Actress. She is best known for her roles in the 1940s through the 1970s. She appeared in approximately 65 films and 400 television appearances in her 38-year career. Mostly as a brassy curvaceous blonde, she often played hard-boiled gold-diggers, party girls, gun molls and saloon girls. Born in Los Angeles to William and Velma Willes, she was raised in Utah and in Seattle, Washington where she eventually attended the University of Washington, majoring in dramatics. Interested in an acting career, she returned to Los Angeles in 1942 and eventually started showing up in comedy film shorts, including those with the Three Stooges and in a couple of Blondie features. Signing with Columbia in 1945 she was cast in roles ranging from an Air Force captain to prostitutes. She was one of a quartet of leading ladies pursuing Clark Gable in "The King and Four Queens" (1956). Later that year she appeared as the zombie nurse Sally Withers in the original movie version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"(1956). She was frequently seen in westerns to include "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" (1955), and as Belle Starr in "Maverick" (1957). She was also seen in "Masterson of Kansas"(1954) opposite George Montgomery, "Elmer Gantry"(1960) and "Gypsy"(1962); and lastly in 1976 as the prostitute Rosie in the western, "Bite the Bullet" with Gene Hackman. She made the transition to television easily appearing in dozens of series in varied roles in such series as The Jack Benny Show, The Twilight Zone, Bonanza, Hazel, The Munsters, Perry Mason, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Beverly Hillbillies and McHale's Navy. Willes again portrayed Belle Starr opposite James Garner in a 1960 television episode of the western series Maverick entitled "Full House". She also appeared opposite star Steve McQueen in "The Montana Kid" and "The Kovack Affair". After a few more TV roles, she retired in 1976. Willes died of liver cancer on January 3, 1989, at the age of 65. She was survived by her husband, Gerard Cowhig, a former NFL football player who later died at their Van Nuys, California home in 1995. In 1954, they had one son, Gerry who died in 2001.