GALE STORM BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:
Gale Storm was born on April 5th, 1922 with the birth name, Josephine Owaissa Cottle in Bloomington, Texas. She was the youngest of five siblings. At only 17 months old, her father passed away and her mother moved the family to Houston, Texas after opening up a sewing shop that turned out to be un successful.
Throughout high School, Gale was a member of the drams club and was named "Best Actress" in the Texas State high school competition. She won a "Gateway to Hollywood" contest sponsored by film producer Jesse Lasky at the age of 17. Cottle took on the name, "Gale Storm" at the suggestion of a movie-magazine fan.
Gale was cast in the film, "Tom Brown's School Days" (1940) and was briefly signed to contract with RKO. Soon after though, with that contract doing her career no success, she moved on to work for Monogram Pictures.
She starred with Roy Rogers and George 'Gabby' Hayes in "Red River Valley" (1941) and later that year paired up with Roy and Gabby again in "Jesse James at Bay", the only film in which Roy Rogers portrayed a criminal element.
In 1946 Gale teamed up with The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard) in a comedy/musical "Swing Parade of 1946. The following year, 1947, Storm starred in a comedy film "It Happened on Fifth Avenue" along with Ann Harding, Victor Moore, Don DeFore, Charlie Ruggles and Alan Hale Jr.
She changed directions entirely as the owner of a small town newspaper, The Lakewood Gazette, in "The Underworld Story" (1950) which was a Film Noir also starring Dan Duryea, Herbert Marshall and Howard Da Silva.
Gale received an opportunity to work on the Television series, " My Little Margie " (1952-1955) co-starring Charles Farrell as her father. The series was very popular and ran till 1954 when it then went in to syndication. Capitalizing on her new-found celebrity, Gale pursued a successful nightclub career. In 1955 she recorded ten record singles, "Teenage Prayer" and "I Hear You Knocking" with record label Dot Records. One year later, she launched a second successful TV series, "Oh, Susanna!" also known as The Gale Storm Show.
Her acting career and recording career were both highly successful and following her television series ending, she took the opportunity to appear on stage for her first time in the musical, "Wish You Were Here". Followed by numerous stage appearances in, "Unsinkable Molly Brown", " South Pacific", "Finnegan's Rainbow", "Wildcat", "Cactus Flower", "Plaza Suite", "Forty Carats", "Lovers and Other Strangers", "Affairs Of State", "Rainy Day in Newark", "No Hard Feelings" and "Grand Prize". Storm had several other hits and headlined in Las Vegas as well.
Storm only recorded for 2 years and ended up giving it up due to her husbands concern for the amount of time it was taking up in her life. Storm was married and widowed twice. First to Lee Bonnell from 1968 to 1986 and together they had 4 children and then she was married again in 1988 to Paul Masterson who passed away in 1996.
In the late 1970's, Storm reveled that she'd been an alcoholic for several years and following her announcement she became a TV as spokesperson for a substance abuse rehabilitation center in the Northwest. In 1981, Gale Storm published her autobiography, "I Ain't Down Yet" which described her struggle with her alcohol addiction.
Occasionally, Storm would make television appearances such as on, "Love Boat", "Burke's Law", and "Murder, She Wrote".
Storm has been honored with three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to Recording, Radio and Television.
Gale Storm lived alone in Monarch Beach, California, near two of her sons until her health began to fail, then moving her into a retirement home near San Francisco where she passes away on June 27, 2009.
Filmography
1940 Tom Brown's School Days
1941 Let's Go Collegiate
1941 Saddlemates
1941 Uncle Joe
1941 Red River Valley
1941 Jesse James at Bay
1942 Freckles Comes Home
1942 Rhythm Parade
1942 Nearly Eighteen
1943 Revenge of the Zombies
1943 Cosmo Jones, Crime Smasher
1945 G. I. Honeymoon
1946 Swing Parade of 1946
1947 It Happened on Fifth Avenue
1948 The Dude Goes West
1949 Abandoned
1949 Stampede
1950 The Kid from Texas
1950 Curtain Call at Cactus Creek
1950 The Underworld Story
1950 Between Midnight and Dawn
1951 Al Jennings of Oklahoma
1952 Woman of the North Country
1952–1955 My Little Margie
1955 The Ford Television Theatre
1956 NBC Comedy Hour
1958 The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom
1958-1961 What's My Line?
1956–1960 The Gale Storm Show aka Oh, Susanna!
1964–1965 Burke's Law
1979 The Love Boat
1989 Murder, She Wrote
