Frances Drake

Dark-eyed, dark-haired leading lady Frances Drake was born in New York and educated in England and Canada. While appearing in musical comedy in England in 1933, Drake made her first film appearances, using her given name of Dean. Back in America in 1934, Drake enjoyed a flurry of film activity, frequently playing imperiled heroines in such melodramas as Mad Love (1935), The Invisible Ray (1936) and Florida Special (1936). Frances Drake curtailed her movie activities when she married a titled Englishman in 1939; thanks to her film appearances with the likes of Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff, she became a favorite interview subject of cinema historians in the 1970s and 1980s. - Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide