生于密苏里州圣路易市，少时受过美术启蒙。耶鲁大学毕业，获艺术史和英语双学位，后进入伦敦大学获美术史硕士学位。1935年首次登台，演出舞台剧《芝加哥》，接着主演《维克多丽亚·里贾纳》，不久即已是一个知名的戏剧演员。1938年进入电影界，以奸诈或虚伪的反面人物形象给观众留下了深刻...
Born in Poughkeepsie, New York, Louis Albert Denninger Jr. was the son of a garment manufacturer who relocated and set up shop in Los Angeles when Louis Jr. was 18 months old. After finishing school, Denninger enrolled at Woodbury Business College and majored in business and accounting, graduating cum laude with a master's in business administration.
Petite, attractive Mari Blanchard rarely managed get the lucky breaks. The daughter of an oil tycoon and a psychotherapist, she suffered from severe poliomyelitis from the age of nine, which denied her a hoped-for dancing career. For several years, she worked hard to rehabilitate her limbs from paralysis, swimming and later even performing on the trapeze at Cole Brothers Circus. At the urging of her parents, she then attended the University of Southern California from where she graduated with a degree in international law. This was not to lead to a career, either. Sometime in the late 1940's, she joined the Conover Agency as an advertising model and, at the same time, was promoted by famed cartoonist and writer Al Capp, becoming the inspiration for one of his "L'il Abner" characters.
