Veronica Lake

Veronica Lake was born November 14th, 1922 in Brooklyn, New York with the birth name of Constance Frances Marie Ockelman. Her father worked for an oil company as a ship employee. While still a child, Veronica's parents moved to Florida when she wasn't quite a year old. By the time she was five, the family had returned to Brooklyn. She was exposed to acting early when she starred in a primary school play. It was to be her only stage outing, at least for a while. Years later she finally felt that she was ready for films. Her mother and step-father moved the family to a small home in Beverly Hills, California in 1938 where Mrs. Keane enrolled her lovely daughter in the well known Bliss Hayden School of Acting in Hollywood. She didn't have to wait long for a part to come her way. Her first movie was as one of the many coeds in the RKO film, Sorority House in (1939). It was a minor part, to be sure, but it was a start. Veronica quickly followed up that project with two other films. All Women Have Secrets (1939) and Dancing Co-Ed (1939), both were again bit roles for the pretty young woman from the East Coast, but she didn't complain. After all, other would-be starlets took a while before they ever received a bit part.