Personal life

Dahl was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, of Norwegian descent, to Idelle (née Swan) and Rudolph S. Dahl, a Ford Motor dealer and executive. She cites her year of birth as 1928, although her birth record (1925-43442), available through the Minnesota Historical Society, shows she was born on August 11, 1925. An August 13, 2014 article in The New York Social Diary by David Patrick Columbia, entitled "Losses and Gains", references her 89th birthday celebration with her husband, children and family.

After graduating from Washburn High School, she held various jobs, including performing in a local drama group and briefly working as a model for department stores. Dahl's mother was involved in local amateur theatre. As a child, Dahl took elocution and dancing lessons and was active in theatrical events at Margaret Fuller Elementary School, Ramsey Junior High School and Washburn Senior High School. Dahl briefly attended the University of Minnesota.

In the early 1950s, she met actor Lex Barker; they wed on April 16, 1951, and divorced the following year, and Dahl went on to marry another matinee idol, Fernando Lamas. (Barker married Lana Turner.) In 1958, Dahl and Lamas had their only child, Lorenzo Lamas. Shortly after giving birth to Lorenzo, Dahl slowed and eventually ended her career as an actress, although she still appeared in movies and on television occasionally.

Dahl and Lamas divorced in 1960, and Dahl later remarried. In addition to Lorenzo Lamas, Dahl has two other children: a daughter Christina Carole Holmes (born August 3, 1961) by third husband Christian R. Holmes, and a second son, Rounsevelle Andreas Schaum (born December 8, 1970), by her fifth husband, Rounsevelle W. Schaum. She has six grandchildren and one great-grandchild, and divides her time between New York City and West Palm Beach, Florida. Dahl has been married to Marc Rosen, a packaging designer, since 1984.

Career

Dahl began her acting career in 1947. She reached the peak of her popularity and success in the 1950s. Her films include: Reign of Terror (1949), Three Little Words (1950), Slightly Scarlet (1956), and Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959).

Dahl was both a mystery guest and a panelist on the CBS game show What's My Line?. In 1953, she hosted ABC's anthology series The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse. In 1960, she played the part of Lucy Belle in the episode "That Taylor Affair" of Riverboat, alongside Darren McGavin. She appeared on ABC's soap opera One Life to Live from 1981 to 1984 as Lucinda Schenck Wilson. The character was planned as a short-termed role (she guest-starred from late 1981 to early 1982 and in late 1982), but Dahl was later offered a one-year contract to appear on the show from September 1983 to October 1984. Her last feature film, which followed a hiatus of more than two decades, was Night of the Warrior (1991), which co-starred her son, Lorenzo Lamas.

Dahl began writing a syndicated beauty column in 1952, and opened Arlene Dahl Enterprises in 1954, marketing cosmetics and designer lingerie. After closing her company in 1967, she began working as a vice president at ad agency Kenyon and Eckhardt that same year. Dahl moved to Sears Roebuck as director of beauty products in 1970, earning nearly $750,000 annually, but left in 1975 to found her short-lived fragrance company Dahlia. She entered the field of astrology in the 1980s, writing a syndicated column and later operating a premium phoneline company. Dahl has written more than two dozen books on the topics of beauty and astrology.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role
1947	My Wild Irish Rose	Rose Donovan
1948	The Bride Goes Wild	Tillie Smith Oliver
	A Southern Yankee	Sallyann Weatharby
1949	Scene of the Crime	Gloria Conovan
	Reign of Terror	Madelon
1950	Ambush	Ann Duverall
	The Outriders	Jen Gort
	Three Little Words	Eileen Percy
	Watch the Birdie	Lucia Corlone
1951	Inside Straight	Lily Douvane
	No Questions Asked	Ellen Sayburn Jessman
1952	Caribbean	Christine Barclay McAllister
1953	Desert Legion	Morjana
	Jamaica Run	Ena Dacey
	Sangaree	Nancy Darby
	Here Come the Girls	Irene Bailey
	The Diamond Queen	Queen Maya
1954	Woman's World	Carol Talbot
	Bengal Brigade	Vivian Morrow
1956	Slightly Scarlet	Dorothy Allen
	Wicked as They Come	Kathleen "Kathy" Allen
1957	Fortune Is a Woman	Sarah Moreton Branwell
1959	Journey to the Center of the Earth	Carla Goetabaug
1964	Kisses for My President	Doris Reid Weaver
1967	Les Poneyttes	Shoura Cassidy
1969	The Pleasure Pit	Laureen
	Land Raiders	Martha Cardenas
1991	Night of the Warrior	Edie Keane
2003	Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There	Herself

Television work

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1953-1954	The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse	Host
1954-1955	Lux Video Theatre	Ilsa Lund	Episodes: "Casablanca" and "September Affair"
	The Ford Television Theatre	Mary McNeil/Jody Hill	2 episodes
1958	Opening Night	Host	(canceled after a few weeks)
1963-1965	Burke's Law	Princess Kortzoff/Eva Martinelli/Gloria Cooke/Maggie French	4 episodes
1965	Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre	Valerie	Episode: "Perilous Time"
1971	Deadly Dream	Connie	TV Movie
1976	Jigsaw John		Episode: "Sand Trap"
1979-1987	The Love Boat	Monica Cross/Natalie Martin/Ellen Kirkwood/Jessica York	4 episodes
1981	Fantasy Island	Amelia Shelby	1 Episode
1981-1984	One Life to Live	Lucinda Schenk Wilson
1995-1997	Renegade	Virginia Biddle/Elaine Carlisle	2 episodes
1995	All My Children	Lady Lucille
1999	Air America	Cynthia Garland	Episode: "Eye of the Storm"

Radio appearances

Year	Program	Episode/source
1953	Broadway Playhouse	"No Man of Her Own"
1953	Stars over Hollywood	"Remember Bill"

Bibliography

• Always Ask a Man: Arlene Dahl's Key to Femininity. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall. 1965. OCLC 4511224.
• Arlene Dahl's Lovescopes. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill. 1983. ISBN 0-672-52770-7.
• Beyond Beauty. New York: Simon & Schuster. 1980. ISBN 0-671-24555-4.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]