Tanis Chandler (born Tannis Anne Goldthwaite; August 29, 1924 – May 7, 2006)
[ ] was a French-born American film actress. She was perhaps best known for masquerading as a male to gain a role in a film.
Early years
Chandler was born in
Nantes
Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...
, France. Her father was musician Chandler Goldthwaite, who was billed as Rex Chandler for his performances of popular music. Her mother was Leon Lorfray De Rousier. Chandler was educated initially by private tutors in Paris and, after the family moved to the United States in 1936, at the
Westlake School for Girls
Harvard-Westlake School is an independent, co-educational university preparatory day school consisting of two campuses located in Los Angeles, California, with approximately 1,600 students enrolled in grades seven through twelve. Its two predec ...
in Los Angeles. After her father's illness interrupted his work on radio programs, she became a model to help with finances.
[
]
Acting
In 1940, Chandler acted in a production of ''Prison Without Bars'' at the Troupers theater. Her film debut came in ''Devotion'' (1943),Cinderella Jones
''Cinderella Jones'' is a 1946 American musical comedy film directed by Busby Berkeley and written by Charles Hoffman. The film stars Joan Leslie, Robert Alda, Julie Bishop, William Prince, S. Z. Sakall, and Edward Everett Horton. The film w ...
'' (1946), ''George White's Scandals'' and ''Wanderer of the Wasteland.'' She also used her fluency in French and Spanish to dub parts for foreign versions of approximately 30 films.The Desert Song
''The Desert Song'' is an operetta with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel. It was inspired by the 1925 uprising of the Riffs, a group of Moroccan fighters, against French colonia ...
'' (1943) by pretending to be a male, Robert Archer. A wire-service news story distributed nationwide explained, "She was aided in the deception by the fact that she and most of the other players were clad in flowing robes and burnooses ..."[ ] Her success was such that the casting office sent Archer for work in another film, ''My Reputation
''My Reputation'' is a 1946 American romantic drama film directed by Curtis Bernhardt. Barbara Stanwyck portrays an upper-class widow whose romance with an army officer causes trouble for her gossiping friends, domineering mother and young sons. ...
'' (1946). That venture ended, however, when a scene called for being shirtless while mowing a lawn. At that point, Chandler admitted to being a female, ending her male-impersonation efforts. Her explanation for the hoax was that studio executives frequently complained about a lack of men, and she hoped for a better opportunity for roles in films.[
Described as an "up-and-coming Hollywood starlet", Chandler was featured on the cover of '']Parade
A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, float (parade), floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually ce ...
'' magazine's April 7, 1946, issue.
Other work
Chandler worked for a stock brokerage firm for a year, and she and her mother operated a kindergarten in which she taught when she was not working in films.
Personal life
In October 1949, Chandler married Paul Mills. She died in May 2006 at the age of 81.
Filmography
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chandler, Tanis
1924 births
2006 deaths
20th-century American actresses
American film actresses
French emigrants to the United States
21st-century American women