Actress, Singer. She appeared in some of the biggest musicals of the 1940s. She made her film debut in 1938, under the name Hope Manning, appearing opposite singing cowboy Gene Autry in the 1938 horse opera "The Old Corral." Two more films for Republic Pictures followed, along with leading roles with the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, before she signed a contract with Warner Bros. It was at Warner's, in a relatively minor role, that Manning likely gained her most lasting fame in 1942's "Yankee Doodle Dandy." Opposite James Cagney's legendary song-and-dance man George M. Cohan, Manning played real-life Broadway star Fay Templeton. The following year she starred opposite Dennis Morgan in "The Desert Song," and she appeared in "Shine On, Harvest Moon," with Morgan and Ann Sheridan in 1944. Born Inez Harvuot in Cincinnati, Manning moved with her family to Los Angeles when she was 10 and later studied voice at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. She toured the United States and England with her own four-woman USO and recorded with Glenn Miller's Army Air Forces Band during World War II. When her movie career faded after the war, she moved on to the stage, appearing on Broadway, the London stage and in civic light opera productions. She also had her own BBC television show, "An American in England," in 1951. Back in the United States, she appeared in nightclubs and on television's "Playhouse 90" before retiring in the mid-1960s. She came out of retirement in the 1970s to appear in a number of musicals in San Francisco Bay area theaters.
Actress, Singer. She appeared in some of the biggest musicals of the 1940s. She made her film debut in 1938, under the name Hope Manning, appearing opposite singing cowboy Gene Autry in the 1938 horse opera "The Old Corral." Two more films for Republic Pictures followed, along with leading roles with the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, before she signed a contract with Warner Bros. It was at Warner's, in a relatively minor role, that Manning likely gained her most lasting fame in 1942's "Yankee Doodle Dandy." Opposite James Cagney's legendary song-and-dance man George M. Cohan, Manning played real-life Broadway star Fay Templeton. The following year she starred opposite Dennis Morgan in "The Desert Song," and she appeared in "Shine On, Harvest Moon," with Morgan and Ann Sheridan in 1944. Born Inez Harvuot in Cincinnati, Manning moved with her family to Los Angeles when she was 10 and later studied voice at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. She toured the United States and England with her own four-woman USO and recorded with Glenn Miller's Army Air Forces Band during World War II. When her movie career faded after the war, she moved on to the stage, appearing on Broadway, the London stage and in civic light opera productions. She also had her own BBC television show, "An American in England," in 1951. Back in the United States, she appeared in nightclubs and on television's "Playhouse 90" before retiring in the mid-1960s. She came out of retirement in the 1970s to appear in a number of musicals in San Francisco Bay area theaters.
Bio by: Ron Moody
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