Persondata
NAME
Henry, Gloria
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION
actress
DATE OF BIRTH
April 2, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Gloria Henry was born Gloria McEniry on April 2, 1923, in New Orleans, Louisiana. She is an American actress. Best known for her role as "Alice Mitchell", Dennis’s mom, from the 1959 Sitcom, Dennis the Menace.
Henry lived and grew up on the edge of the Garden District of New Orleans. She was educated at the Worcester Art Museum School.
She moved to Los Angeles in her very late teens and worked on a number of radio shows and commercials using the stage name of Gloria Henry. She also performed in little theater groups.
Signed by an agent, she transitioned into film work via Columbia Studios and made her debut as the female lead in the minor horse-racing film Sport of Kings (1947).
The 1950s were an uneventful mixture of more "B" films and episodic TV guest parts (My Little Margie (1952), Perry Mason (1957)). She also was a regular on the private eye series The Files of Jeffrey Jones (1954) starring Don Haggerty, but was written out of the show due to pregnancy.
She appeared in the film Gang War (1958) starring a young and up-and-coming Charles Bronson. Her notoriety changed in 1959 when she won the role of "Alice Mitchell" (Dennis’s mom) on the comedy series Dennis the Menace
The series co-starred Herbert Anderson as her husband and young Jay North in the title role of Dennis. Gloria was the picture of sunny innocence and maternal warmth and enjoyed four seasons.
Gloria's career slowed down considerably after Dennis the Menace. She was spotted occasionally in TV-movies playing assorted bit-part matrons and returned to the big screen in a brief role in Her Minor Thing (2005), a romantic comedy directed by Charles Matthau, Walter Matthau's son. She occasionally attends film festivals and nostalgic conventions.
Gloria wed architect Craig Ellwood in 1949; they divorced in 1977. She has three children from that marriage: Jeffrey, Adam and Erin Ellwood.
