Terry Moore

Terry Moore (born Helen Luella Koford on January 7, 1929, in Glendale, California) is an American actress whose career spans more than eight decades. Raised in a Mormon family in Los Angeles, she began her career as a child performer in various uncredited and supporting film roles, including playing the child version of Ingrid Bergman’s character in Gaslight (1944). After performing under her birth name and aliases such as Jan Ford, she adopted the stage name Terry Moore after playing the character Terry Ramsey in Columbia Pictures' The Return of October (1948).

Moore achieved widespread public recognition when RKO borrowed her to star in Mighty Joe Young (1949). Her breakthrough led to a prominent performance as Marie Buckholder in Come Back, Little Sheba (1952), which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In July 1953, she appeared on the cover of Life magazine as "Hollywood's sexy tomboy." Following her appearance in Elia Kazan’s Man on a Tightrope (1953), she signed a long-term contract with 20th Century-Fox, subsequently starring in films such as Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953), King of the Khyber Rifles (1953), Daddy Long Legs (1955), Between Heaven and Hell (1956), Bernardine (1957), and Peyton Place (1957).

Beyond feature films, Moore worked extensively in radio and television. In the 1940s, she played Bumps Smith on the radio show The Smiths of Hollywood. During the 1960s, she had a regular role as a rancher's daughter in the NBC Western series Empire and appeared in films like Platinum High School (1960) and Why Must I Die? (1960), the latter of which she also produced. Over the following decades, she guest-starred on television shows including Rawhide, Batman, Bonanza, Knight Rider, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, Murder, She Wrote, and Wiseguy. Her later film work included The Daredevil (1972), Hellhole (1985), and Beverly Hills Brats (1989), for which she conceived the story. At age 55, she posed nude for the August 1984 issue of Playboy magazine.

Moore continued acting and producing into her later career. She produced Second Chances (1998), appeared in the 1998 remake of Mighty Joe Young, and acted in films such as Kill Your Darlings (2006) and Aimy in a Cage (2015). Her later television credits include guest appearances on True Detective and Ray Donovan. On February 1, 1994, Moore received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7076 Hollywood Boulevard. She remains recognized as one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

In her personal life, Moore married American football star Glenn Davis in 1951 before divorcing the next year. She was later married to Eugene McGarth, Stuart Cramer—with whom she had two sons, Stuart Cramer IV and actor Grant Cramer—Richard F. Carey, and Jerry Rivers, to whom she remained married until his death in 2001. Moore also attracted significant public attention by claiming she secretly married billionaire Howard Hughes aboard a ship in 1949. Although Texas courts rejected her widowhood claim based on judicial estoppel, Hughes' heirs acknowledged their long-term relationship and granted her a financial settlement.