Sharon Douglas (born Rhoda-Nelle Rader; October 16, 1920 â€" June 18,
2016) was an American film and radio actress, most active in the 1940s
and 1950s.The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. L.M. Rader, Douglas was born in
Stephens County, Oklahoma. (A newspaper article about her high school
graduation gives her first name as Rhodanelle.) She graduated from Las
Cruces Union High School in Las Cruces, New Mexico.She moved to
Hollywood in 1939, struck up a friendship with Hedda Hopper, and
became her protégé, with regular appearances on Hopper's popular
1940s radio show. Her stage name was chosen in tribute to her mother's
Scottish ancestry. Hopper had NBC hire Douglas to play Lana Turner in
a radio biography of her early life, and later introduced her to the
RKO movie mogul Howard Hughes, who took her personally under his wing,
pitching her as a rival to Jane Greer.Douglas's earliest roles in film
were bit parts, but in 1942 was offered a lead role in A Gentleman
After Dark, opposite Brian Donlevy. Other good parts followed, but
radio was where Douglas "really found her métier", in long-running
serials such as 1944's The Gallant Heart, and the 132-week World War
II run of The Life of Riley, starring William Bendix and a "monumental
success". She portrayed Babs, Riley's daughter, in the program. Sharon Douglas Biography, NetWorth, Height, Age, Weight, Family, Married, Son, Daughter