{{short description|American actress}} {{Infobox person | name = Alix Talton | image = Alix Talton in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956).jpg | alt = | caption = Alix Talton in ''The Man Who Knew Too Much'' (1956) | birth_name = Alice Talton | birth_date = {{Birth date|1920|6|7}} | birth_place = Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1992|4|7|1920|6|7}} | death_place = Burbank, California, U.S. | occupation = Actress | years_active = 1941–1975 | spouse = David Boyd Houman (1939 - ?)<br /> Lew Kerner (1944–1949) (divorced) (1 child)<br>George Cahan (1950–1991) (his death) (1 child)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com/show/438/Alix+Talton/index.html|title=Alix Talton - The Private Life and Times of Alix Talton. Alix Talton Pictures.|website=www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com}}</ref> | children = 2<ref name=":0" /> }}
'''Alix Talton''' (born '''Alice Talton''', June 7, 1920{{Citation needed |date=September 2023}} – April 7, 1992) was an American actress. Today's audiences probably know her best as the catty career woman in the Bill Haley musical ''Rock Around the Clock'' (1956).
==Early years== Born in Atlanta, Georgia,<ref name="i" /> Talton was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Sanford C. Talton.<ref name="ac" /> She had two brothers.<ref name="brother" /> She studied singing and dancing when she was young.<ref name="i" /> After graduating from Girls High School in Atlanta<ref name="baby" /> she worked for the Atlanta Gas Company.<ref name="i">{{cite news |last1=Tashman |first1=George |title=Clickin' the Channels |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-independent/190277496/ |access-date=January 31, 2026 |work=Richmond Independent |date=November 17, 1953 |page=10|via = Newspapers.com }}</ref> She was Miss Atlanta 1938,<ref name="baby" /> won the Miss Georgia beauty pageant that year, and advanced to the Miss America competition in Atlantic City.<ref name=ac/>
==Career== After she moved to New York City, Talton became a model for the John Robert Powers agency. While working there she became known as "the Omar Kiam girl" because she posed so often for that dress designer.<ref name="i" />
Talton entered show business as a member of a singing group in the American Jubilee show at the 1939 New York World's Fair. When the next summer stock theater season arrived, she acted with a troupe in Brattleboro, Vermont. When Lou Walters offered her a job at a night club that he operated in Miami, she left modeling and took what she called "my biggest single step forward in show business".<ref name="i" /> Producer Bryan Foy saw her at the night club, and she acted in various roles in his films for two years.<ref name="i" />
She signed a movie contract with Warner Bros. in 1941.{{Citation needed |date=February 2026}} She played incidental, uncredited bits until being featured as one of the "Navy Blues Sextet" (six singing chorus girls originally featured in the Warner military comedy ''Navy Blues''). She also appeared with the Sextet in the Phil Silvers-Jimmy Durante comedy ''You're in the Army Now'' (1941), in which she received screen billing, as Alice Talton.<ref>{{cite news |title=Atlanta Beauty, Alice Talton, In Roxy Farce |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-atlanta-constitution-alice-alix-ta/190300145/ |access-date=February 1, 2026 |work=The Atlanta Constitution |date=February 15, 1942 |page=94|via = Newspapers.com }}</ref>
Her stay at Warners was short, because she felt that she lacked training as an actress. She left Hollywood to work in stage plays, and only when she felt confident in her abilities did she return to motion pictures. She returned in a Republic Pictures western in 1949 (as Alice Talton), and went on to a busy freelance career as a character actress.
She appeared in the films ''Ranger of Cherokee Strip'', ''In a Lonely Place'', ''The Great Jewel Robber'', ''Fourteen Hours'', ''Sally and Saint Anne'', ''Tangier Incident'', ''The Man Who Knew Too Much'', ''Cha-Cha-Cha Boom!'', ''The Deadly Mantis'', ''Romanoff and Juliet'' and ''The Devil's Brigade'', among others.
After Talton completed work on the film ''In a Lonely Place'' (1950), she was injured at a resort. Being thrown from a horse resulted in two broken vertebrae. She feared that her career had ended, but she said, "after eight months flat on my back I was up and around again", and she resumed her career a few months later.<ref name=i/>
From 1953 to 1955, Talton portrayed both Myrna Cobb and Myrna Shepard, next door neighbors in the television version of ''My Favorite Husband''.<ref name="etvs">{{cite book|last1=Terrace|first1=Vincent|title=Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010|date=2011|publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers|location=Jefferson, N.C.|isbn=978-0-7864-6477-7|page=729|edition=2nd}}</ref>
She appeared in ''Perry Mason'' as Eva Elliot in ''The Case of the Long-Legged Models''. The show originally aired on May 17, 1958.
