Renee Godfrey

New York-born Renee Haal was a singer and competed as Miss New York State in the 1937 Miss America pageant. In 1938, she went to London for a singing engagement and met the actor/director/screenwriter Peter Godfrey, whom she married two years later. She intially entered films at RKO, working as Renee Haal, making her debut in Sam Wood's Kitty Foyle; her next movie, Unexpected Uncle, was directed by Peter Godfrey, who also directed her in the much superior romantic thriller Highways by Night in 1942. Beginning two years later in the Danny Kaye starring vehicle Up in Arms (1944), she began working as Renee Godfrey. During the war, she and her husband were much-loved by the troops for the amateur magic shows that they put on through the USO. She continued working in small but important roles, such as Vivian Vedder in Terror By Night (1946) and Mrs. Stebbins in Stanley Kramer's Inherit the Wind. Renee Godfrey worked into the 1960s, appearing in Can-Can and Tender is the Night, but died tragically in 1964 after an extended battle against cancer, before the release of her final film, the Disney-produced Those Calloways.

~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide