Gloria Henry made her film debut in the 1947 programmer SPORT OF KINGS. In the film, “Tom Cloud” (Paul Campbell) and his 12-year-old brother “Biff” (Mark Dennis) arrive in Kentucky to claim the farm left them by their father, and encounter hostile neighbors. "‘Doc’ Richardson” (Gloria Henry) a young veterinarian who rents a cottage on the farm, tells Tom that the animosity stems from the result of a wager former owner “Major Denning” (Harry Davenport) had made with Tom’s father the night before the Olympian Stakes. The Major lost the bet, and Cloud took possession of the property.
Gloria Henry, Harry Cheshire, and Harry Davenport in SPORT OF KINGS
Robert Gordon directed the film, which had an uncredited score by music director Mischa Bakaleinikoff.
In BULLDOG DRUMMOND STRIKES BACK, Scotland Yard Inspector “McIver” (Holmes Herbert), seeking a missing heiress, is murdered in his own home. "Bulldog Drummond” (Ron Randell) finds “Ellen Curtiss” (Gloria Henry), one of the two women claiming to be the heiress, hiding in a closet in the house. She tells Drummond she is innocent of the murder and is the real heiress. Is she or isn't she?
Frank McDonald directed this 1947 Columbia film, which has a plot significantly different from a 1934 Twentieth Century-Fox film of the same name that starred Ronald Coleman. Irving Gertz provided the uncredited score.
For the next few years, Gloria Henry had the female lead in numerous “B’ pictures for Columbia—eleven films in 3 years. When the occasional major film came around, she would be in the supporting cast. MISS GRANT TAKES RICHMOND starred Lucille Ball as “Ellen Grant,” the worst student at the Woodruff secretarial school. Although Ellen's fiancé, assistant district attorney “Ralph Winton” (Stephen Dunne), disapproves of her ambition to become a secretary, Ellen is determined to have a career. Then, on the day of Ellen's final exam, realtor “Dick Richmond” (William Holden) visits the school to pick a new secretary, and hires Ellen, despite her dismal score.
Gloria Henry plays “Helen White” in the film. Lloyd Bacon directed the 1949 release, which had an unreleased score by Heinz Roemheld. The film had a below-average gross of $1 million.
In KILL THE UMPIRE, “Bill Johnson” (William Bendix), an umpire-hating ex-baseball player, loses many jobs because of his passion for watching ball games during working hours. Then he decides to combine business with pleasure by becoming an umpire himself. Gloria Johnson plays “Lucy,” the older of Johnson’s two daughters.
Gloria Henry, Jeff Richards, Ray Collins, William Bendix, Una Merkel, and Connie Marshall in KILL THE UMPIRE
Many players from the Hollywood Stars, a minor-league baseball team, appeared in this film. The team was a AAA affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers at the time of this production. Among the major league stars who appeared was Duke Snider of the Dodgers. Lloyd Bacon directed the Frank Tashlin screenplay. Heinz Roemheld provided the unreleased score. The 1950 comedy had a moderate gross of $2.3 million.
In July 1950, Howard St. John appeared as "David Harding" in the Columbia production DAVID HARDING, COUNTERSPY. The film was based on a then-popular radio program. In February 1951 came the sequel, COUNTERSPY MEETS SCOTLAND YARD. In the film, when enemy agents obtain leaked secrets about a guided missile reservation, the chief of America's counterspy division, “David Harding” (Howard St. John) and Scotland Yard's best investigator, “Agent Simon Langton” (Ron Randell), get on an investigative trail which quickly leads to a reservation secretary, “Karen Michelle” (Amanda Blake). Gloria Henry had a small role as file clerk “Martha Holden.”
Seymour Friedman directed the film, which had a stock music score.
Dan Duryea played the real-life western robber Al Jennings in 1951’s AL JENNINGS OF OKLAHOMA. The film covered Jennings’ life from his birth until he was sent to prison. Gale Storm played "Margo St. Claire," the woman who becomes Al’s wife in the film. However, Margo was a fictitious character, as Jennings did not meet his wife Maude until after his release from prison. Gloria Henry plays “Alice Calhoun,” a flirtatious girl whom Al encounters.
Ray Nazarro directed the film, which had a stock music score. Jennings, who was 87 at the time of the film’s production, was reportedly not completely satisfied with this filmed version of his life, which showed him robbing stagecoaches when he actually specialized in mail-train heists. The film had below-average grosses of $1.1 million.
In RANCHO NOTORIOUS, rancher “Vern Haskell” (Arthur Kennedy) vows revenge when his beautiful fiancée “Beth Forbes” (Gloria Henry) is murdered by a thief (Lloyd Gough). Vern goes undercover, helping outlaw “Frenchy Fairmont” (Mel Ferrer) escape from jail in order to learn the location of a “safe-ranch” known as “Chuck-a-Luck”, where former saloon singer “Altar Keane” (Marlene Dietrich) temporarily houses wanted criminals for a percentage of their earnings.
Fritz Lang directed this intense 1952 western. Lang had originally planned to call the film "Chuck-a-Luck". However, studio head Howard Hughes insisted that its name be changed to "Rancho Notorious", and when Lang asked why, he was told that it was because non-Americans (Europeans) wouldn't understand what "Chuck-a-Luck" (a gambling game commonly played in saloons in the Southwest) meant. Lang replied, "Well, it's a good thing that they all know what 'Rancho Notorious' means!"
Emil Newman scored the film, with an uncredited assist from Hugo Friedhofer. The film featured a ballad, "The Legend of Chuck-a-Luck” (music and lyrics by Ken Darby, sung by William Lee), that is heard over the opening credits and intermittently throughout the picture, and its lyrics comment on the action of the story. RANCHO NOTORIOUS was the first American film to use a song in this manner.
