Carolyn Jones

She was buried in Melrose Abbey Memorial Park Cemetery, Anaheim, California. The image of her limpid eyes and tremulous voice remains to epitomize the tragic heroine of the Hindi film. Chemotherapy did little to slow the course of the disease and she died the following year in West Hollywood, California. Pakeezah (1971), jointly conceived with her husband, was completed shortly before her tragic death on March 31, 1972 and was her last great performance. While appearing in the television series Capitol in 1982, she was diagnosed with colon cancer and she played many of her scenes in a wheelchair. Her screen image of a tormented, self-mortifying woman became an extension of her own personality. Her acting career began to decline after the demise of "The Addams Family" in 1966, and while she continued to act, her roles were sporadic. Like the heroine of the film, she increasingly took to drink and embarked on the road to gradual ruin.

In 1964 she began playing Morticia Addams in the television series The Addams Family, a role which brought her success as a comedienne and a Golden Globe Award nomination. Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (Master, Mistress and Servant 1962) became in more than a symbolic way the crossroads of her life. By 1963 she and Spelling were separated, and by 1964 they were divorced. A collection of her poems in Urdu under the pen name Naaz was published after her death. In 1958 she shared a Golden Globe Award for "Most Promising Newcomer" with Sandra Dee and Diane Varsi, and appeared with Elvis Presley in King Creole. She was also a poet in her own right, and was able to lend to the characters she played a certain poetic tenderness and intensity. She appeared in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1957), and received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Bachelor Party (1957). However, her strong independent spirit would not be subordinated by her husband's genius and they eventually separated in 1964.

Donna Reed was cast in her role. She married Kamal Amrohi who directed some of her best films. A role in House of Wax (1953) brought her good reviews, and she was cast in From Here to Eternity (also 1953), but illness forced her withdrawal. One reason for this popularity was her private life, which at times rivaled the plot of any movie. In 1953 she married aspiring filmmaker Aaron Spelling, and her film career began to gain momentum. However, her studied reserve, chaste diction and -- most of all -- extraordinary voice, that struck the right balance between the erotic and the pathetic, ensured her place in the hearts of the Indian movie-going public. She secured a contract with Paramount Studios and made her first film in 1952. The following years saw her appear in a number of films, where she played many, largely indistinguishable, self-mortifying women.

Born Carolyn Sue Baker in Amarillo, Texas, Jones joined the Pasadena Playhouse in 1947. She was never really able to shake off this image of a tragidienne, and at times this severely impeded her in the exercise of the full range of her histrionic talents. Carolyn Jones (April 28, 1929 - August 3, 1983) was an American actress. Her evocative portrayal of the perennially suffering Indian woman struck a responsive chord in millions of women. By 1953, Meena Kumari had starred in three other commercially successful films: Daera, Do Bigha Zameen and Parineeta. Parineeta became a turning point in her career. She therefore heralded a new era of actresses that included Nargis, Nimmi, Suchitra Sen and Nutan.

Meena Kumari entered the limelight at a time when histrionics were taking over from glamour (as epitomized by such beauties as Naseem, Veena, Sofia and Jayshree). Her early films were rather unremarkable and mythological. She took on the name Meena Kumari for Vijay Bhatt's immensely popular musical Baiju Bawra. Mahajabeen acted in her first film at the age of six.

Her mother Prabhawati (later Iqbal Begam), a stage dancer and actress, was a descendant of the Tagore family. Her father Ali Bakhsh was an actor in films and Parsi theatre, apart from composing music for a few films. She was born Mahjabeen Bano in Bombay. She shot into stardom in 1952 with the release of Baiju Bawra.

Meena Kumari (August 1, 1933 - March 31, 1972) was an Indian actress, whose name has become synonymous with the tragic heroine. NewDelhi: East West Press, 1974. The Kaleidoscope of Indian Cinema. Mahmood, Hameeduddin.

London: British Film Institute; New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994. Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema. Rajadhyaksha, Ashish; Willemen, Paul.