LILI GENTLE

Lili Gentle is a former actress and the first wife of Richard D. Zanuck, a film producer. As an actress, Gentle changed the spelling of her name from Lilli to Lili before making her film debut at the age of 16 in Carousel. She followed that with small parts in Teenage Rebel and The Girl Can’t Help the same year. For the next six years, she started gaining credit for a handful of films and TV shows.

Her break came as Tony Randall’s niece in Can Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, released in August 1957, followed closely by Young and Dangerous, in which her “innocent girl” character fends off a charismatic charmer, played by Mark Damon until she can reform him. That Regal Picture, distributed by 20th Century Fox, had its “world premiere” at the Alabama Theater on October 30. A contingent from the “Lili Gentle Fan Club” lined up for both films well before doors opened. Gentle’s only other starring role was the female lead in the 1958 film Sing, Boy, Sing opposite Tommy Sands.