Adele Mara (born Adelaide Delgado; April 28, 1923 – May 7, 2010) was an American actress, singer, and dancer, who appeared in films during the 1940s and 1950s and on television in the 1950s and 1960s.
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Early years
Mara was born Adelaide Delgado in Highland Park, Michigan, to Spanish parents Angel Delgado and Eloisa. She had a brother, Luis Delgado (1925-1997), who became an actor.
Career
Dancing
Mara danced as part of bandleader Xavier Cugat's show as well as on two episodes of Maverick entitled "Seed of Deception" and "The Spanish Dancer".
Film
Under the professional name of Adele St. Mara, she won a contract with Columbia Pictures and gained experience in the studio's "B" features and comedy shorts. She soon shortened her name to Adele Mara. One of Mara's early roles was as a receptionist in the Three Stooges film I Can Hardly Wait. Mara and Leslie Brooks played the sisters of Rita Hayworth's character in the Fred Astaire film You Were Never Lovelier. In Alias Boston Blackie (1942), she plays the leading female role, as the sister of an escaped and wrongfully accused convict.
When her Columbia contract lapsed, she moved to Republic Pictures, where she became a fixture in the studio's Westerns and outdoor adventures. She appeared in The Vampire's Ghost, Wake of the Red Witch starring John Wayne, Angel in Exile (leading lady), Sands of Iwo Jima with John Wayne in which she was John Agar's love interest, California Passage (leading lady), and Don Siegel's Count the Hours (supporting role).
Television
In 1955 Mara appeared as Sarita on the TV Western Cheyenne in the episode "Border Showdown". In 1958, Mara played Maria Costa in the Bat Masterson episode "Double Showdown" with Gene Barry. In 1961, Mara appeared as a nurse with Cesar Romero on CBS's The Red Skelton Show in a sketch titled "Deadeye and The Alamo". About this time, she guest-starred on the NBC Western series The Tall Man with Clu Gulager, as well as three episodes of Maverick (one with James Garner and Jack Kelly and two with only Kelly), and episodes of Laramie, Tales of Wells Fargo with Dale Robertson and The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp with Hugh O'Brian. In 1961 she appeared in an episode of Boris Karloff’s Thriller series called The Beckoning Ghost. She also appeared in the Alfred Hitchcock Hour episode "House Guest" in 1962.
Personal life
Mara was married to screenwriter/series creator/producer/novelist Roy Huggins and appeared as the leading lady in three episodes of his 1957 television series Maverick starring James Garner and Jack Kelly. They had three sons, Thomas in 1960, John in 1961, and James Patrick in 1963 and remained married until his death at age 87; the marriage had spanned half a century from 1952 to 2002.
Mara's brother, Luis Delgado, played small, often uncredited roles in films and TV, especially in the projects of his close friend James Garner, for whom Delgado also worked as a personal assistant.
Death
Mara died of natural causes at age 87 on May 7, 2010.
Selected filmography
Honolulu Lu (1941) as Debutante (uncredited)
Navy Blues (1941)
You Were Never Lovelier (1942) as Lita Acuna
Alias Boston Blackie (1942) as Eve Sanders
Blondie Goes to College (1942) as Babs Connelly
Shut My Big Mouth (1942)
Crime Doctor (1943) as Nurse (uncredited)
Redhead from Manhattan (1943) as Check Girl (uncredited)
Riders of the Northwest Mounted (1943) as Gabrielle Renaud (uncredited)
Reveille with Beverly (1943) as Evelyn Ross
Call of the South Seas (1944) as Aritana
Atlantic City (1944) as Adele – Barmaid
The Fighting Seabees (1944) as Twinkler Tucker – Jitterbugger (uncredited)
Faces in the Fog (1944) as Gertrude
Thoroughbreds (1944) as Sally Crandall
Girls of the Big House (1945) as Harriett
Song of Mexico (1945) as Carol Adams
The Tiger Woman (1945) as Sharon Winslow
Bells of Rosarita (1945) as Patty Phillips