40 Beautiful Photos of American Actress Karen Morley in the 1930s

Born 1909 as Mildred Linton in Ottumwa, Iowa, American actress Karen Morley came to the attention of the director Clarence Brown after working at the Pasadena Playhouse, at a time when he had been looking for an actress to stand-in for Greta Garbo in screen tests. This led to a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and roles in films such as Mata Hari (1931), Scarface (1932), The Phantom of Crestwood (1932), The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), Arsene Lupin (1933), Gabriel Over the White House (1933), and Dinner at Eight (1933).

In 1934, Morley left MGM after arguments about her roles and her private life. Without the support of a studio, her roles became less frequent. In the early 1940s, she appeared in several plays on Broadway, including the role of Gerda in the original production of The Walrus and The Carpenter.

Her career came to an end in 1947 when she testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee and refused to answer questions about her alleged American Communist Party membership. After being blacklisted in Hollywood by the studio bosses, she never rebuilt her film acting career.

In the early 1970s, Karen Morley briefly resumed her acting career with guest roles in television series such as Kojak, Kung Fu, and Police Woman. In 1993, Morley appeared in The Great Depression. In December 1999, at the age of 90, she appeared in Vanity Fair in an article about blacklist survivors, and she was honored at the San Francisco Film Festival.

Morley lived in Santa Monica, California during her later years. She died of pneumonia at the age of 93 in Woodland Hills, California. These vintage photos captured portrait of a young and beautiful Karen Morley in the 1930s.