Karen X. Gaylord
Biography
She was born Karen Xandra Gaylord on January 4, 1921, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to a working class family (she was also the oldest sibling out of a family that had four children; all of which were girls). Her father was employed as an engineer with the Northern Pacific Railway. Following her 1939 graduation from North Community High School she had intentions of going to college to study music and art however a school friend of her's noticed an announcement in the then published magazine, Movie Mirror, saying that the studios in California were accepting photographs with names and addresses in order to help recruit 'fresh' faces for films. Unknown, to Karen, her friend mailed in her picture and not long after she recieved a letter informing her that she had been selected to come to California for screen testing. Feeling this would be a good oppurtunity for herself, and the family, they all moved out to California and young Karen began floating around all of Tinsel Town's major studios doing several screen and wardrobe tests. In 1941, she made her film debut, uncredited, in The Chocolate Soldier with Nelson Eddy. Between 1941 and 1949, she appeared in approximatley 36 films and only recieved on screen billing once for her appearance in the 1944 Rita Hayworth feature Cover Girl. Her other screen appearances included Miss Annie Rooney (1942), Thrill of a Romance (1945), Night in Paradise (1946), Three Little Girls in Blue (1946), Linda Be Good (1947), A Song is Born (1948), and The Girl from Jones Beach (1949). In 1942, the Chamber of Commerce of Minneapolis, Minnesota, selected Karen as they're 1942 'Miss Minnesota' and later covered the cost of her airfare and keep to have her return to her hometown to accept the award. Not long after this, film producer Samuel Goldwyn hand picked Karen to become one of his six new Goldywn Girls. She was also in high demand as a stand-in and stood in place for such leading ladies as Linda Darnell, Barbara Stanwyck, Laraine Day, Evelyn Keyes, Gene Tierney, and Jeanne Crain. In 1949, she left the entertainment industry believing that she succeded in her spotlight time and moved to Clearwater, Florida, to finally begin her lifelong dream of teaching music and art. In 1950, she legally changed her name from Karen Xandra Gaylord to Jane Goerner and up until the 1990s she gave private lessons out of her suburban home. Afflicted with poor health in the last years of her life, she sold her home and moved to Ocala, Florida, to live with her sister and brother-in-law, where she later died in her sleep at the age of 93 on August 1, 2014. There were no funeral services or memorials, and her remains were donated to medical science via the body donation program at the College of Medicine at the University of Florida.
Known For & Full Filmography13 Titles
Movie - 1944, 2h 15m • as Cover Girl: Liberty
A nightclub dancer makes it big in modeling, leaving her dancer boyfriend behind.
Movie - 1943, 2h 15m • as War Relief Worker (uncredited)
A conman poses as a war relief fundraiser, but when he falls for a charity worker, his conscience begins to trouble him.
Movie - 1947, 2h 15m • as Goldwyn Girl (uncredited)
Walter Mitty, a daydreaming writer with an overprotective mother, likes to imagine that he is a hero who experiences fantastic adventures. His dream becomes reality when he accidentally meets a mysterious woman who hands him a little black book. According to her, it contains the locations of the Dutch crown jewels hidden since World War II. Soon, Mitty finds himself in the middle of a confusing conspiracy, where he has difficulty differentiating between fact and fiction.
Movie - 1942, 2h 15m • as Nightclub Patron (uncredited)
Meek busboy Little Pinks is in love with an extremely selfish nightclub singer who despises and uses him.
Movie - 1942, 2h 15m • as Handmaiden (uncredited)
Two carefree castaways on a desert shore find an Arabian Nights city, where they compete for the luscious Princess Shalmar.
Movie - 1944, 2h 15m • as Young Woman (uncredited)
Stephen Neale is released into WWII England after two years in an asylum, but it doesn't seem so sane outside either. On his way back to London to rejoin civilization, he stumbles across a murderous spy ring and doesn't quite know to whom to turn.
Movie - 1941, 2h 15m • as Party Guest (uncredited)
Olsen and Johnson, a pair of stage comedians, try to turn their play into a movie and bring together a young couple in love, while breaking the fourth wall every step of the way.
Movie - 1945, 2h 15m • as Hotel Guest (uncredited)
A soldier falls in love with a newly-married woman after her husband abandons her for a business meeting on their honeymoon.
Movie - 1945, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
Johnny Riggs, a con man on the lam, finds himself in a Latin-American country named Patria. There, he overhears a convent-bred rich girl praying to her guardian angel for help in managing her tangled business affairs. Riggs decides to materialize as the girl's "angel", gains her unquestioning confidence, and helps himself to the deluded girl's millions. Just as he and his partner are about to flee Patria with their booty, Riggs realizes he has fallen in love with the girl and returns the money, together with a note that is part confession and part love letter. But the larcenous duo's escape from Patria turns out to be more difficult than they could ever have imagined.
Movie - 1944, 2h 15m • as Girl on Train (uncredited)
A naive small-town girl comes to New York City to meet her husband, and discovers that he may be a murderer.
Movie - 1946, 2h 15m • as Palace Maiden
Aesop of fable fame poses as an old man and woos away a princess who wants a king for his gold.
Movie - 1942, 2h 15m • as Marty's Party Guest
A poor girl falls for a wealthy young man. He invites her to his gala birthday party, but she doesn't have the right kind of dress to wear, so her family and friends band together to raise money to get her the proper dress.
Movie - 1943, 2h 15m • as Theatrical Party Member (uncredited)
Students at the Davis School of the Theatre are assigned "Antigone" as their class play, but they conspire to do a swing musical instead.