Arlene Dahl, Legendary Actress and Mother to Lorenzo Lamas, Dead at 96

By Daniel S. Levine

Arlene Dahl, one of the last surviving stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, died on Monday, her son, Falcon Crest actor Lorenzo Lamas, announced. Dahl was 96. Her film and television career began in the late 1940s and continued into the late 1990s. Dahl was also an entrepreneur, starting her own business, Arlene Dahl Enterprises, in the 1950s.

"Mom passed away this morning in New York," Lamas wrote on Facebook. "She was the most positive influence on my life. I will remember her laughter, her joy, her dignity as she navigated the challenges that she faced. Never an ill word about anyone crossed her lips. Her ability to forgive left me speechless at times. She truly was a force of nature and as we got closer in my adult life, I leaned on her more and more as my life counselor and the person I knew that lived and loved to the fullest." Lamas, 63, also sent his condolences to Dahl's sixth and final husband, Marc Rosen, whom she married in 1984.

Dahl was born in Minneapolis on Aug. 11, 1925, and was discovered in Chicago. She made her film debut with an uncredited part in Life With Father in 1947. After starring in My Wild Irish Rose, she nabbed a contract with MGM, where she starred in Reign of Terror, The Outsiders, Three Little Words, Ambush, and No Questions Asked. During the 1950s, she starred in a string of action movies, including Caribbean Gold, Jamaica Run, The Diamond Queen, and the 1959 version of Journey to the Center of the Earth. She also starred in the 1956 noir Slightly Scarlet. Her final major movie was Land Raiders in 1970.

Throughout her career, Dahl also appeared on television. She starred in One Life to Live from 1981 to 1984, and All My Children in 1995. She also starred in a 1999 episode of Air America. Her other TV credits include episodes of Burke's Law, Jigsaw John, The Love Boat and Fantasy Island.

Dahl was also a published writer. In 1951, she began publishing a beauty column in the Chicago Tribune called "Let's Be Beautiful." The column was nationally syndicated throughout the country and ran for over 20 years. She also established Arlene Dahl Enterprises, which sold lingerie and cosmetics. She also invented the Dahl Beauty Cap, which could be worn to keep hair from getting ruined while in bed, notes The Hollywood Reporter. She published 15 beauty books, including one that sold over 1 million copies. The success made her a millionaire, but she returned to acting in the 1980s after she had to file for bankruptcy protection.

The actress was married and divorced five times before she married Rosen in 1984. Her first husband was Lex Barker, who divorced Dahl in 1952 and married Lana Turner the next year. Dahl's second husband was singer Fernando Lamas, Lamas' father. Their marriage lasted from 1954 to 1960. She is also survived by two other children, daughter Christina Carole Holmes, from her third marriage; and Rounsevelle Andreas Schaum, from her fifth. 

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