A Birthday Tribute to Gail Patrick

Gail Patrick was born June 20, 1911, in Birmingham, Alabama. Her birth name was Margaret Fitzpatrick.

On screen from 1932 to 1948, Patrick was an interesting actress who gave off a distinct air of intelligence; she was equally capable of playing frosty ice queens or warm mothers.

A woman of many talents and interests, Patrick was a graduate of Howard College and contemplated obtaining a law degree before entering the movie business. In the late '40s she left films for clothing design and for several years ran a children's clothing shop, Enchanted Cottage, in Beverly Hills.

She then moved on to a completely new career; billed under her married name as Gail Patrick Jackson, she was the executive producer of the highly successful TV series PERRY MASON, which ran from 1957 to 1966.

She's seen above in a 1936 Paramount Pictures publicity photo with William Hopper, who would play Paul Drake on PERRY MASON a couple of decades later.

Patrick was the mother of four. She tragically lost a set of prematurely born twins in 1945, and her marriage to Arnold White ended the following year. In the 1950s Patrick and her husband Cornwell Jackson adopted a daughter and son.

Gail Patrick passed away in Los Angeles on July 6, 1980.  She was 69.

Reviews of Gail Patrick films: NO MORE LADIES (1935) (also here), TWO IN THE DARK (1936), STAGE DOOR (1937), WIVES UNDER SUSPICION (1938), MAD ABOUT MUSIC (1938), RENO (1939), GALLANT SONS (1940), THE DOCTOR TAKES A WIFE (1940), KATHLEEN (1941) (also here), WE WERE DANCING (1942), QUIET PLEASE - MURDER (1942), TWICE BLESSED (1945) (also here), THE INSIDE STORY (1947).

Notable Gail Patrick titles not yet reviewed here include MURDERS IN THE ZOO (1933), MY MAN GODFREY (1936), MY FAVORITE WIFE (1940), LOVE CRAZY (1941), TALES OF MANHATTAN (1942), and CLAUDIA AND DAVID (1946).

Update: Here are reviews of MURDER AT THE VANITIES (1934), THE CRIME OF HELEN STANLEY (1934), THE PREVIEW MURDER MYSTERY (1936), and DANGEROUS TO KNOW (1938).

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