Twentieth Century-Fox originally was to distribute the film. Production company Fidelity Pictures, which was in need of cash after spending $900,000 on the production, backed out of the deal when it learned that Fox would not release or pay for the film until 1952. In mid-1951, RKO paid Fidelity between $700,000 and $780,000 in advance for distribution rights. Howard Hughes approved the purchase in part because it featured one of his contract stars, Mel Ferrer. RKO also agreed to give Fox a sixteen percent interest in the picture's profits. Fritz Lang and stars Marlene Dietrich and Arthur Kennedy protested the sale, because they feared that additional production costs incurred by RKO would lead to the loss of their partially deferred salaries, which could not be paid out until the film showed a $2.5 million profit. That never happened, as the film grossed around $2.5 million.
Gloria Henry had her first recurring television role in “The Files of Jeffrey Jones”, a half-hour crime drama that aired in syndication from 1954 to 1955. It was produced by CBS Films in response to the popularity of “The Cases of Eddie Drake,” which had become a hit after CBS filmed it but sold it to the DuMont Network.
Law school student and former G.I. “Jeffrey Jones” (Don Haggerty) was a private investigator in Los Angeles. His girlfriend, “Michele ‘Mike’ Malone,” was an impulsive newspaper reporter for The Hollywood Herald who often had to be rescued by Jones while she was trying to help with his investigations. Only 18 episodes of the series were produced, which is just as well, since Henry was written out of the show after episode #15 when she became pregnant.
In 1959, Gloria Henry began the role for which she would become best known—that of “Alice Mitchell,” the wife of “Henry Mitchell” (Herbert Anderson) and the mother of “Dennis Mitchell” (Jay North) in the television sitcom “Dennis the Menace”. The series was based on the Hank Ketcham comic strip of the same name. The series also starred Joseph Kearns as “George Wilson.” the Mitchells' neighbor, who was often exasperated with Dennis's antics, though wss proud that Dennis considered him his best friend.
Gloria Henry, Herbert Anderson, and Jay North in “Dennis the Menace”
CBS premiered the series on Sunday, 4 October 1959 at 7:30 PM. That placed the show between the CBS hits “Lassie” (#29 for the season) and “The Ed Sullivan Show” (#12 for the season). The show’s main competition was “Maverick” on ABC (#19). “Dennis the Menace” was an immediate hit, coming in as the #16 show for the season.
In its second season (1960-61), “Maverick” was having troubles because of James Garner’s contract hold-out, and the series dropped out of the top 30 shows in the ratings. “Dennis the Menace” improved in the ratings to #11 for the season, beating even “Ed Sullivan” who came in at #15.
Gloria Henry and Jay North in “Dennis the Menace”
The third season (1962-63) found “Lassie,” which had dropped out of the top 30 shows the previous year, rebounding smartly to score at #15 for the season. The departed “Maverick” was replaced on ABC by a new adventure series, “Follow the Sun,” which offered little competition. But NBC, which had not been much of a player in the timeslot in previous years moved its long-running Disney show, currently called “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color,” into the 7:30 hour. Disney came in as the #23-ranked show for the season, taking some of “Dennis the Menace”’s family audience and dropping it down to #17 for the season.
Herbert Anderson and Gloria Henry in “Dennis the Menace”
On February 17, 1962, after filming the show's 100th episode, Joseph Kearns died of a cerebral hemorrhage. In a 2010 interview, Gloria Henry revealed that Kearns followed a strict six-week Metrecal diet that may have contributed to his death. The following two episodes were filmed without the character of Mr. Wilson. Gale Gordon joined the cast for the last six episodes of the season as Mr. Wilson's brother “John.” Gordon bore a closer resemblance to the comic strip's Mr. Wilson than Kearns did. It was explained that John was staying as a guest while George was settling an estate back East.
Gloria Henry in “Dennis the Menace”
Season four (1963-63) saw Disney holding firm at #24 for the season, and a new show on ABC, “The Jetsons,” going head-to-head with Dennis the Menace.” Although “The Jetsons” did not break into the top 30 shows, it stole enough of the audience that “Dennis the Menace” dropped out of the top 30. That, and the storyline shakeups caused by the new “Mr. Wilson,” was enough to cause the demise of the series, and it was cancelled after four seasons and 146 episodes.
After the end of “Dennis the Menace,” Gloria Henry made a few more guest appearances on TV shows, then left the screen for more than 15 years. She returned to making television appearances in 1981. She had bit parts in two made-for-television biopics directed by James Goldstone—RITA HAYWORTH: THE LOVE GODDESS (1983) starring Lynda Carter as the 1940s actress and CALAMITY JANE (1984) starring Jane Alexander as the famed cowgirl.
More substantial TV guest appearances followed, through the 1980s and into the 1990s. Her only feature film appearances came in two little-seen films directed by Charles Matthau, Walter Matthau’s son—DOIN’ TIME ON PLANET EARTH (1988) and HER MINOR THING (2005). Gloria Henry’s final screen appearance came in a 2012 episode of “Parks and Recreation.” Farewell, Gloria.
In KILL THE UMPIRE, “Bill Johnson” (William Bendix), an umpire-hating ex-baseball player, loses many jobs because of his passion for watching ball games during working hours. Then he decides to combine business with pleasure by becoming an umpire himself. Gloria Johnson plays “Lucy,” the older of Johnson’s two daughters.
Gloria Henry, Jeff Richards, Ray Collins, William Bendix, Una Merkel, and Connie Marshall in KILL THE UMPIRE
"Two-Call Johnson." Love this film. Having done my share of umpiring (incl. semi-pro) makes it even better.
