Arlene Carol Dahl is an American actress and former MGM contract star, who achieved notability
during the 1950s. She is the mother of actor Lorenzo Lamas.
Personal life Dahl was born in 1928 in Minneapolis, Minnesota,
the daughter of Idelle and Rudolph S. Dahl, a Ford Motor dealer and executive. She is
of Norwegian descent. After graduation from Washburn High School, she held various jobs,
including performing in a local drama group and briefly working as a model for department
stores. Dahl's mother was involved in local amateur theatre. As a child, Dahl took elocution
and dancing lessons and was active in theatrical events at Margaret Fuller Elementary School,
Ramsey Junior High School and Washburn Senior High School. Dahl briefly attended the University
of Minnesota. In 1948, Dahl reportedly had a brief relationship
with then U.S. Representative John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts. Later, in the early 1950s,
she met actor Lex Barker; they wed on April 16, 1951, and divorced the following year,
and Dahl went on to marry another matinee idol, Fernando Lamas. In 1958, Dahl and Lamas
had their only son, Lorenzo Lamas. Shortly after giving birth to Lorenzo, Dahl slowed
and eventually ended her career as an actress, although she still appeared in movies and
on television occasionally. Dahl and Lamas divorced in 1960, and Dahl
later remarried. In addition to Lorenzo Lamas, Dahl has two other children: a daughter Christina
Carole Holmes by third husband Christian R. Holmes, and a second son, Rounsevelle Andreas
Schaum, by her fifth husband, Rounsevelle W. Schaum. She has six grandchildren and one
great-grandchild, and divides her time between New York City and West Palm Beach, Florida.
Dahl has been married to Marc Rosen, a packaging designer, since 1984.
Career Dahl began her acting career in 1947. She
reached the peak of her popularity and success in the 1950s. Some of her films include: Reign
of Terror, Three Little Words, Woman's World, Slightly Scarlet, and Journey to the Center
of the Earth. Dahl was both a mystery guest and a panelist
on the CBS game show What's My Line?. In 1953, she hosted ABC's anthology series The Pepsi-Cola
Playhouse. In 1960, she played the part of Lucy Belle in the episode "That Taylor Affair"
of the NBC western series Riverboat, alongside Darren McGavin. Dahl appeared on ABC's soap
opera One Life to Live from 1981 to 1984 as Lucinda Schenck Wilson. The character was
planned as a short-termed role, but Dahl was later offered a one-year contract to appear
on the show from September 1983 to October 1984. Dahl's last film, which followed a hiatus
of more than two decades, was Night of the Warrior, also starring her son, Lorenzo Lamas.
Dahl began writing a syndicated beauty column in 1952, and opened Arlene Dahl Enterprises
in 1954, marketing cosmetics and designer lingerie. After closing her company in 1967,
she began working as a vice president at ad agency Kenyon and Eckhardt that same year.
Dahl moved to Sears Roebuck as director of beauty products in 1970, earning nearly $750,000
annually, but left in 1975 to found her short-lived fragrance company Dahlia. She entered the
field of astrology in the 1980s, writing a syndicated column and later operating a premium
phoneline company. Dahl has written more than two dozen books on the topics of beauty and
astrology. Filmography
Television work The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse
Opening Night Deadly Dream
One Life to Live All My Children
Bibliography Always Ask a Man: Arlene Dahl's Key to Femininity.
Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall. 1965. OCLC 4511224. Arlene Dahl's Lovescopes. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.
1983. ISBN 0-672-52770-7. Beyond Beauty. New York: Simon & Schuster.
1980. ISBN 0-671-24555-4. Notes
References
External links
Arlene Dahl at the Internet Movie Database Arlene Dahl at the Internet Broadway Database
Arlene Dahl at Brian's Drive-In Theatre Photographs and literature at Virtual-History.com