Mary Hatcher: Movies & Filmography

Mary Hatcher (June 6, 1929 – April 3, 2018) was an American coloratura soprano and actress whose screen career spanned the years from 1946 to 1951. Born in Haines City, Florida, she was the daughter of William Frank Hatcher, whose employer, Ralph Polk, happened to hear one of Mary's weekly broadcasts of operatic and classical songs. Impressed by her talent, Polk provided funds so that she could obtain professional voice training, including attending the prestigious Gardner School for Girls and studying under Queens Mario of the Metropolitan Opera. By 1944, the Hatcher family had relocated to California, and in August of that year, Paramount Pictures signed Mary to a lucrative seven-year contract. At just 15 years old, Hatcher was selected to play the role of Laurey in a touring road production of Oklahoma!, though her film debut was delayed for a full year while she continued touring with the play.

Hatcher made her first film appearance in 1946 with an uncredited role as a chorus girl in M-G-M's musical biopic Till the Clouds Roll By. Her first credited screen role came later that same year when she portrayed Dibs Downing in the romantic comedy Our Hearts Were Growing Up. Her career received a significant boost in 1947 when Paramount cast her in the title role of the all-star revue Variety Girl, a film whose sketchy plot about two young women trying to break into movies served as a frame for cameo performances by nearly every star on the Paramount lot, including Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Gary Cooper, Paulette Goddard, and Burt Lancaster. In 1948, Hatcher appeared alongside Veronica Lake in the musical Isn't It Romantic?, and her career reached its zenith in 1949 when she starred in two pictures: The Big Wheel, an auto racing action film co-starring Mickey Rooney and Thomas Mitchell, and Holiday in Havana, a Latin musical where she starred opposite Desi Arnaz. That same year, she made her Broadway debut as Dallas Smith, the female lead in Johnny Mercer's musical Texas, L'il Darlin', which ran for 293 performances despite mixed reviews. Hatcher left show business in 1952, partially due to the dissolution of her marriage to comedian Herkie Styles, and notably declined the offer to play Alice Kramden in The Honeymooners. On September 23, 1951, she married renowned drummer Alvin Stoller in Westwood, California, and settled into life as a housewife, remaining married to him until his death in 1992.