Julie Bishop (born Jacqueline Brown; August 30, 1914 – August 30, 2001), previously known as Jacqueline Wells, was an American film and television actress. She appeared in more than 80 films between 1923 and 1957.
Early life
Julie Bishop was born Jacqueline Brown in Denver, Colorado[3] on August 30, 1914. She used the family name Wells professionally through 1941, and also appeared on stage (and in one film) as Diane Duval. She was a child actress, beginning her career in 1923, in either Children of Jazz or Maytime (sources are contradictory).[4]
Career
By 1932, she was already a veteran film actress. Her earliest talkies were with the Hal Roach studio, where she worked in short-subject comedies with Laurel and Hardy, Charley Chase, and The Boy Friends. Then she began freelancing, working in supporting roles at large studios and in leading roles at small studios. Her ingenue role in the 1936 Laurel and Hardy feature The Bohemian Girl won her a contract at Columbia Pictures, where she starred in a succession of minor features, mostly action fare. She left Columbia in 1939 and resumed her freelance career.[citation needed]
In 1941, she was offered a contract by Warner Bros. on the condition that she change her name; "Jacqueline Wells" was considered a faded, B-picture name. She chose the name Julie Bishop because it matched the monograms on her luggage (created when her married name was Jacqueline Brooks).[citation needed]
Bishop died of pneumonia on her 87th birthday, August 30, 2001 in Mendocino, California.[7] She is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California in the same plot as her second husband, Clarence A. Shoop.[8]