Living It Up. She was promptly hired by 20th Century Fox as a potential replacement for Marilyn Monroe, but before long North had developed her own screen personality and was enjoying a wider range of roles than Monroe could ever hope for (ironically, she would later be cast as Monroe's mother in the 1980 TV biopic Marilyn: The Untold Story). Proving herself an able dramatic actress as Tony Randall's long-suffering spouse in No Down Payment (1957), she alternated between comedy and drama for the rest of her screen career. After the termination of her Fox contract she left films in favor of stage productions and TV, sporadically returning to the screen in character parts. In addition to her many guest star appearances,Sheree North's weekly TV assignments have included such series as Big Eddie (1975) and Bay City Blues (1984).… Expand