Kristine Miller
Kristine Miller was an American film actress. She appeared in film noir and Westerns. A discovery of Paramount producer Hal Wallis, she appeared in I Walk Alone, Jungle Patrol, Too Late for Tears, Shadow on the Wall, and the TV series Stories of the Century.
Early life
Miller was born Jacqueline Olivia Eskesen, the younger of two daughters of Johannes Bach Eskesen, a Danish oil executive, and US-born Myrtle Bennett Eskesen, an Orpheum Circuit singer from Fresno, California.Her father was vice-president of Standard Oil of Argentina, headquartered in Buenos Aires, where Miller and her older sister, Dorothea, were born. After a decade in Argentina, the family sailed to New Orleans, landing in July 1931. They temporarily moved to Myrtle's hometown of Fresno for a year, then moved to Copenhagen, Denmark in 1932 when Miller was 7 years old. In 1938, before the beginning of the Second World War in Europe, mother and daughters relocated again, this time to Long Island, New York. Later they moved back to Fresno, then on to San Francisco, California, where Jacqueline became a naturalized United States citizen on December 7, 1942.
Having lived in Argentina and Denmark as a child, she spoke English, Spanish and Danish fluently, and had a working knowledge of Portuguese and German. During her formative years, she showed no interest in acting. Miller said of her childhood, "My mother was a professional singer and I think she was eager for me to go into the entertainment field." However, after she played a main role in her high school's production of George S. Kaufman's The American Way, her taste for show business began to form. In one version of how she was discovered by Hollywood, in 1944 the 18-year-old Miller saw an opportunity when a Warner Brothers talent scout was to attend one of her school's performances. The scout never showed up, so she sent a letter and photograph to the studio, and garnered a screen test at Warner, where she changed her name to Kristine Miller. When Miller set out for Hollywood, she recalled, "People said to my mother, 'Are you letting that girl go to that awful place?'" But her mother replied, "I know that girl, and she'll be all right." Although she failed the screen test, she was noticed by producer Hal Wallis, who was then feuding with the studio head, Jack L. Warner. Under acrimonious circumstances, Wallis left Warner Brothers for Paramount Pictures. Wallis brought with him Miller and another actress that also failed a screen test at Warner, the 21-year-old Lizabeth Scott.
Paramount years
''I Walk Alone''
At Paramount, Miller made her debut, an uncredited bit part, opposite fellow newcomer Lizabeth Scott in You Came Along. Miller played a showgirl and was billed as "Jacqueleen Eskeson." The pair would appear together in five films, four of them produced by Hal Wallis. Production ran February 6–April 6, 1945.In 1946, Miller was loaned out to Monogram Pictures. She played a model in the 1946 film noir, Suspense, where she appears as a party guest. Production ran mid-October–early December 1945. Around this time, Miller moved into the old Wallace Reid mansion in Coldwater Canyon, then converted into a boarding house for aspiring actresses known as "The House of the Seven Garbos". Among the boarders were Ruth Roman, Suzan Ball and Linda Christian. According to Doris Lilly, a former boarder and later society columnist, "The dignity of the house in general was presided over and encouraged by Kristine Miller, who was blonde haired, high of cheekbone, grey eyed. Kristine had balance, she would check some of our madder impulses, kept us calm when that was necessary. Her manner was quiet and refined, and she had a way of touching a grubby coffeepot as if it were the tiara of the Empress Josephine. In spite of her reserve, we all knew that Kristine had a fine future for her somewhere, and we felt that she was an excellent actress."
In July 1946, it was announced that Hal Wallis planned to star Miller in the film version of the Broadway play, Beggars Are Coming to Town, a noirish story of betrayal and vengeance. Wallis intended this to be Miller's breakout role. Yet Wallis would skip the usual publicity buildup for a budding actress. Miller was to play a torch singer, Kay Lawrence, who befriends a convict, Frankie Madison, who returns to New York after 14 years in prison. Kay's boyfriend, Noll "Dink" Turner, is the owner of the Regent Club, which Frankie claims to own half of. Tired of Kay, Noll sends her to sweet-talk Frankie in an effort to stall for time. Meanwhile, Noll intends to dump Kay and marry a socialite. Both men battle for control of the business that Turner built while Frankie was in prison.
In the winter of 1946, Miller appeared briefly in Western noir, Desert Fury. She played the priggish Claire Lindquist, daughter of a corrupt judge. Shooting took place from mid-August to early November, 1946. Unusual for such a small role, Wallis ensured Miller received 6th billing, after Wendall Corey, despite her role being little more than walk-on. The film was released August 15, 1947.
