Oscar Profile #624: Terry Moore

Born January 7, 1929 in Glendale, California, Helen Luella Koford grew up in a Mormon family. She worked as a child model before making her film debut in 1940. Either unbilled or billed under various names during her first eight years in films, her early appearances were in such films as The Howards of Virginia, My Gal Sal, Gaslight (playing Ingrid Bergman’s character as a child), Since You Went Away, The Clock, and Summer Holiday.

The actress changed her name to Terry Moore in 1948, signing a long-term contract with Columbia. Her first film for Columbia was The Return of October opposite Glenn Ford. Her next film was on loan-out to RKO for the lead in 1949’sMighty Joe Young. That was followed by a loan-out to George Pal Productions for The Great Rupert in support of Jimmy Durante.

Moore claimed after the death of Howard Hughes, her one-time boss at RKO, in 1976 that were married at sea in 1949 and never divorced even though she subsequently married and divorced three other men, not caring if that made her a bigamist or not. She had two children with the third, Stuart Cramer.

Back at Columbia, Moore appeared opposite Mickey Rooney in He’s a Cockeyed Wonder, Victor Mature in Gambling House, Edmond O’Brien in Two of a Kind, Frankie Laine in Sunny Side of the Street, and Robert Cummings in The Barefoot Mailman. On loan-out to Paramount, she co-starred with Burt Lancaster and Shirley Booth in 1952’s Come Back, Little Sheba for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She then signed a long-term contract with 20th Century-Fox.

At Fox, Moore starred alongside Fredric March in Man on a Tightrope, Robert Wagner in Beneath the 12-Mile Reef, Tyrone Power in King of the Rhyber Rifles, Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron in Daddy Long Legs, and Pat Boone in Bernardine before becoming a member of the all-star cast in 1957’s Peyton Place. After that, she was seen more frequently on TV than she was on the big screen where she made memorable guest appearances on such series as Rawhide, My Three Sons, The Virginian, Batman, Bonanza, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, and Murder, She Wrote in 1991.

Moore, who married again briefly in 1979, married her last husband, Jerry Rivers, in 1992 and remained married to him until his death in 2001.

In 1998, she made a guest appearance in the remake of Mighty Joe Young. She has continued to make appearance in largely unknown films to this day. She currently has three films in post-production including Silent Life: The Story of the Lady in Black in which she plays the title role of the mysterious woman who was seen for years laying flowers at the grave of Rudolph Valentino.

Terry More is still going strong at 93.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1955), directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack

Produced by King Kong creator Merian C. Cooper and John Ford, Cooper conceived of this Kong-like production directed by his Kong co-director Schoedsack. In King Kong the girl, played by Fay Wray, is the victim. In this one, the girl, played by Moore, is no victim. She’s the one who raised giant gorilla Mighty Joe Young from infancy and brought him to Hollywood. Her co-stars are Ben Johnson and Robert Armstrong playing a role almost identical to the one he played in King Kong. Not surprisingly, the film won an Oscar for Visual Effects. Moore has a cameo in the 1998 remake.

COME BACK, LITTLE SHEBA (1952), directed by Daniel Mann

Shirley Booth reprised her Tony award-winning Broadway role of the dowdy, unambitious housewife for which she won an Oscar while Burt Lancaster played her alcoholic husband, the role for which Sidney Blackmer also won a Tony. Moore received an Oscar nomination for playing the role originated by Joan Lorring who had been nominated for an Oscar herself for 1945’s The Corn Is Green. Richard Jaeckel, who would receive an Oscar nod 19 years later for Sometimes a Great Notion, plays renter and aspiring artist Moore’s near naked model and would-be lover in this effective film version of William Inge’s play.

DADDY LONG LEGS (1955), directed by Jean Negulesco

There have been more than ten film versions of Jean Webster’s classic tale of a young girl and her anonymous benefactor including a 1919 silent version with Mary Pickford and a 1931 early talkie with Janet Gaynor and Warner Baxter. This musical version with Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron is, however, the most famous one to date. Moore plays Astaire’s niece and Caron’s roommate. It was nominated for 3 Oscars for Art Direction, Score, and Song, the instant classic, “Something’s Gotta Give” which lost to the title song from “Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing”. Thema Ritter co-stars as Astaire’s acerbic housekeeper, one of her signature roles of the era.

PEYTON PLACE (1957), directed by Mark Robson

Nominated for 9 Oscars, the film holds the record for four one-time acting nominees in a film, Lana Turner, Russ Tamblyn, Hope Lange, and Diane Varsi. Moore is sixth billed below Turner, Lee Phillips, Lloyd Nolan, Arthur Kennedy (who was also nominated for his performance), and Tamblyn. She was billed above Lange, Varsi, David Nelson, Barry Coe (with whom she shares one of the film’s most sensational scenes), Betty Field, Golden Globe nominee Mildred Dunnock, Leon Ames, Lorne Greene, and others. Barbara Parkins, who played Moore’s character of Betty Anderson in the TV series, played the role in all 514 episodes from 1964-1969.

SILENT LIFE: THE STORY OF THE LADY IN BLACK (2023), directed by Vladislav Alex Kozlov

Moore plays the mysterious lady in black who was famous for her appearances at the Hollywood Forever cemetery where she would leave flowers at the grave of Rudolph Valentino. An investigation into the old lady’s death reveals that she was, or at least claimed to be, Valentino’s last lover. The investigating officer is played by Moore’s grandson, Stuart Cramer. With flashbacks to fifty years earlier, and then back even further to 1926 where a younger version of Moore’s character features her as a nurse at Valentino’s death bed, the cast includes Isabella Rossellini, Sherilyn Fenn, and Franco Nero as Valentino’s spirit.