Jane Greer (September 9, 1924 - August 24, 2001) was a movie actress who was perhaps best known for her role as femme fatale Kathie Moffat in Out of the Past (1947). The five-foot five Greer began life as Bettejane Greer in Washington D.C. A beauty-contest winner and professional model from her teens, Greer began her show business career as a big band singer. Howard Hughes spotted Greer modeling on the cover of Life magazine on June 8, 1942 and sent her to Hollywood to become an actress. She married Rudy Vallee, her senior by 22 years, the same year. Hughes lent out the actress to RKO to star in many films including Dick Tracy (1945), Out of the Past, The Falcon's Alibi (1946), They Won't Believe Me (1947), and the comedy/suspense film The Big Steal (1949), alongside Out of the Past co-star Robert Mitchum. Hughes refused to let her work for a time; when she finally began film acting again, she appeared in The Prisoner of Zenda (1952), The Clown (1953), Run for the Sun (1956), The Man of a Thousand Faces (1957), Where Love Has Gone (1964) and The Outfit (1973). In 1984 she was cast in Against All Odds, a remake of Out of the Past, playing Rachel Ward's mother. She also participated in an Out of the Past parody on TV's Saturday Night Live with her original costar Robert Mitchum.
Her son Lawrence Lasker is a movie producer. He has co-produced several films, including WarGames (1983) and Sneakers (1992).
Greer died of cancer at the age of 76 in 2001 and was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.
Out of the Past (1947)
