About Jean Gillie
Great Britain's wannabe killer answer to Hollywood's other femme-fatales, sultry-eyed, long-maned beauty Jean Gillie had a modest, lengthy, but lightweight career in her homeland before coming to the States and making her initial impression on American audiences in Decoy (1946). Audiences didn't buy her British accent, and except for a supporting role in The Macomber Affair (1947) (filmed almost simultaneously with Decoy, from April-June 1946), Gillie's film career came to a halt, she divorced her American husband, and returned to England, never to be heard from again, achieving almost total anonymity until her premature death in 1949, allegedly as the result of pneumonia.
Born Jean Mabel Coomber, on October 14, 1915, in Kensington, England, she initially appeared on stage in 1932 before debuting on film in the musical comedy His Majesty and Co (1935). Musical hall star Jack Buchanan was impressed by her smoldering beauty and comedic flair and cast her in a small role in his movie Brewster's Millions (1935), then brought her a couple of years later for his a few of his other showcases -- This'll Make You Whistle (1936) Sweet Devil (1938) and The Middle Watch (1940).
In between time Jean continued to work in a comedic vein with leads roles School for Stars (1935), While Parents Sleep (1935), The Live Wire (1937), opposite musical comedy revue star Bobby Howes in Sweet Devil (1938); and, the title role in Tilly of Bloomsbury (1940). After a slight lull in the early 1940s she returned to films in change-of-pace dramatic roles opposite Leslie Howard WWII propaganda film The Gentle Sex (1943); as super sleuth Simon Templar's love interest in The Saint Meets the Tiger (1941) opposite star Hugh Sinclair. She returned to lighter fare with Tawny Pipit (1944) and ; and Flight from Folly (1945) before meeting associate producer Jack Bernhard, who would forever change the course of her career.
She met Bernhard while he was stationed in England during WWII and married him in May of 1944. After his discharge, he took her back to his native America with the idea of shaping her into a Hollywood star. In mid-May 1946, while Gillie was at work in a supporting role in The Macomber Affair (released 1947), Bernhard produced and directed Decoy and cast his wife as vile Margot Shelby who, before the last reel, runs a car over Edward Norris, steals Herbert Rudley from his lady love, Marjorie Woodworth, in order to save her just-executed boy friend, Robert Armstrong, and nearly does in detective Sheldon Leonard before getting her just desserts.
American audiences failed to accept Gillie's British accent, and the fact that cameras could not hide the fact that she was obviously already well into her 30's, and by the time Decoy was released, Jean's marriage to Bernhard fell apart, the couple divorced in 1947, and Gillie decided to return to England a year later but, before she had the time to revive her British stage/film career, died allegedly of pneumonia at age 33 on February 19, 1949.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
