{{Short description|British actress (1915–1949)}} {{Tone|date=January 2026}} {{EngvarB|date=October 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2017}} {{Infobox person | name = Jean Gillie | image = Jeangillie.jpg | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = Jean Mabel Coomber | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1915|10|14}} | birth_place = London, England | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1949|02|19|1915|10|14}} | death_place = London, England | other_names = | occupation = Actress | years_active = 1935–1947 | spouse = Jack Bernhard (1944–47; divorced) }}
'''Jean Gillie''' (born '''Jean Mabel Coomber'''; 14 October 1915 – 19 February 1949) was an English film actress of the 1930s and 1940s. Gillie appeared in 20 British and two American films.
==Career== {{moresources|section|date=December 2017}} Gillie broke into films in 1935 in ''While Parents Sleep''.<ref name="efn">{{cite book|last1=Mayer|first1=Geoff|last2=McDonnell|first2=Brian|title=Encyclopedia of Film Noir|date=2007|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9780313333064|page=164|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RsBHnZoyO4kC&pg=PA164|accessdate=3 June 2017}}</ref> She quickly chalked up a number of credits in quota quickie productions. Most of these were comedic in nature, and Gillie's good looks and apparent aptitude for comedy attracted the attention of stage star Jack Buchanan, who pushed for her to be cast in the 1936 screen version of ''This'll Make You Whistle'' in which he was to star.
She acquitted herself well in the film, showing a natural talent for playing comedy, and over the next few years went on to appear in a series of madcap roles in films such as ''The Girl in the Taxi'' (1937), ''Sweet Devil'' (1938) and ''Tilly of Bloomsbury'' (1940).{{cn|date=December 2017}}
Gillie made no films in 1941 or 1942, but returned to the screen in 1943 in a straight dramatic role as one of the lead players in Leslie Howard's wartime propaganda piece ''The Gentle Sex''. This was followed by ''The Saint Meets the Tiger'', notable as the first time her character Patricia Holm (the love interest of Simon Templar aka ''The Saint'') was ever featured on screen in any film adaptation of a novel from the Leslie Charteris ''The Saint'' canon. 1944 saw Gillie starring in the whimsical propaganda drama ''Tawny Pipit'', while her last British film ''Flight from Folly'' (1945) marked a return to comedy.{{cn|date=December 2017}}
During the war, Gillie met American film director Jack Bernhard while he was on military service and stationed in Britain. The couple married on 5 May 1944,<ref>{{cite news|title=British Actress Weds|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/11433560/the_ogden_standardexaminer/|work=The Ogden Standard-Examiner|agency=Associated Press|date=5 May 1944|location=Utah, Ogden|page=18|publisher=Newspapers.com|accessdate = 2 June 2017}} {{Open access}}</ref> and after the end of the war went to live in the United States. Gillie made her American screen debut in 1946 in the cult film noir ''Decoy'', directed by Bernhard.<ref name="afi">{{cite book |last1=Institute |first1=American Film |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fRY0QiacQccC&pg=PA576 |title=The American Film Institute catalog of motion pictures produced in the United States. F4,1. Feature films, 1941–50, film entries, A – L |date=1999 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520215214 |pages=575–576 |language=en |accessdate=3 June 2017}}</ref>
This was a radical departure from any role she had played before, casting her as a devious— ''femme fatale.'' A contemporary reviewer commented: "It's been a long time since the screen has seen a more sinister feminine character than the one which Jean Gillie plays in ''Decoy''"<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VwQwAAAAIBAJ&sjid=XWoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1884,3654254&dq=jean-gillie&hl=en "''Decoy'' at Barry Stars Jean Gillie] ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', 15 April 1947. ''Retrieved 17 September 2010''</ref>
The film was a Poverty Row production from Monogram Pictures, fading from view after its original cinema run and remaining little-known and largely unseen for many years. Later, however, it has gained an appreciative new audience among film noir aficionados after being included in Volume 4 of the Warner Bros. issued DVD series ''Film Noir Classics Collection'', released in the US in 2007, when it was described in ''Entertainment Weekly'' as a "weird but transfixing tale".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080927210805/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20048245,00.html ''Film Noir Classics Collection Vol. 4''] Tucker, Ken. ''Entertainment Weekly'', 28 July 2007. ''Retrieved 17 September 2010''</ref>
In 1947 Gillie appeared in the Gregory Peck vehicle ''The Macomber Affair'', which turned out to be her final film. Her marriage to Bernhard had quickly run into trouble, and the couple divorced.{{cn|date=December 2017}}
==Death== Gillie returned to Britain in 1948 but had no time to revive her British career, as she died of pneumonia on 19 February 1949, aged 33.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20121103211954/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/417992821.html?dids=417992821:417992821&FMT=CITE&FMTS=CITE:AI&type=historic&date=Feb+22,+1949&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=Jean+Gillie,+London+Film+Actress,+Dies&pqatl=google "Jean Gillie, London Film Actress, Dies"] ''Los Angeles Times'', 22 February 1949, p.11. ''Retrieved 17 September 2010''</ref>
==Partial filmography== {{Div col}} * ''Brewster's Millions'' (1935) – Miss Tompkins (uncredited) * ''Smith's Wives'' (1935) – Anne * ''It Happened in Paris'' (1935) – Musette * ''School for Stars'' (1935) – Joan Martin * ''While Parents Sleep'' (1935) – Bubbles Thompson * ''His Majesty and Company'' (1935) – Nina * ''This'll Make You Whistle'' (1936) – Joan Longhurst * ''The Girl in the Taxi'' (1937) – Jacqueline des Aubrais * ''The Live Wire'' (1937) – Sally Barton * ''Sweet Devil'' (1938) – Jill Turner * ''What Would You Do, Chums?'' (1939) – Lucy * ''The Spider'' (1940) – Clare Marley * ''The Middle Watch'' (1940) – Betty Hewett * ''Tilly of Bloomsbury'' (1940) – Tilly Welwyn * ''Sailors Don't Care'' (1940) – Nancy * ''The Call for Arms'' (1940, Short) – Irene * ''The Gentle Sex'' (1943) – Dot Hopkins * ''The Saint Meets the Tiger'' (1943) – Pat Holm * ''Tawny Pipit'' (1944) – Nancy Forester * ''Flight from Folly'' (1945) – Millicent * ''Decoy'' (1946) – Margot Shelby * ''The Macomber Affair'' (1947) – Aimee (final film role) {{div col end}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{commons category|Jean Gillie}} *{{IMDb name|0319159}} *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF3FSDwOYcg Jean Gillie in ''Decoy'' from YouTube]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gillie, Jean}} Category:1915 births Category:1949 deaths Category:English film actresses Category:Actresses from London Category:Deaths from pneumonia in England Category:20th-century English actresses Category:English expatriate actresses in the United States