Mitzi Green

Mitzi Green
Born	Elizbeth Keno October 22, 1920 The Bronx, New York, United States
Died	May 24, 1969(1969-05-24) (aged 48) Huntington Beach, California
Years active	1929-1955
Spouse	Joseph Pevney (1942-1969) her death

Mitzi Green (born Elizabeth Keno) (October 22, 1920 – May 24, 1969) was an American child actress for Paramount and RKO, in the early talkie era. She then acted on Broadway and in other stage works, as well as in films and on television.

Background

Born in The Bronx, New York, Green was cast in such conventional juvenile parts as Becky Thatcher in Tom Sawyer (1930) and Huckleberry Finn (1931) opposite Jackie Coogan and Jackie Searl. She also starred in the title role of Little Orphan Annie. At the age of 14, she played a soubrette role in Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round (1934). This film closed out the first stage of her Hollywood career.

She went on to Broadway, where she starred in the original production of Rodgers and Hart's Babes in Arms (1937). Two of Green's numbers in the musical were "My Funny Valentine," which would ultimately become a jazz standard in many cover recordings and performances, and "The Lady is a Tramp".

Green made one more film in 1940, then went back to stage and nightclub work, including Walk With Music by Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer and the Betty Comden and Adolph Green musical Billion Dollar Baby. Green married Broadway (and later movie and TV) director Joseph Pevney and retired to raise a family. In 1951, she returned briefly to the screen opposite Abbott and Costello in Lost in Alaska (1951) and in Bloodhounds of Broadway (1952 film) co-starring another Mitzi--Mitzi Gaynor.

In 1955, she starred with Virginia Gibson and Gordon Jones in the short-lived TV sitcom So This Is Hollywood, in the role of Queenie Dugan, a high-spirited stuntwoman.

After a brief stint on the nightclub circuit, Green retired again, although she did appear in summer stock and dinner theater around the Los Angeles area thereafter, and she appeared occasionally as a guest on talk shows.

Death

Green died of cancer at age 48 in Huntington Beach, California on May 24, 1969. She was interred at Eden Memorial Park Cemetery in Mission Hills, California.

Filmography

• The Marriage Playground (1929)
• Honey (1930)
• Love Among the Millionaires (1930)
• The Santa Fe Trail (1930)
• Tom Sawyer (1930)
• Follow the Leader (1930)
• Paramount on Parade (1930) as herself
• The Slippery Pearls, aka The Stolen Jools (1931) as herself
• Finn and Hattie (1931)
• Skippy (1931)
• Dude Ranch (1931)
• Newly Rich (1931)
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1931)
• Girl Crazy (1932)
• Little Orphan Annie (1932)
• Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round (1934)
• Santa Fe Trail (1940) uncredited
• Lost in Alaska (1952)
• Bloodhounds of Broadway (1952)

Stage

• Babes In Arms (1937)
• Walk With Music (1940)
• Let Freedom Sing (1942)
• Billion Dollar Baby (1945)

External links

Biography portal

• Mitzi Green at the Internet Movie Database
• Mitzi Green at the Internet Broadway Database
• Photographs of Mitzi Green and bibliography
• Mitzi Green at Find a Grave

Persondata
Name	Green, Mitzi
Alternative names	Keno, Elizbeth
Short description
Date of birth	1920-10-22
Place of birth	The Bronx, New York, United States
Date of death	1969-05-24
Place of death	Huntington Beach, California