Matinee Classics - Elyse Knox Biography & Filmography

Elyse Knox ACTOR

ELYSE KNOX BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Elyse Knox was born on December 14th, 1917 in Hartford, Connecticut with the birth name Elsie Lillian Kornbrath, born to parents Frederick and Elizabeth Kornbrath. After high school she went on to study fashion at the Traphagen School of Fashion in Manhattan and then began a career in fashion design.

Along with working in the fashion design industry, she used her physical appearance to model some of her designs which ultimately lead to her working as a model and later an offer for an acting contract with Twentieth Century Fox Film Studio's.

She began appearing in small roles on the big screen until she was cast as the lead in, "The Mummy's Tomb" (1942) followed by roles in, "Follow the Boys" (1944) and Palooka productions film, "Champ" (1945). Over the course of her career she would appear in five other films by Palooka Productions and a total of thirty nine film credits were added to her resume.

Elyse Knox was also a very popular pin up girl during World War II and appeared in a number of magazines such as, 'Yank'. Some of her latest roles were in such films as, "Linda Be Good" (1947), "I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes" (1948) and "Forgotten Women" (1949). She retired from acting in 1949 after appearing in her final film role, "There's a Girl in My Heart".

Throughout her lifetime she married twice, first to Paul Hesse from 1942 through 1943. She then married Tom Harmon in 1944 and they had three children, one who became a successful actor in his own right Mark Harmon, all of whom also had careers in the entertainment industry. They remained married until he passed away on March 15th, 1990. Knox did not re-marry and on February 16th, 2012 she passed away in Los Angeles, California.