Laura Devon: Movies & Filmography

Laura Devon, born Mary Louise Briley on May 23, 1931, in Chicago, Illinois, was an American actress and singer whose career, though brief, left a memorable mark on 1960s television and film. Born to automotive engineer Merrill Devon and his wife Velma Prather, she was raised in Chicago and later in Grosse Pointe. Devon attended Wayne State University, where she majored in journalism and political science while simultaneously discovering her passion for acting through school theater productions. In 1954, she gave birth to her only child, Kevin, who would later become the acclaimed screenwriter of films such as Glory and Tombstone. Before transitioning to professional work, she honed her craft performing in amateur theatricals and light opera, eventually landing her first professional role as the lead in a production of The Boy Friend at the Vanguard Playhouse in Detroit.

Devon's screen career began in earnest in 1961 when she was discovered by Bob Goldstein of 20th Century Fox while singing at the London Chop House in Detroit. Though she initially tested for Universal International rather than Fox, she was signed to a contract with UI, where she received voice, dancing, and acting lessons from coaches including Louis Graveure and Charles Conrad. During an eight-year period from 1960 to 1967, she featured in numerous popular television series, including Route 66, The Twilight Zone, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, I Spy, The Fugitive, Bonanza, and The Big Valley, as well as having recurring roles on Dr. Kildare and the Richard Boone Show. She also appeared in five feature films, notably Goodbye Charlie (1964), Red Line 7000 (1965), and Gunn (1967), in which she also sang two Henry Mancini compositions. Devon was married and divorced four times—first to Peter Kosiba, then Cleland Clark, then actor Brian Kelly (star of Flipper), and finally French film composer Maurice Jarre, to whom she remained married from 1967 until their 1984 divorce. Jarre adopted her son Kevin, giving him his better-known surname. Following her marriage to Jarre, Devon retired from acting and lived a quieter life until her death from heart failure in Beverly Hills on July 19, 2007, at the age of 76.