DICKINSON, ANGIE

(1931– )

Born Angeline Brown in North Dakota, Angie Dickinson turned a beauty contest to an entry into a film career. While she had played various small roles, including several Westerns, before 1959, Rio Bravo proved to be her big break. In the film, which starred John Wayne and Dean Martin, Dickinson played Feathers, the sexy dance hall girl who helps her two partners defeat the plans of a gang to break one of their own out of jail. As sexy as any saloon girl character since Marlene Dietrich’s Frenchy, Feathers purrs at one point,“Hey, sheriff, you forgot your pants.” After Rio Bravo, Dickinson went on to a long career in film and television.