Veree Teasdale

Bio: American actress Veree Teasdale, the second cousin of noted author Edith Wharton, studied for a stage career at Erasmus Hall in Brooklyn and several subsequent dramatic schools. After a handful of smaller Broadway roles, Teasdale was costarred with Ethel Barrymore in the stage play The Constant Wife (1927) which led to a film contract. Always more mature-looking… More Bio: American actress Veree Teasdale, the second cousin of noted author Edith Wharton, studied for a stage career at Erasmus Hall in Brooklyn and several subsequent dramatic schools. After a handful of smaller Broadway roles, Teasdale was costarred with Ethel Barrymore in the stage play The Constant Wife (1927) which led to a film contract. Always more mature-looking than her actual age, Teasdale built up a screen reputation by playing bored society wives, scheming "other women," and comedy second leads; she managed to be both amusing and menacing in such roles as the homicidal Roman empress in Eddie Cantor's Roman Scandals (1933). She married noted actor Adolphe Menjou in 1935, and though the union was a happy one, things weren't so rosy professionally; Menjou's periodic illnesses and Teasdale's loss of several important roles to other actresses put a damper on their careers. Both Menjou and Teasdale were on a professional downswing in the late '40s when radio producer Fredric Ziv offered them their own syndicated interview program. After a few years' distribution of this popular series, Veree Teasdale retired (Adolphe Menjou died in 1963), keeping herself active with her ongoing hobby of costume design. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi