Born in Lithuania, reared in Canada and a former ballerina, Mari Aldon drifted about Hollywood from the mid-1940s, finding herself left on the cutting-room floor for FOREVER AMBER (1947) and playing typical starlet assignments when she suddenly nabbed a co-starring role opposite none other than Gary Cooper in DISTANT DRUMS (1951), a “Western” set among the Seminoles in Florida. She was then briefly seen as Phil Carey's wife in the Joan Crawford vehicle THIS WOMAN IS DANGEROUS(1952) and was Warren Stevens' girlfriend, again briefly,opposite Ava Gardner and Humphrey Bogart in THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA (1954) before segueing into B-Movies (the British lensed RACE FOR LIFE [1954]), television and a marriage to veteran film director Tay Garnett. She died age 78 in Las Vegas in 2004.
The final film of Mari Aldon:
THE MAD TRAPPER (1972) D: Tay Garnett. CAST: Mike Mazurki, Mari Aldon, Fritz Ford, Vic Christy, Jimmy Kane. Aldon, who last appeared on television in a 1966 BONANZA episode, “The Fighters,” returned to the big screen in this outdoor melodrama directed by her husband. Or did she? When the film, a fairy tale filmed in Alaska about a murder suspected trapper (Mazurki) sharing his wilderness cabin, and life, with a lynx, was finally released in 1975, Aldon was no longer listed in the cast, which now appeared entirely without female participation.
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