In Remembrance: Phyllis Kirk

     Phyllis Kirk, the raven-haired object of Vincent Price’s affections in the 1953 horror classic House Of Wax, has passed away on October 19, 2006 in Woodland Hills, CA. She was 79.

     Born Phyllis Kirkegaard on September 118, 1927 in Syracuse, NY, Kirk grew up in Plainfield, NJ. She shortened her name and moved to New York City in her late teens to study acting. She appeared in several Broadway productions before being spotted by a scout from the Goldwyn Company, who brought her back to Hollywood for a supporting role in 1950‘s Our Very Own.

     Kirk then signed with MGM studios where she made a small number of films, before moving over to Warner Brothers in 1952 for About Face. Although for the most part, her Warner output was as unremarkable as her films at MGM, she did appear in one of the studio’s landmark films- House Of Wax. A remake of the 1933 film Mystery Of The Wax Museum, House Of Wax was noteworthy as it was the first major 3-D film.

     As her career transitioned into television work, Kirk would only make a few more, the most notable of which were Johnny Concho (1956) with Frank Sinatra and her final film- The Sad Sack (1957) with Jerry Lewis. In addition to numerous guest appearances on various television series in the 1950s and 60s, Kirk was best known for joining Peter Lawford in playing the wise-cracking, husband-and-wife detective team of Nick and Nora Charles in a small screen adaptation of the classic Thin Man film series.

     She fully retired from acting in 1970.