Veronica Lake (2025)

Veronica Lake
(2025, 9x12, pencils)

Nicknamed “The Peek-a-boo Girl” for her signature hairstyle that often covered her right eye, Veronica Lake was born Constance Frances Marie Ockleman in Brooklyn, NY. After the death of her father, her mother remarried and Constance took her stepfather’s name and became Constance Keane. It was under this name that she played her first handful of movie roles, mostly bit parts or background.

Then, in 1941, she was cast in “I Wanted Wings” and was asked to change her name. Veronica Lake was born. The film was such a hit that she was immediately cast in two more films that year, “Hold Back the Dawn” and “Sullivan’s Travels”. In 1942, she really hit it big with “This Gun for Hire”, her first of seven films with Alan Ladd.

After 1943’s “So Proudly We Hail!”, however, Veronica hit a long streak of duds until reuniting with Alan Ladd in the noir classic “The Blue Dahlia” in 1946. Sadly, her career dropped off again for the next several years. In 1952, during her divorce from director Andre de Toth, she learned that he had been turning down scripts that were offered to her without her knowledge or consent. Jerk!

Veronica spent the remaining years of her career making television appearances (something considered undesirable for film stars at the time) and appearing on stage. At one point, she was discovered by a fan to be working as a bartender. You have to admire her work ethic.

Despite a small body of work compared to other starlets of the time, Veronica Lake remains among the short list of stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Oh, and she was an inspiration for Jessica Rabbit from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”. I’m thinking it was the hair.

Notable Films Include:
I Wanted Wings (1941)
Hold Back the Dawn (1941)
Sullivan’s Travels (1941)
This Gun for Hire (1942)
So Proudly We Hail! (1943)
The Blue Dahlia (1946)