This actress is someone I remember and know as she quite often seemed to be featured in the Picture Show or Picture-goer magazines which were around in the early fifties here in England.
I hadn’t realised that she had been a great friend of Grace Kelly – and in fact was a Bridesmaid at the famous wedding of Grace Kelly to Prince Rainier of Monaco.
Rita Gam was a film actress primarily of the 1950s who has the distinction of having been one of Grace Kelly’s bridesmaids during her wedding to Prince Rainier of Monaco. Probably her best remembered role would have been as the sleek, furious, Herodias in the 1961 Biblical epic King of Kings, starring Jeffrey Hunter.
Rita has died aged 88 in California. RITA GAM has died on 22 March,2016, at the age of 88.
Rita’s film career was brief, she made around a dozen films, mainly in the 1950s. She was born Rita Mackay in Pittsburgh, taking the surname Gam from her stepfather.
Her exotic looks resulted in casting in films like SAADIA, SIGN OF THE PAGAN and MAGIC FIRE.
Her debut film was Ray Milland’s THE THIEF in 1952 but she never got the casting chances that might have propelled her into a longer Hollywood career. She did numerous TV shows and was active in the theatre.
(She appeared again with Gregory Peck in the 1971 western,SHOOT OUT.)
As a young actress in the early 50s in New York, she met Grace Kelly and they became friends – Rita was a bridesmaid at Grace’s wedding.
Rita was married to director Sidney Lumet for a number of years.
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