Christine Larsen

Attractive Hollywood starlet of the late 1940s and early 50s. Trained as a commercial artist, Larson entered the industry first as a costume designer with Western Costume Design in Los Angeles, working on the 20th Century Fox films "State Fair," "The Dolly Sisters" (both 1945) and "Dragonwyck" (1946) before parlaying her skills as a trophy-winning horsewoman into a screen career as a leading lady of six Monogram B Westerns ("Fighting Ranger," "Hidden Danger," "Outlaw Brand" and Partners of the Sunset" all 1948) opposite such Monogram stars as Johnny Mack Brown, Raymond Hatton and Jimmy Wakely. After one film for Republic ("Trial Without Jury" 1950), Larson appeared on TV's "Lights, Cameras, Action" where she was discovered by producer Harry Popkin and cast in "Second Woman" (1951); but appendicitis cost her the role. Larson made the first of four Columbia films, "The Well" in 1951 and virtually retired from the screen in 1953 after "The Valley of the Headhunters." She did not surface again until her name appeared in the 1991 Kitty Kelley biography of Nancy Reagan as the actress Ronald Reagan proposed to before marrying Nancy Davis.