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Sally Payne

Sally Payne

Birthday: 1912-09-05 | Place of Birth: Chicago, Illinois, USA

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.

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

1942
Romance on the Range

as    Sally

1941
Bad Man of Deadwood

as    'Princess' Sally Blackstone

1941
In Old Cheyenne

as    'Squeak' Brown

1941
Robin Hood of the Pecos

as    Belle Starr

1941
Nevada City

as    Jo Morrison

1941
Jesse James at Bay

as    Polly Morgan

1941
Sheriff of Tombstone

as    Queenie Whittaker, aka Queenie LaTour

1941
Red River Valley

as    Sally Whittaker

1940
La Conga Nights

as    Lucy Endover

1940
Young Bill Hickok

as    Miss 'Calamity' Jane Canary

1939
Let's Talk Turkey

as    Abner's Wife

1939
Hollywood Hobbies

as    Tourist

1938
Man from Music Mountain

as    Patsy

1936
The Big Show

as    Toodles Brown