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Top 10 Facts about Lola Albright

Lola Bright was the daughter of gospel singers John Paul Albright and Marion Harvey, Lola Jean Albright was born on July 20, 1924, and in her lifetime she was one of the best entertainers in America.

With one of the throatiest, smokiest, and most recognisable voices in the industry, she co-starred with Kirk Douglas in the noir picture Champion. She is regarded as one of the classiest and most stunning actresses in Hollywood (1949). 

Below are little-known facts you should know about her.

1. Albright attended King Grammar School 

Marion A. (née Harvey) and John Paul Albright, both gospel singers, welcomed Albright into the world in Akron, Ohio. While Lola’s mother was also an Ohio native, her father was from North Dakota, and in 1930 he helped support his family by working as an inspector for a nearby insulating company.

Albright attended King Grammar School before graduating in 1942 from Akron’s West High School. She performed in front of an audience at an early age and spent 20 years studying the piano. She started working as a receptionist at the radio station WAKR in Akron after school when she was 15 years old. 

She relocated to Cleveland at the age of 18 and started working as a stenographer for WTAM radio after quitting WAKR. On Cleveland’s WJW, she made her debut on the radio. She relocated to Chicago where she worked as a photographer’s model before being identified as a potential star by a talent scout. At the age of 23, she then moved to Hollywood.

2. Her role in the musical comedy The Unfinished Business made her famous 

Lola Albright by NBC Television from

Albright made her film debut in the 1947 musical comedy The Unfinished Dance when she sang in a minor supporting part. The following year, she made two more appearances in Judy Garland films, The Pirate and Easter Parade. In the 1949 film noir Champion, where she played the wife of a cunning boxing manager who falls for a prizefighter played by Kirk Douglas, she initially came to the attention of the media and the studio.

Over 20 movies, including some B Westerns, featured her in supporting roles over the course of the following few years. In 1950, she co-starred with her future husband Jack Carson in the slapstick comedy The Good Humor Man.

3. She acted with Frank Sinatra

Tulsa (1949), starring Susan Hayward, The Silver Whip (1953), in which she portrayed Dale Robertson’s love interest, and The Tender Trap (1955), in which she was one of several women attempting to seduce a bachelor, played by Frank Sinatra, into marriage, are just a few of the movies in which Albright appeared. Albright frequently served as a model for pinup artist Gil Elvgren in the early 1950s.

3. Not everyone approved of her role in her performance A Cold Wind in August

She played a divorced burlesque show dancer in her 30s who enters a passionate relationship with a 17-year-old boy in Alexander Singer’s low-budget, black-and-white, indie film A Cold Wind in August 1961.  The critic Pauline Kael gave Albright great marks for her performance. Albright’s performance in the movie received praise from The New York Times in 1985.

When asked in 1961 about her opinion of her performance in A Cold Wind in August, Albright stated, “Some people come up to me and say, ‘Lola, you shouldn’t play that kind of part. That is not you. I then say that I’m an actress after counting to ten and biting my tongue:

4. She had a fast career on TV

Lola Albright by CBS Television by CBS Television from

Albright was actively engaged in the medium from 1951, unlike other film stars who took their time to start acting on television. She had an appearance in the episode “Inside Story” of the anthology series Lux Video Theatre. Later, in the 1950s, she had a recurring role on The Bob Cummings Show.

She also made guest appearances on a number of television shows, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Thin Man, Gunsmoke, Rawhide, Laredo, Burke’s Law, The Dick Van Dyke Show, My Three Sons, The Beverly Hillbillies, Bonanza (two episodes), The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Medical Center, Kojak

5. Albright had to fill in for Dorothy Malone

Constance MacKenzie was played by Albright on the primetime serial series Peyton Place when actress Dorothy Malone had to undergo urgent surgery. Albright referred to the part as “one of the hardest difficulties of my theatrical career” at the time. She carried on acting in movies and making cameos on television until her retirement in 1984.

6. Columbia Records signed Albright as a vocalist

Columbia Record by Columbia Records from

Albright was hired as a vocalist by Columbia Records, which resulted in the 1957 release of her album Lola Wants You. Her subsequent appearance on Peter Gunn and her vocal performances on that show directly led to the release of her second album, Dreamsville, in 1959, which was orchestrated by Henry Mancini and featured his orchestra.[14] Albright is one of the few singers who are not a part of a movie soundtrack for whom Mancini has composed.

7. She was nominated for an Emmy Award

For her role in Peter Gunn, Albright was nominated for an Emmy in 1959 for Best Supporting Actress (Continuing Character) in a Dramatic Series.

At the 16th Berlin International Film Festival, she was honoured with the Silver Bear for Best Actress in 1966 for her performance in Lord Love a Duck.

8. Albright married and divorced three times

Albright had three divorces after becoming married. In 1944, she was hitched to radio announcer Warren Dean from Cleveland. In 1949, they got divorced. Actor Jack Carson, who had been her co-star in The Good Humor Man, served as her second husband from 1951 to 1958.

They were wed on August 1, 1952, and according to another source, they got divorced on November 10, 1958. Bill Chadney, the piano player Emmett on Peter Gunn, was the third husband she had. On May 19, 1961, they got hitched; their divorce came about in 1975.

9. She had led to roles in Elvis Presley’s musical Kid Galahad 

Lola Albright by United Artists from

Her performance in A Cold Wind in August revitalised her film career and led to parts in Kid Galahad, an Elvis Presley musical, where she played the tough, devoted girlfriend of a cynical boxing manager played by Gig Young, and Joy House, directed by Frenchman René Clément, where she played a wealthy widow with a passion for feeding the hungry (albeit with an ulterior motive).

She played a cocktail waitress in Lord Love a Duck (1966) who becomes suicidal after realising she has damaged her daughter Tuesday Weld’s life. She starred in the Western epic The Way West the next year.

10. She had a terrible death

Albright spent her last years at Toluca Lake, California, after she retired from performing. She suffered a fractured spine in a fall in 2014, which over the following three years led to a general decline in her health.

Albright, 92, passed away at home on March 23, 2017, from natural causes.