Happy 100th, Veronica Lake

I want to talk about a blonde actress of the Old Hollywood era who struggled, was professionally pigeonholed despite her own efforts to subvert her studio-imposed image, and died tragically young. No, I’m not talking about Marilyn Monroe. Or Jane Mansfield. Or any of the other tragic blondes whose names you probably know more than the woman I’m writing about today. I’m talking about Veronica Lake.

You’re Googling what she looks like right now, aren’t you? It’s one of many things I’m always sad to hear when I bring her up because she certainly has a case for Hollywood immortality as we’ve come to know it. Lake became the de facto image of the 1940s, with women across the globe imitating her famous peekaboo hairstyle. She starred in several dramatic features, like This Gun for Hire, The Glass Key, and The Blue Dahlia. She also was in groundbreaking comedies, like Preston Sturges’ iconic Sullivan’s Travels, as well as Rene Clair’s I Married a Witch, which was said to have inspired the sitcom Bewitched.