Florence Lake


Florence Lake Owens was an American actress best known as the leading lady in most of the Edgar Kennedy comedy shorts.

Early life

Florence Lake was born on November 27, 1904, in Charleston, South Carolina. In the early 1900s, her father Arthur Silverlake and uncle Archie Silverlake toured with a circus in an aerial act known as The Flying Silverlakes. Her mother, Edith Goodwin, was an actress. Her parents later appeared in vaudeville in a skit "Family Affair", traveling throughout the South and Southwest United States. Florence and her younger brother Arthur Silverlake, Jr. became part of the act in 1910. Their mother brought the children to Hollywood to get into the burgeoning film industry. Arthur changed his professional name to Arthur Lake and later achieved great success as Dagwood Bumstead in the movie series Blondie.

Early career

Before acting in films, Lake was the leading lady for the Raynor Lehr stock theater company. Her film debut came in New Year's Eve.

Comic acting persona

Lake was petite, with a high-pitched speaking voice. She perfected a comical, sing-song delivery that established her in "dumb" roles. She personified flightiness in the Kennedy shorts as the scatterbrained Mrs. Kennedy. After the series ended with Kennedy's death in 1948, she continued to play character roles in films and television. Her best-known TV role was Jenny, the Calverton telephone operator in Lassie. Lake played the role for the entire 10-year "farm seasons" of the show, thus becoming the Lassie player with the longest run on the series. She played the role of Mama Angel in "The Angel and the Outlaw", and "Mission for Tonto" two 1957 episodes of the TV series The Lone Ranger. She also appeared in the first color episode of the TV series The Adventures of Superman in 1957 as a cave woman.
On old-time radio, Lake portrayed Jessie in Charlie and Jessie, Tess Terwilliger in David Harum, Mrs. Featherstone's daughter in The Gay Mrs. Featherstone, and Miss Smith in Phone Again Finnegan.
In her later years, Lake appeared as Elvira Norton on an episode of Dragnet titled "Frauds". She appeared in an episode of the 1973 sitcom A Touch of Grace, and later that year played a blind date for the character Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show episode "Lou's First Date". Her last roles were in the TV series Emergency!, Baretta in 1976, and Most Wanted in 1977.

Death

She died in 1980 and was interred in Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery, Santa Monica, California.

Selected filmography

New Year's Eve - PearlThru Different Eyes - MyrtleThe Rogue Song - NadjaRomance - Susan Van TuylThe Drums of Jeopardy - Anya KarlovThe Spirit of Notre Dame - Trixie Hayes Secret Service - Miss Caroline MitfordLadies of the Jury - Mrs. Dace Night World - Ms. Smith Westward Passage - Elmer's WifeFrisco Jenny - Ticklish Girl Midshipman Jack - Sally WithersThe Sweetheart of Sigma Chi - DizzyOnly Yesterday - One of Jim's Friends Jimmy and Sally - Marlowe Employee Two-Fisted - Doris Pritchard Muss 'Em Up - Tony's Girlfriend The Singing Kid - Young Woman Women Are Trouble - Clara To Mary – with Love - SalesgirlQuality Street - Henrietta Turnbull Love in a Bungalow - The 'Ga-Ga' ProspectI Met My Love Again - Carol TownerCondemned Women - PrisonerLaw of the Underworld - Mrs. Billy Winters Rebellious Daughters - DizzyHaving Wonderful Time - Camp Guest Next Time I Marry - Justice of the Peace's Wife Dramatic School - Factory Worker Convicts at Large - HattiePacific Liner - Miss Smith - Dancing with Crusher Stagecoach - Mrs. Nancy Whitney Union Pacific - Woman Bachelor Mother - Oliver's Wife When Tomorrow Comes - Waitress 5th Ave Girl - Slavey - the Cook's Helper Four Jacks and a Jill - Counter Girl Scattergood Survives a Murder - Phoebe QuentinCrash Dive - Doris - Jean's Roommate Hi'ya, Sailor - SecretaryHer Primitive Man - Miss Crims Casanova Brown - Nurse Phillips San Diego, I Love You - Miss LakeGoin' to Town - AbigailHi, Beautiful - Mrs. BisbeeGeorge White's Scandals - Mother Riverboat Rhythm - Penelope Beeler WitherspoonLittle Giant - The Time, the Place and the Girl - Kathy All Gummed Up - Aged Serena My Wild Irish Rose - Diner at White Horse Tavern The Stratton Story - Mrs. Appling Ambush - Mrs. Wolverson Man from the Black Hills - MarthaFargo - MaggieThe Maverick - Grandma WatsonBubble Trouble - Old Serena FlintShe Couldn't Say No - Mrs. Gruman The Flaming Urge - Mrs. BingerBitter Creek - Mrs. HammondThe Desperado - Mrs. CameronThe Lone Ranger - Season 5 Episode 34 - Emmy CorkleThe Adventures of Superman - Season 3 Episode 1, "Through the Time Barrier" - CavewomanThe Boss - Waitress Petticoat Junction as Mrs. LatimerThe Ghost and Mr. Chicken - Occult Clubwoman The Big Mouth - Assaulted Lady Savage Intruder - MildredAdam-12 - "The Grandmothers" as Mrs. Frieda PineTime to Run Frasier, the Sensuous Lion - Old Woman on PorchMary Tyler Moore , Series 4, episode 8, “Lou’s First Date” - Martha DudleyWelcome to Arrow Beach - LandladyThe Day of the Locust
- Old Woman
- Lee Sisters #2Emergency! - as Maggie