Sally Payne | WatchedThis
Sally Payne
Acting
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sally Payne (September 5, 1912 – May 8, 1999) was an American actress. She featured in several B-Westerns in the 1940s. Payne made her first film in 1935, appearing in a bit part. She became a leading actress in B films, usually westerns. She also played in comedy shorts for RKO Radio Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She is most remembered for her performance as Calamity Jane in the Roy Rogers western Young Bill Hickok (1940), as well as acting the role of Belle Starr in Robin Hood of the Pecos (1941), where her performing style echoed that of a contemporary, Una Merkel. Just before her association with Rogers ended, her status had enlarged from a supporting-role character to that of first-billed actress. Payne's characters were usually the tomboy type, often helping men rather than being dependent on them. She frequently wore men's clothing, carried a weapon, drove stagecoaches and rode horses. Her male associates identified strongly with her ability to survive a rough environment like the Old West frontier, but she was never the object of male fantasies. Rarely did Payne's characters become physically intimate with her masculine counterparts; thus if she were called on to display affection of any sort, the relationships never went beyond the strictly platonic. Thus, her persona was that of a female sidekick, but never a lover. After Payne left acting, she ran her own book store and worked as an artist, creating oil paintings for her family and her friends and illustrating a series of children's books. Payne retired from films in 1942 after her marriage to Arthur F. Kelly, an executive for Western Airlines. On May 8, 1999, she died in Los Angeles of a stroke at the age of 86.
Filmography Movies
Acting
Tuxedo Junction
The Weaver Brothers and Elviry have migrated from their usual hard-scrabble digs in the Ozarks and have taken up truck-farming.
Mountain Rhythm
The Weaver family buys some farmland in California, but the headmaster of a nearby boys school doesn't want them as neighbors, and before long the boys at the school are causing trouble for the Weavers.
My Wife's Relatives
It all begins when Joe Higgins, business manager of a prosperous candy-manufacturing firm, is ordered by his pompous boss Ellis to break up the romance between Ellis' son Bill and Joe's daughter Jean. Refusing, Joe quits his job and sets up his own candy company. It's a money-losing enterprise until Joe's wife Lil loses her diamond ring in a batch of candy and offers a $5000 reward to anyone who can retrieve the ring.
The Higgins Family
Pa Higgins' attempts at success in the advertising business are constantly frustrated by his eccentric family.
Bad Man of Deadwood
Roy and Gabby fight bad guys to save the town of Deadwood.
Sheriff of Tombstone
The mayor has sent for a gunslinger who, though appearing to clean up the town, is really to be the mayor's means of taking the town over. When Roy and Gabby arrive in Tombstone, Roy is mistaken for the gunslinger. Just as Roy is ready to expose the mayor, the real gunslinger shows up.
Young Bill Hickok
Bill Hickok, assisted by Calamity Jane, is after a foreign agent and his guerrilla band who are trying to take over some western territory just as the Civil War is coming to a close.
The Big Show
At the Texas Centennial in Dallas Autry confuses two girls by being himself and his own stunt double. When cowboy star Tom Ford disappears, Wilson gets his double Gene Autry to impersonate him. But Ford owes gangster Rico $10,000 and Rico arrives to collect. He fails to get the money but learns that Autry is an impersonator and now blackmails Wilson and his movie studio. Original version runs 71 minutes, edited version runs 59 minutes.
In Old Cheyenne
Roy is a newspaper reporter. He goes to Cheyenne to cover the activities of supposed bad guy Arapahoe Brown. Roy, of course, discovers who the real bad guy is.
Red River Valley
To bring water to their valley, ranchers have raised money to build a dam. When that money is stolen, Allison suggests the ranchers sell their stock to a friend of his thereby getting the money needed to complete the dam. Roy has a clue that Allison was involved in the robbery and is out to get control of the valley. So Roy and the boys try to delay the sale of the stock while they look for proof against Allison.
Gallery