== Personal life and death == Talton went before the Georgia Pardon and Parole Board six times in four years to ask the group to parole her brother, Richard Harvey Talton. He was serving a nine-to-20-year sentence after being convicted of robbery. Her April 1954 appearance was described in ''The Atlanta Journal'' as "her sixth dramatic appeal", and it was successful. The board granted parole after she said that she would take him to California with her. A job had been arranged for him there, and she said that officials there had agreed to supervise his parole.<ref name="brother">{{cite news |title=Alix Talton Wins Parole For Brother |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-atlanta-journal-alix-talton/190304172/ |access-date=February 1, 2026 |work=The Atlanta Journal |date=April 6, 1954 |page=8|via = Newspapers.com }}</ref>
Talton married actor David Boyd Houman in 1939.<ref name="baby">{{cite news |title=Baby Boy Born To Alice Talton, Miss Atlanta '38 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-atlanta-constitution-alice-alix-ta/190300835/ |access-date=February 1, 2026 |work=The Atlanta Constitution |date=January 3, 1945 |page=4|via = Newspapers.com }}</ref> In 1944 in Hollywood, Talton married Lew G. Kerner, her agent and a sergeant in the U. S. Army Air Corps.<ref name="ac">{{cite news |last1=Sibley |first1=Celestine |title=Hollywood Great See Atlanta Beauty Marry Her Movie Agent: Alice Talton's Nuptials Carried To Parents by 3-Way Telephone |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-atlanta-constitution-alix-alice-ta/190282460/ |access-date=January 31, 2026 |work=The Atlanta Constitution |date=May 14, 1944 |page=16|via = Newspapers.com }}</ref> They had a son.<ref name=baby/> Talton was married to George Cahan.<ref>{{cite news |title=Actress Wins Parole Board Promise to Free Brother |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59368533/alix-talton/ |accessdate=September 16, 2020 |work=The Shreveport Journal |date=April 6, 1954 |location=Louisiana, Shreveport |page=4|via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> She died of lung cancer on April 7, 1992, in Burbank, California, at age 71.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-04-10-mn-2-story.html |title=Alix Talton; Actress Often Portrayed 'Other Woman' |publisher=Articles.latimes.com |date=1992-04-10 |access-date=2017-08-06|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151003203405/http://articles.latimes.com/1992-04-10/news/mn-2_1_alix-talton |archive-date=October 3, 2015}}</ref>
==Partial filmography== {{div col|colwidth=26em}} *''Dive Bomber'' (1941) as Girl at Newsstand (uncredited) *''International Squadron'' (1941) as Minor Role (uncredited) *''Passage from Hong Kong'' (1941) as Tourist (uncredited) *''You're in the Army Now'' (1941) as Navy Blues Sextette Member *''The Man Who Came to Dinner'' (1942) as Chorine (uncredited) *''Hers to Hold'' (1943) as Hazel (uncredited) *''Ranger of Cherokee Strip'' (1949) as Mary Bluebird *''In a Lonely Place'' (1950) as Frances 'Fran' Randolph (uncredited) *''The Great Jewel Robber'' (1950) as Brenda Hall *''Fourteen Hours'' (1951) as Miss Kelly, Secretary (uncredited) *''Sally and Saint Anne'' (1952) as Jeanne (uncredited) *''Tangier Incident'' (1953) as Olga *''The Story of Three Loves'' (1953) as Rose (segment "Equilibrium") (uncredited) *''Rock Around the Clock'' (1956) as Corinne Talbot *''The Man Who Knew Too Much'' (1956) as Helen Parnell *''Cha-Cha-Cha Boom!'' (1956) as Debbie Farmer *''The Deadly Mantis'' (1957) as Marge Blaine *''Romanoff and Juliet'' (1961) as Beulah * ''Carnival of Crime'' (1962) as Lynn Voray *''The Devil's Brigade'' (1968) as Miss Arnold {{div col end}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category}} * {{IMDb name|0848315}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Talton, Alix}} Category:1920 births Category:1992 deaths Category:20th-century American actresses Category:American film actresses