Immediately after Desert Fury, Wallis began work on Deadlock, the original project name for Beggars Are Coming to Town. Again Miller would be cast with Desert Furys Burt Lancaster and Wendell Corey. After weeks of rehearsals on the Modjeska Canyon location, under the direction of Byron Haskin, Miller suddenly became the second leading lady. Lizabeth Scott, ever competitive with all actresses, grabbed the Kay role for herself. Miller later recalled, " planned to star me in 'I Walk Alone.' He tested me with Burt; it was a wonderful test. But then Lizabeth Scott decided she wanted the role, and Lizabeth got whatever she wanted—from Hal Wallis! So, I got the second part instead." The 21-year-old Miller was recast as the slumming socialite divorcée, Alexis Richardson. Miller was afraid that playing a "meanie" role might typecast her. She was also forced to cut her 22-inch hair into a shorter chignon. In designing Miller's wardrobe, Edith Head was impressed by Miller's physique, describing it as "the most exciting figure since Betty Grable." The resulting film was renamed I Walk Alone. Shooting took place early December 1946–mid-February 1947. The film was released January 16, 1948. She was 5th-billed after Kirk Douglas. Despite Miller's fears of being typecast as a femme fatale, film historians tend to typecast her "as always playing the 'good girl.'" Typecasting reflected real life as Miller's name seldom appeared in gossip columns and when it did, it never involved scandal. Though Miller participated in the Hollywood dating circuit, the one name that invariably appeared in the press was William Haskel Schuyler, a television pioneer and consultant based in San Francisco. In late November 1947, it was announced that Miller and Schuyler would wed. But the marriage was postponed.
''Jungle Patrol''
In early May 1948, Miller was loaned out again, this time to 20th Century Fox for West of Tomorrow—her first leading lady role. The screenplay was based on William Bowers' play of the same name. During WW2 in New Guinea, a US Army Air Force squadron has been assigned to protect Australia and despite having inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese, they supernaturally had none themselves. Miller played Jean Gillis, a Broadway actress and former anti-war activist, who joined the USO after her husband's death at Dunkirk. By happenstance, she ends up having to entertain the airmen by herself when she finds out the rest of her troupe is stranded. During an improvised "dinner dance," she learns about the pilots' wives and girlfriends and their hopes for the future, but equally learns about herself. Arthur Franz makes his film debut as Miller's love interest. The next morning, all but the squadron leader and Jean are killed after an attack on the airstrip. Similar to Death Takes a Holiday, the airmen reach the epiphany of their lives in the few hours they spend with Jean. The resulting film was released as Jungle Patrol, the sole film that Miller had 1st-place billing. Despite Miller's preference for Bowers' original title, the film is her personal favorite.After establishing herself as a "discovery" of Hal Wallis, Miller soon found herself left behind. In an interview with Mike Fitzgerald, she was quoted as saying, "Hal called me the 'Viking Girl.' He didn't know what to do with me." The situation was aggravated by the return of veteran actors from overseas, either in uniform or the USO. Compounded by the economic slump after the war, rise of television and the breakup of the studio system, Miller's initial difficulties during the war years would be multiplied many fold. Miller's prospects began to look a little better when she met journalist and film producer Mark Hellinger, who felt sure that she could become a star. But Hellinger died suddenly in 1947, and Miller soon found herself making a living with the usual small roles that she had always been given. Of the nine films she would make under contract to Paramount, three were loan-outs to other studios, two of which were more significant than her Paramount films, with the exception of I Walk Alone. Typical of the Paramount years, in Sorry, Wrong Number, she was cast as the wife of the investigating detective but was recast as the mistress of the physician, dropping from 3rd to 13th place in billing.
Later that year, she moved on to a more substantial part, again opposite Lizabeth Scott, in Too Late for Tears. In her third and last loan-out—this time to United Artists—Miller played Kathy Palmer, the sister-in-law of Jane Palmer, whom she suspects has murdered her brother. As she is romanced by Don DeFore, the pair quietly investigate the shady dealings of Jane. Though shooting took place mid-September to mid-October 1948 at Republic Pictures, the film was released July 8, 1949. Miller was 5th-billed after Arthur Kennedy.
At the end of 1948, Miller made a brief appearance in the "weepie" Paid in Full. In the last film she would do for Paramount, Miller was to play Nancy Langley, the younger modeling sister of Jane, a department store illustrator, who allows her younger sister to marry Bill Prentice, despite Jane's love for him. A few years later, Jane has an argument with Nancy, who catches Jane and Bill having an affair. Distraught, Jane backs up her car and accidentally kills her young niece. But as with I Walk Alone, Miller's role was given to another actress—Diana Lynn. Miller ended up playing a bridesmaid at Nancy's wedding, dropping from 3rd to 10th place in billing. Production ran mid-October–late November 1948. The film would not be released until March 1950. In February 1949, it was announced that Miller's contact with Paramount was dropped due to the post-war slump in the film industry. That December, Miller's marriage with William Schuyler was again announced, then again postponed.