Dinah Shore (Actor)

1948: Dinah Shore (1917 - 1994), the American cabaret singer and actress. (Photo: Baron / Getty Images)

Amiable, ever-smiling singer who hit it big on the radio in the early 1940s on "The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street", Eddie Cantor's "Time to Smile" show and later her own program. Dinah Shore enjoyed a long series of hit wartime ballads including such best-sellers as "I'll Walk Alone" and the more jazzy "Blues in the Night". Her Southern drawl and down-home charm also spawned a series of countrified novelty hits including "Pass the Jam, Sam" and "Buttons and Bows". A tall, perky brunette, Shore entered films in 1943 with the Warner Bros. all-star musical revue for the fighting men overseas, "Thank Your Lucky Stars", and over the next few years tried to cultivate a girl-next-door image which suggested a more rural-flavored June Allyson type. Probably Shore's most important film was Danny Kaye's first starring comedy, "Up in Arms" (1944), but she never successfully cultivated the look or the style of a movie star, and guest spots in mediocre all-star musicals like "Till the Clouds Roll By" (1946) didn't help.

Shore returned to the radio (and Cantor) with success, and scored other big song hits including "Dear Hearts and Gentle People". The medium in which she was to become best known, however, soon beckoned, and in 1951 Shore starred in a 15-minute musical program on TV. After she won high ratings and Emmys several years in a row, the now-blonde Shore found herself in the one-hour "The Dinah Shore Chevy Show", bringing her relaxed charm, honey-dipped vocals and gently self-mocking humor to an immensely successful, award-winning run from 1956 to 1963.

Shore was less in the public eye during much of the 60s as she raised a family, but she made semi-regular specials, played live, and still remained in Gallup polls listing America's most admired women. In 1970, displaying an unashamedly middle-aged brand of American chic, she jumped on the burgeoning bandwagon of talk shows with "Dinah's Place" (NBC, 1970-74). Following up with "Dinah!" (syndicated, 1974-79), "Dinah and Friends" (syndicated, 1979-84), and the later "A Conversation with Dinah" (Nashville Network, 1989-91) made Shore one of the most popular personalities on daytime TV, one who in many ways pioneered the ground now occupied by Oprah Winfrey, Sally Jessy Raphael and other solicitous, easy-to-take discussion hosts. Divorced from actor George Montgomery and tennis player Maurice F. Smith, Shore garnered a lot of unwanted attention during her six-year affair with actor Burt Reynolds, not only because he was becoming Hollywood's biggest box-office name but also because she was nearly 20 years his senior. Shore, however, seemed unfazed by it all, as she began sponsoring an annual golf tournament, writing a series of best-selling cookbooks, and continuing to please her huge TV following with her unpretentious Dixie charm, invariably remembering to blow her trademark kiss to her audience at the end of a show.