Nancy Olson

Olson was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 14, 1928, and raised there, along with her brother, David. Her parents were Evelyn Bertha (née Bergstrom), who was of Swedish descent, and Henry John Olson, a physician of Norwegian descent. Olson's elementary and secondary education was in Milwaukee schools. When her family moved to California, she transferred to UCLA after a year at the University of Wisconsin. Her performance in a play at UCLA attracted the attention of a talent scout who had attended to observe the male lead. ==Career==

Olson was signed to a film contract by Paramount Pictures in 1948, and after a few supporting roles, producers began to consider her for more prominent parts. She was up for the role of Delilah in Cecil B. DeMille's film Samson and Delilah (1949), for which Olson later said she was not suited. She was passed over in favor of Hedy Lamarr. Her first big role came in Canadian Pacific (also 1949) with Randolph Scott, then Billy Wilder cast her for his upcoming project. In Sunset Boulevard Olson made several appearances in films for the Walt Disney studio. The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) and Son of Flubber (1963) paired her with Fred MacMurray and were popular with movie-goers. She also appeared alongside Hayley Mills in Pollyanna (1960), Glenn Ford in Smith! (1969), and Dean Jones in Snowball Express (1972). Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, she did guest roles on television. Olson guest-starred on the television series The Big Valley playing Ron Howard's mother in the December 1, 1965, episode titled "Night of the Wolf". Olson is the only guest starring on The Big Valley to marry the character Nick Barkley. Olson has been retired since the mid-1980s, although she made a brief, uncredited appearance in Flubber, the 1997 remake of The Absent-Minded Professor, and Dumbbells (2014). In 2022, she released a memoir, A Front Row Seat: An Intimate Look at Broadway, Hollywood, and the Age of Glamour. ==Personal life==

In 1950, Olson became the third wife of lyricist Alan Jay Lerner. They had two daughters, Liza and Jennifer. They divorced in 1957. In 1962, she married long-time Capitol Records executive Alan W. Livingston, best known for creating Bozo the Clown and for signing The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, and others to Capitol. He died in 2009; they had one son, Christopher. ==Filmography==

Film Television ==References==