Karen Morley: Movies & Filmography

Karen Morley (born Mildred Linton on December 12, 1909 in Ottumwa, Iowa) was an American film actress whose career spanned the golden age of Hollywood and the turbulent era of the Hollywood blacklist. After moving to Hollywood at age thirteen she attended Hollywood High School and briefly enrolled at the University of California before dropping out to join the Los Angeles Civic Repertory Theatre and the Pasadena Playhouse, where her talent caught the eye of director Clarence Brown. Brown recommended her to Metro‑Goldwyn‑Mayer, and she signed a contract that led to memorable roles such as Carlotta in Mata Hari (1931), the notorious Poppy in Scarface (1932), and Jenny Wren in The Phantom of Crestwood (1932). Her tenure at MGM ended in 1934 after a dispute over her marriage to director Charles Vidor and her decision to start a family, illustrating the studio’s strict control over personal lives. Morley returned to the screen after World War II, but her outspoken political views and involvement with the Screen Actors Guild placed her in the crosshairs of the House Un‑American Activities Committee; her refusal to answer questions in 1947 resulted in a blacklist that effectively ended her Hollywood career. Undeterred, she relocated to New York, appeared on Broadway in The Banker’s Daughter (1952) with her second husband Lloyd Gough, and even ran for lieutenant governor of New York on the American Labor Party ticket in 1954. In her later years she remained a vocal advocate for blacklist survivors, receiving honors at the San Francisco Film Festival and appearing in a 1999 Vanity Fair article at age ninety. Morley died of pneumonia on March 8, 2003 in Woodland Hills, California, leaving behind three grandchildren and two great‑grandchildren.