Thelma Orloff; Stars’ Realty Agent

Thelma Orloff, who appeared as a young actress with many future Hollywood stars but later became a well-known Beverly Hills real estate agent who sold their homes, has died.

Her daughter, Katherine, said this week that her mother was 76 when she died Nov. 23 in Los Angeles of kidney failure.

Born Thelma Joel in Los Angeles, she joined Metro Goldwyn Mayer as a contract player after graduating from high school. She had small parts in many of the Samuel Goldwyn musicals and comedies of the 1930s and ‘40s before marrying screenwriter Arthur Orloff in 1944.

One of her friends from that era was Lucille Ball. Mrs. Orloff was one of the agents involved in the sale of Miss Ball’s palatial Beverly Hills home after the actress’s death.

Other celebrities whose homes she handled include Eva Gabor, George Segal, Rona Barrett, Joan Collins, Johnny Green and Bobby Vinton, among others.

Over the years she became a spokesman for the Southern California real estate industry on many of the nation’s talk and interview shows.

She is survived by her husband and daughter.