Actress starred with Reagan, Hitchcock

`Queen of Technicolour' in 1940s, '50s

Rhonda Fleming, a film star of the 1940s and 1950s who played opposite Ronald Reagan, has died at age 97.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court with Bing Crosby in 1949 launched her as a leading lady. She would appear in two dozen films over the next decade. But Fleming initially disliked the technology, considering it “far too unnatural. If your eyes were green, they were really green, and your skin was so pinky white. I just wanted to prove that I was a good actress.”

Born Marilyn Louis on Aug. 10, 1923 in Hollywood.

When she was 17, a car that had been circling the block drew up alongside her. Its occupant was Henry Willson, an agent who would later work for David Selznick. “Young lady,” he said, “have you ever thought of being in motion pictures?”

Selznick offered her a seven-year contract and a feature role in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945), alongside Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck. Her character, Mary Carmichael, is a hysterical nymphomaniac, doubling as a scantily clad “kissing bug” for a dream sequence designed by Salvador Dali. The sexual subtext mostly passed her by. She had been raised by devout Mormons.

She often played femme fatales in film noirs.

Fleming left Selznick International Pictures in 1950 and starred in The Eagle and the Hawk, though her natural liveliness as an actress was somewhat inhibited by her costumes, which weighed up to five kilograms.

She next played the lead in The Redhead and the Cowboy.

Though she was an experienced rider, a stunt nearly ended disastrously when the horse fell on top of her and knocked her unconscious. Later, co-star Glenn Ford required hospital treatment when she accidentally struck him in the eye during a fight scene.

The Last Outpost was her first, and arguably her best, collaboration with Ronald Reagan. They worked together on three further occasions, and established an affectionate friendship.

In 1990 Fleming retired. She focused charitable pursuits, with a particular focus on cancer research.

Fleming married six times.

She is survived by a son from her first marriage.

Rhonda Fleming