Alice Reinheart: Movies & Filmography

Alice Reinheart was an American actress whose career spanned the golden age of old‑time radio and extended into television, film, and stage, making her a versatile figure in twentieth‑century entertainment. Born on May 6, 1910 in San Francisco, California, she grew up in Winnemucca, Nevada, where she earned a reputation as a child prodigy, giving piano concerts at the age of twelve and travelling extensively through Europe before she turned sixteen. After returning to the United States she pursued higher education, studying journalism at the University of Wisconsin, drama and languages at the University of California, and piano at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, a multidisciplinary background that later informed her dynamic performances. Reinheart’s radio debut came in 1928 on KYA in San Francisco, and she quickly became a fixture on dozens of programs, once appearing in as many as twelve shows in a single week. She is perhaps best remembered for her role as Chichi in the long‑running serial "Life Can Be Beautiful" (1938‑1946), but her résumé also includes appearances on One Man’s Family, Young Doctor Malone, Treasury Agent, and Gang Busters, among many others. Her vocal range—reported at three and a half octaves—allowed her to deliver spine‑tingling screams that could push studio meters to sixty decibels, a talent that earned her praise from both critics and a personal invitation from the Duchess of Windsor after a March of Time episode. On stage, Reinheart began acting at fifteen with the Players Guild in San Francisco and later graced Broadway in productions such as Papavert (1931‑1932) and Leaf and Bough (1949). She also ventured into film, appearing in UFA shorts in Berlin, the American feature The Sky Hawk, and later titles like The Lieutenant Wore Skirts and The Iron Sheriff. In the television era she guest‑starred on classics such as "Dragnet", "The Donna Reed Show", "Get Smart", "I Dream of Jeannie", and "Mission Impossible". Outside the studio, Reinheart was an avid reader, maintaining a personal library and a handwritten scrapbook of literary excerpts. She married Pulitzer‑winning reporter William Burke Miller in 1938 and later actor Les Tremayne in 1945, a marriage that ended in divorce in 1962. In her later years she settled in Farmington, Connecticut, serving as president of the local historical society before passing away on June 10, 1993, in Avon, Connecticut at the age of eighty‑three.