Veiled Suggestions

Gaze upon the glory of one Ava Gardner, one of the most dazzling-looking actresses ever, whose sultry appearance and fiery personality combined to break hearts all over the place. Her exotic looks (which were bred in, of all places, Grabtown, North Carolina!) lent themselves to roles with a touch of European and even Asian flair. We adore Ava in her ball gowns, with hair tumbling down, but with her face front and center, as it is here, she's even more striking. Today, we're highlighting actresses decked out in veils of one sort or another and couldn't think of any better place to start than with the stunning Miss G...

Here is Ava Gardner again, this time allowing black lace to give her a mysterious air.

Gardner in Bhowani Junction (1956), in which she played a tormented Anglo-Indian at the time of British evacuation of India.

Silent film star Bebe Daniels, who went from comedy shorts with Harold Lloyd to a successful career in sound musicals, eventually landing on London's West End stage. We've mostly avoided bridal veils in this post, but maybe that's an idea for a future collection.

Academy Award-winning actress Claudette Colbert, showing her best side to the camera as she usually did.

Another angle from Miss C.

Lovely and amiable Myrna Loy in a thoughtful moment.

Jean Parker, who enjoyed an active career in the 1930s and '40s and is perhaps best known for portraying Beth March in the 1933 version of Little Women. After retiring in the mid-'50s, Miss Parker lived until 2005 when she died at age ninety!

Steamy Lana Turner is swathed in a tulle veil.

Veronica Lake, an actress who had some of the most famous hair ever displayed in the movies. Her peek-a-boo style was unique at the time and caused its share of trouble when female factory workers during WWII copied it and ended up getting it caught in machinery! Lake led a tumultuous life, which ended prematurely in 1973 of hepatitis when she was only fifty.

While looking at Anna May Wong for a recent post on late-career comebacks, we found this portrait of her sporting a veil.

Likewise, this shot of Alice Faye was unearthed during excavation for the same post.

In The Pirate (1948) sported not only this bridal veil...

...but also this sheer dark one.

Loretta Young could often be counted on for elaborate veils, scarves, cloaks and so on in her period costumes.

Take a gander at the size of this hat with veil that she's sporting!

Jody Lawrance was a 1950s starlet who decorated quite a number of male-oriented adventure movies, often opposite John Derek (though she also played the famed Native American princess in Captain John Smith and Pocahontas, 1953.) Career woes led to a premature retirement in the early-1960s and she died at only age fifty-five of apparently unknown or unpublished causes.

Salome (1953) not only featured Rita Hayworth doing the legendary "Dance of the Seven Veils," but also had her mother (!) in the film Dame Judith Anderson wearing a dramatic one.

We all know Marilyn Monroe's face by heart, so this shot, obscured by a veil is extremely interesting to behold.

Olivia Hussey wears a veil in 1968's Romeo and Juliet.

Veils sometimes indicate secrets and Faye Dunaway in Chinatown (1974) certainly had a few of those.

Nastassja Kinski is veiled for one of her scenes in Tess (1979.)

It was common to find rocker Stevie Nicks draped in something or other.

Here, in a scene from Xena: Warrior Princess (1995-2001), Lucy Lawless goes undercover with a veil. We never watched Lawless here, but later came to appreciate her on Spartacus: Blood and Sand (2010.)

These next six shots might be fun to watch in (very) quick succession in the picture viewer! LOL  Julie Andrews swirls around in a costume from S.O.B. If anyone could turn these into an animated .gif it would be "Gone with the Wind" fabulous.

Editor's Note: Look what one of my incredibly kind readers has worked on and sent me! 

I do have some of the best, most loyal and thoughtful visitors to The Underworld! Ha!

We draw the curtain on this subject with a few pics of one of our favorite veil aficianados, Miss Joan Collins of Dynasty (1981-1989.) This shot is from her very first appearance on the show since her character, Alexis, had been shrouded by a veil upon entering a hushed courtroom (In fact, a stand-in had been used at the end of the prior season's episode because the casting of the role had yet to be finalized at that point!)

This is one of my all-time favorite looks for Alexis.

Collins made use of a dramatic and sequined veil for this Tatler magazine cover.

Decades later, she went a similar route for this You magazine cover. (Has our Miss Joan ever popped up on AARP magazine? I suppose not as she's never been anywhere close ot retired!)

Here we find Collins accepting her medal as Dame Commander of the British Empire. Collins had been given and Order of the British Empire in 1997 for her contribution to the dramatic arts, but Damehood came for her (comparatively unsung, but nonetheless considerable) charity work.

We've always worshiped Miss Joan Collins, but knowing that she recently read and approved of our musings here has sent her skyrocketing to the top of Underworld Royalty. I love this portrait of her which manages to combine several of my favorite things including makeup, jewelry, glamour and chiffon.