Patrice Wymore

American actress Patrice Wymore first stepped on-stage at age six during a Chautauqua tent show. Her mother, a pianist and singer on the tent circuit, trained Wymore for a performing career. At age 16, she hit the road for New York with money given her by her trucking-line executive father. Thanks to her musical training, Wymore was cast in several Broadway musicals, notably Hold It and All for Love. In 1949, she was signed to a movie contract by Warner Bros. Her first appearance was a singing role in Tea for Two (1950), co-starring with Doris Day and Gordon MacRae. Wymore was then cast opposite Errol Flynn in Rocky Mountain (1950); she and Flynn fell in love and were married shortly afterward. The union produced a daughter, Arnella, in 1953. Unfortunately, Flynn was on the downward spiral thanks to 25 years' worth of high living and an increasing dependence upon barbituates. Wymore retired from her career to stay by her husband's side, buoying his self-confidence and offering strong moral support during these darkest years of his life, until the situation became impossible. Though separated from Flynn at the time of his death in 1959, Wymore was still his widow -- a status hotly contested by Flynn's final amour, 16-year-old Beverly Aadland, who had both eyes on the Flynn estate. Picking up the pieces after Flynn's demise, Wymore hit the nightclub trail as a singer, gradually building up a following in regional productions of such musicals as Guys and Dolls and Irma La Douce. Patrice Wymore's comeback was complete upon her being cast in the 1965 ABC soap opera Never Too Young and in the 1966 Warner Bros. chiller Chamber of Horrors (1966). Sitcom fans will remember her comic appearance as "black widow" Hermione Gooderly on a 1966 episode of F Troop.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide