BIO

Veronica Lake was born Constance Frances Marie Ockelman in New York City, in 1922.   Her father worked in the oil shipping business and died in an industrial explosion when she was 9 years old.   Her mother remarried a newspaper illustrator and she was raised in Saranac Lake, New York and Miami, Florida.   Lake had a troubled childhood and was allegedly diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic during her teenage years.   In 1938, she moved with her mother and step-father to Beverly Hills, California where her mother enrolled her in acting school.

Her first appearance on screen was for RKO Radio Pictures, in 1939, at the age of 20.   She appeared in several successful films in the early 1940s and was teamed up with some of the 'A' list stars of the time, most frequently with the diminutive Alan Ladd. Lake, who was only 4’ 11” tall, complemented Ladd’s 5’ 5” height.

Unfortunately, Lake developed a reputation as being difficult to work with and began drinking heavily.   By the end of the 1940s, her film career was over.   She filed for bankruptcy in 1952.   Lake appeared in several television guest roles during early 1950s, but dropped from view after 1954.

By the early 1960s, Lake had been arrested several times for public drunkenness and was working as a barmaid at a flop house in New York City.   Her physical and mental health declined steadily and by the late 1960’s Lake was in Florida, destitute and immobilized by paranoia.

She married four times:

1. John Detlie, art director/architect, 1940-1943, two children, divorced.   During filming in 1943, she tripped on a lighting cable and her second child was born prematurely, dying a week later from uremic poisoning.
2. André de Toth, film director, 1944-1952, two children, divorced.
3. Joseph McCarthy, songwriter, 1955-1959, divorced.
4. Robert Munro, ship captain, 1972-1973.

Lake died of hepatitis and acute renal failure in Burlington, Vermont in 1973.   She was 50 years old.

Additional biographical information is available at:

NOTED FILMS

Complete filmography at: