Sally Mansfield; Early TV Actress

Sally Mansfield, 77, actress in early television and such films as “The Leather Saint.” A Chicago native, she studied at the Actors Company of Chicago, the Children’s Summer Theatre in Chicago and Sherwood Music School. Mansfield began her career in New York City in 1945 on radio. Her voice was heard on several soap operas and in plays and commercials. She also danced with the Don Arden Dancers at nightclubs throughout the New York area and in Las Vegas. Winning a Paramount Pictures contract in 1951, Mansfield appeared in several Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin films and in the 1956 “The Leather Saint” starring Paul Douglas and John Derek. In the early 1950s, she beat out 300 other actresses to win the role of Vena Ray on one of television’s earliest science fiction series, “Rocky Jones, Space Ranger” starring Richard Crane. She was selected Miss Emmy to publicize the annual television awards program in 1954. On Jan. 28 in Westlake Village of lung cancer.