Sunday, August 28, 2011
Lynn Gilbert (Universal serials)
Lynn Gilbert, nee Helen McHale (b. Chicago 1913), was Mrs. Gilbert E. Keebler, a Chicago socialite matron when she reportedly mailed a photo of herself to Universal. The result: a role as a nasty gun-moll in the 1937 serial Secret Agent X-9, where she menaced the studio's premiere serial queen, Jean Rogers; and the Johnny Mack Brown Western chapterplay Wild West Days (1937), where she actually replaced Miss Rogers, who was on to bigger and better things at the studio. The Western serial offered the usual, prominent heroine billing but very little screen time. And that, as they say, was that for Lynn Gilbert's screen career. At one point, she divorced Mr. Keebler, an attorney, and in 1939 wed prominent Hollywood producer, and erstwhile head of Paramount Pictures, B.P. Schulberg. Their elopement made headlines but we don't know how long Miss Gilbert was Mrs. Schulberg and thus the stepmother of writer Budd Schulberg.
Lynn Gilbert Schulberg was married to BP until he died in 1957 in Key Biscayne, Florida. Thus she remained Budd's stepmother for 17 years, and Budd was supporting them toward the end of BP's life. My question is what happened to Lynn after BP died. No luck finding her, or an obit. My mother, Lynn's step daughter, said Lynn remarried, a nice man, and perhaps moved to California. Can you help, blogger?
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