Noreen Nash, Phantom From Space and Giant Actress, Dead at 99

Noreen Nash, an actress known for her work in projects like The Southerner, Phantom From Space, Giant, and The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold, has passed away at the age of 99. The news of her passing was confirmed by her eldest son, Lee Siegel Jr., to The Hollywood Reporter. Nash was born Norabelle Jean Roth in Wenatchee, Washington on April 4, 1924. After being crowned her town’s “Apple Blossom Queen” in 1942, she got a contract as an MGM showgirl, which she initially declined as she planned to attend Stanford University, but ultimately led to her screen debut in 1943’s Girl Crazy. Her first credited movie role was as Becky Devers in 1945’s Academy Award-nominated film The Southerner. She soon changed her stage name to Noreen Nash, after be inspired by her onscreen father, J. Carroll Naish. 

In the late 1940s, Nash began to appear in a string of B-movies, including The Devil on Wheels, The Big Fix, The Red Stallion, The Tender Years, Adventures of Casanova, Assigned to Danger, and The Checkered Coat. Two of her best-known entries in that field were as Barbara Randall in 1953’s Phantom from Space, and Lona Lane in 1956’s Giant. She also appeared in television programs like 77 Sunset Strip, Hopalong Cassidy, and The Abbott and Costello Show.

Nash married Dr. Lee Siegel, a medical director at 20th Century Fox, in 1942, and they had two children together. After Siegel’s death in 1990, she got remarried to Oscar-nominated actor James Whitmore from 2001 until 2009. At the suggestion of her youngest son, Robert James Siegel, Nash quit acting in 1962.

“My son said, “Mother, I think they’re trying to tell you something. I think it’s time you quit acting and go to college” (because I got married when I was 18.),” Nash explained in a later interview with SydneysBuzz. “I said, “But I’ll be in my 40s before I graduate.” He said, “Mother you’re going to be in your 40s anyway.” So I stopped acting and I went to college. It took me six years because I was married, and when I graduated he said, “Now you have to write.””

She went on to get a Bachelor’s degree in history from UCLA in 1971, and publish multiple books, including By Love Fulfilled, Agnes Sorèl, Mistress of Beauty, and Titans of The Muses: When Henry Miller Met Jean Renoir.

Our thoughts are with Nash’s family, friends, and fans at this tme.