Audrey Young
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Audrey Young (✦October 30, 1922 in Los Angeles, California – †June 1, 2012 in Los Angeles, California) was an American film actress and a big-band singer who was most active in the 1940s. She was also the wife of director Billy Wilder from 1949 until his death in 2002.
Early years
Young was born in Los Angeles, California. Her father, Stratton Young, built sets for films.
- Audrey Young Gallery
- Audrey Young appeared in YANK magazine on 30 Nov 1945
Career
Young was a contract actor with Paramount Pictures in the 1940s, appearing in approximately 20 films from 1944 to 1949. Her film debut came in "Lady in the Dark" (1944). She had sung with Tommy Dorsey's orchestra before becoming an actress, and she sang (either solo or as part of a group) in several films, including "Blue Skies." Most of her roles were small and uncredited, with only a few exceptions like "Danger Street" and "The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap". Her final film appearance was in "Love Me or Leave Me" (1955).
On November 1, 1944, Young appeared on a Paramount Studios television variety program that was broadcast on station W6XYZ (later KTLA) in Los Angeles. She sang "What a Difference a Day Makes" and "Getting Sentimental Over You". In a review in the trade publication Billboard, Cy Wagner wrote that Young "had a nice voice and was very telegenic." She also sang in vaudeville.
Young worked as a costume consultant on two films, "The Apartment" and "Some Like It Hot".
Personal life
On June 30, 1949, Young married director [[Billy Wilder]] in Linden, Nevada. They first met when she appeared in a small role as a Cloak Room Attendant in The Lost Weekend and were married until his death in 2002. They had no children, but she was stepmother to Wilder's two children from an earlier marriage. Following Wilder's death, she donated $5 million to the Hammer Museum at UCLA to create the Billy Wilder Theater. She died in June 2012 at age 89 in Los Angeles.
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