Prot-a-gonist * Eyes, Calm and Clear like a Blue Lake | Veronica Lake, 1922-73

Veronica Lake, studio portrait for “I Wanted Wings”, 1941

“I wasn’t a sex symbol, I was a sex zombie.”

“I’m no great actress. I just had a movie job dumped into my lap, the public seemed to like me, and that’s all there is to it.”

“I will have one of the cleanest obits of any actress. I never did cheesecake like Ann Sheridan or Betty Grable. I just used my hair.”

George Marshall, Blue Dahlia, 1946

” You could put all the talent I had into your left eye and still not suffer from impaired vision.”

“I was playing a sympathetic drunk, I had my arm on a table … it slipped … and my hair — it was always baby fine and had this natural break — fell over my face … It became my trademark and purely by accident”

Alan Ladd – Veronica Lake – George Marshall, Blue Dahlia, 1946

Alan Ladd was a marvelous person in his simplicity. In so many ways we were kindred spirits. We both were professionally conceived through Hollywood’s search for box office and the types to insure the box office. And we were both little people. Alan wasn’t as short as most people believe. It was true that in certain films Alan would climb a small platform or the girl worked in a slit trench. We had no such problems together.

Veronica Lake, 1941 / Veronica Lake, Blue Dahlia, 1946

“Our romance [with Marlon Brando] was short but sweet. He was on the dawn of a brilliant film career, and I was in the twilight of one. Of course, my career could never compare with his.”

“Do you know, if I could go out upon the street, go to places and not be pawed and pushed, not cornered by frenzied autograph hunters; if I could go about just once like an ordinary girl and be treated like one, why – well, it would be heaven.” 

Veronica Lake, 1940s

“There’s no doubt I was a bit of a misfit in the Hollywood of the forties. The race for glamour left me far behind. I didn’t really want to keep up. I wanted my stardom without the usual trimmings. Because of this, I was branded a rebel at the very least. But I don’t regret that for a minute. My appetite was my own and I simply wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“Hollywood gives a young girl the aura of one giant, self-contained orgy farm, its inhabitants dedicated to crawling into every pair of pants they can find.”

Veronica Lake, 1940s / Veronica Lake, This Gun for Hire, 1942

“I think I’ve developed into an actress because I’ve worked darn hard at it and I’ve learned a great deal from a lot of gifted people. And if I have nothing else to show for my life, apart from a scrapbook full of cuttings, I have the knowledge that my early days in Hollywood weren’t in vain.”

Veronica Lake 

Veronica Lake, 1941

Veronica Lake, 1920s / Veronica as Peter Pan, 1951

Veronica Lake was one of the models for the animated character Jessica Rabbit in the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, 1988

In the 1997 film L.A. Confidential, Kim Basinger won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of a prostitute who is a Veronica Lake look-alike.

Also:
Prot-a-gonist* Gloria Grahame, 1923-1981 | Queen of Film Noir / 7 essential films