Lee and Lyn Wilde, sometimes billed as The Wilde Twins, were twin sisters, who appeared in films of the early to mid-1940s.

Early years

Born in

East St. Louis, Illinois East St. Louis is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois. It is directly across the Mississippi River from Downtown St. Louis, Missouri and the Gateway Arch National Park. East St. Louis is in the Metro-East region of Southern Illinois. Once a b ...

, Lee is the older of the two, born shortly before midnight of October 10, 1922, with Lyn born in the early hours of the following morning. They began singing with their siblings in church, and by their teens were singing hymns for their local radio station, as well as performing in Illinois and

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

. They graduated from

East St. Louis Senior High School East Saint Louis Senior High School is the only high school located in East St. Louis, Illinois. The school serves about 1,438 students in grades 9 to 12 in the East Saint Louis Public Schools district. It was featured in the Jonathan Kozol book ' ...

in 1939.

Singing

By 1940 they were band singers, and in 1942 they made their film debuts, as vocalists for the Charlie Barnet Band, performing one song in the

Harriet Hilliard Harriet Nelson (formerly Hilliard; born Peggy Lou Snyder; July 18, 1909 – October 2, 1994) was an American actress and singer. Nelson is best known for her role on the sitcom ''The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet''. Early life and career Ne ...

film ''Juke Box Jenny.'' They also performed with

Bob Crosby George Robert Crosby (August 23, 1913 – March 9, 1993) was an American jazz singer and bandleader, best known for his group the Bob-Cats, which formed around 1935. The Bob-Cats were a New Orleans Dixieland-style jazz octet. He was the younge ...

for a short while.

Film

The twins' live performances led to another featured film appearance in the

Judy Garland Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...

film ''

Presenting Lily Mars ''Presenting Lily Mars'' is a 1943 American musical comedy film directed by Norman Taurog, produced by Joe Pasternak, starring Judy Garland and Van Heflin, and based on the novel by Booth Tarkington. The film is often cited as Garland's first film ...

'' in 1942.

Joe Pasternak Joseph Herman Pasternak (born József Paszternák; September 19, 1901 – September 13, 1991) was a Hungarian-American film producer in Hollywood. Pasternak spent the Hollywood "Golden Age" of musicals at MGM Studios, producing many successfu ...

was very impressed by them and signed them to a seven-year contract with

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...

studios. They played roles in ''

Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble ''Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble'' is a 1944 romantic comedy film directed by George B. Seitz. It is the fourteenth link starring Mickey Rooney as Andy Hardy. In the film, Andy goes to college, but soon gets in trouble with some pretty co-eds. Pl ...

'' (1944), followed by ''

Twice Blessed ''Twice Blessed'', also known as ''Twice Blessed: A Novel'', is a 1992 novel written by Filipino author Ninotchka Rosca. It won the 1993 American Book Award for “excellence in literature”. It is one of Rosca’s novels that recreated the div ...

'', a film written specifically to introduce them to a wider audience. The sisters appeared in nine films together up until 1949. Lyn briefly continued her film career after that, appearing in six more films until 1953.

Personal lives

The twins married brothers, Jim (who married Lyn in 1942) and Tom Cathcart (who married Lee February 22, 1947, in Michigan City, Indiana). They focused their attentions on family life, rather than continuing in show business, but they retained a love of music. In 1948, Lee was reported to be "seriously ill following a caesarian operation" at Good Samaritan Hospital in Hollywood. She had given birth to a daughter September 28, 1948. After leaving show business, Lee pursued many activities, including flying. She earned her pilot's license in 1961. She also attended college in Palm Desert, earning an associate degree from

College of the Desert College of the Desert (COD) is a public community college in Palm Desert, California. COD enrolls about 12,500 students, of which around one third attend college full-time. It serves the Coachella Valley of Riverside County. The college is federa ...

, and later graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Foreign Languages from the

University of California at Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

. In 1989, they recorded a reunion album titled ''Back to Together Once Again'' and continued to perform occasionally into the 1990s. Lyn died on September 11, 2016 at the age of 93. Her twin sister Lee predeceased her in 2015.Lyn Cathcart Oberlink Oct. 10, 1922 - Sept. 11, 2016
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Filmography

References

External links

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Lee Wilde Cathcart. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilde, Lee and Lyn American vocal groups American women singers American film actresses Sibling duos American twins Identical twin actresses People from East St. Louis, Illinois Actresses from Illinois Singers from Illinois Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players