Rosemarie Bowe

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Rosemarie Bowe (born September 17, 1932) is an American film and television actress.

Her father was a building contractor and her mother was a dress designer. The family moved to Tacoma, Washington when Bowe was a child. She graduated from Stadium High School in Tacoma just before moving to Los Angeles, California.

Beauty contestant

She was crowned Miss Tomica and Miss Montana in 1950. In May 1951 Bowe competed in a contest to choose the queen of the sixth annual Home Show and Building Exposition. Along with Mary Ellen Nichols, she was a runner-up to the contest winner, Linda Peterson.

Model

When she arrived in California, Bowe secured work as a model. Her measurements were 36-25-36. She is 5'5" tall and has blue-green eyes. Her modeling agency was contacted by a high fashion photographer, Christa, who suggested she pose for national and fashion magazine portraits.

Modeling for magazines such as Eye, Tempo, and Blightly, she eventually made the transition from model to actress in television. Her magazine credits include a Life Magazine cover.

Bowe's look was at times likened to both Marilyn Monroe and Grace Kelly. She always modeled high fashion rather than lingerie or bathing suits. She was never asked by photographers to pose for cheesecake pictures as was many a pin-up girl. She once said, "Of all the auditions and interviews I have had with casting men, directors and producers, not one ever made a pass at me. I guess they were afraid of me." Looks like someone must have forgotten about at least one of photographer Peter Gowland's snaps of Bowe, in 1955.

Motion pictures

She resided in Hollywood starting in 1950. Initially she was signed by film agent Charles Feldman. When his production plans stalled, she obtained a contract with Columbia Pictures. She was trained in dramatic acting by Benno Schneider. Her early experience as an entertainer included performing as a singer and dancer in amateur musicals.

As a screen debutante Bowe appeared in Lovely To Look At (1952) with Kathryn Grayson and Red Skelton. The 16 beauties showcased include Jane Lynn, Alma Carroll, Shirley Kimball, Betty Sully and Honey King. Bowe's part is uncredited, as is her depiction of a swimmer in, Million Dollar Mermaid (1952). In 1954, she was in the casts of, The Golden Mistress, and, The Adventures of Hajji Baba. The former was Bowe's first movie after requesting her release from Columbia. As, "Ann Dexter," she was featured opposite John Agar in an R.K. Productions release, set in Haiti. During filming she almost drowned, was stung by a sea urchin with three hundred needles and sustained bumps, bruises and insect bites.

Bowe was under option to 20th Century Fox when she filmed, The Peacemaker (1956). Based on a novel, the western also featured James Mitchell. It was released by Hal R. Makelim Productions. Announced in April 1954, the Makelim plan for producing pictures "guaranteed a flow of film products through a fixed fee system."

Marriage

In 1956 she married Robert Stack. The couple became the parents of a daughter, Elizabeth Langford Stack, on January 20, 1957. They shared mutual passions for the outdoors, especially sailing and riding. Stack enjoyed skeet shooting as his favorite pastime. Rosemarie temporarily gave up her career when her children were young.

In 1970, Bowe was in an automobile accident in Sacramento, California, and sustained serious internal injuries. She crashed into a concrete culvert because of a mechanical failure in the rental car she was driving. At the time, Stack was filming The Name of the Game. He chartered a flight to come and be with her.

Rosemarie Bowe is retired from show business. Her son, Charles Robert Stack, is also retired.

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Trivia

Mother of actress Elizabeth Stack.

Measurements: 36-23-36 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)

During filming of The Golden Mistress (1954), she almost drowned, was stung by a sea urchin with three hundred needles and sustained assorted bumps, bruises and insect bites.

Harry Cohn saw her Life magazine cover and initially signed her for the role of the prostitute in From Here to Eternity (1953). The casting was negated by director Fred Zinnemann and Rosemarie was replaced by Donna Reed, who went on to win the Supporting Actress Oscar.

Robert Stack proposed to her on January 8, 1956 while shooting Written on the Wind (1956), and they married two weeks later on January 23rd.

She talks about the beginnings of his career, the movie "The Golden Mistress" (1954) and her marriage to Robert Stack in the book "A Sci-Fi Swarm and Horror Horde" (McFarland, 2010) by Tom Weaver.

On October 15, 1969, she was driving to Sacramento's Metropolitan Airport to pick up Fred MacMurray and his wife when the steering in the rental car she was driving locked. The car plunged into a concrete culvert, resulting in the death of Art Lund's wife Kathleen and injury to another passenger and herself. She required plastic surgery and suffered internal injuries. She settled in 1973 with Lund for $40,000, and lost her suit with the Ford Motor Company.