Biography
Though she spent much of her early career mired in low-budget and mediocre B-movies, Marie Windsor's memorable portrayal of a manipulative femme fatale in "Force of Evil" led to steady film and TV work. After appearing in the classic noir film, which was praised for its extensive use of on-location photography and a well-written script, Windsor, a former beauty pageant queen and telephone operator, traded campy roles in films like the science-fiction fantasy "Cat-Women of the Moon" for more serious fare. She landed a major role as a scheming racetrack window teller in the Stanley Kubrick heist film "The Killing," about a veteran criminal's attempt to pull off one last score, and also appeared in such melodramas as the Chicago-set "City that Never Sleeps" and the Oscar-nominated "The Narrow Margin." By the early '60s, Windsor had transitioned from film to television, landing recurring roles on the sketch comedy series "The Red Skelton Hour" and the long-running western "Rawhide." Windsor, who married former Olympic basketball player Jack Hupp in 1954, kept a steady TV presence through the '70s and '80s on popular series like "Charlie's Angels," about three beautiful, intelligentl private investigators, and "Lou Grant," a "Mary Tyler Moore Show" spin-off centered on Ed Asner's gruff but sympathetic newspaper editor. After health problems slowed down her acting career in the '90s, Windsor took up painting and sculpting.
