Mary Ellen Kay

One of Republic Pictures' last B-Western heroines, Mary Ellen Kay would appear in a total of 14 horse operas before the death of the genre in 1954. That year, she also married a New York cosmetics executive, and although she would grace several subsequent potboilers, her bid for genre stardom was over. Miss Kay was a typical Republic player: beautiful, athletic, and seemingly fearless. In The Last Musketeer (1952), a Rex Allen music oater, she spent three days perfecting the popular running mount. She did a total of six films opposite Allen, including Republic's last entry in the waning singing-cowboy sweepstakes, and also appeared opposite Allan Lane (three times), Charles Starrett, and William Elliott. Appropriately enough, her final film was Buffalo Gun (1961), a low-budget Western featuring yet another Republic Pictures veteran, Don "Red" Barry.

~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide