Wanda Hendrix
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Wanda Hendrix
Birth name: Dixie Wanda Hendrix
Born: November 3, 1928 Jacksonville, Florida, USA
Died: February 1, 1981 (aged 52) (pneumonia) Burbank, California, U.S.A.
Occupation: Musician
Spouse(s): Steve LaMonte (1969 - 1979), Jim Stack (1954 - 1958), Audie Murphy (1949 - 1950)
Wanda Hendrix (November 3, 1928 - February 1, 1981) was an American film actress. Born Dixie Wanda Hendrix in Jacksonville, Florida, Hendrix was performing in her local amateur theater when she was seen by a talent agent who signed her to a Hollywood contract.
Acting career and marriage
She made her first film Confidential Agent in 1945 and for the first few years of her career was consistently cast in ''B'' pictures. By the late 1940s she was being included in more prestigious films, such as Ride the Pink Horse (1947) and Miss Tatlock's Millions (1948).
In 1949 Audie Murphy saw Hendrix on the cover of a magazine and asked to meet her. They were married soon after, but the marriage lasted less than a year. Hendrix later said that Murphy had wanted her to give up her career, but more significantly he was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder from his service in World War II and during ''flashback'' episodes he would turn on her, once holding her at gunpoint. In her later years, Hendrix spoke of Murphy's condition with empathy.
Hendrix resumed her career but found it difficult to obtain good roles. After a few years she married and retired from acting, but made occasional appearances in television series such as My Three Sons and Bewitched. She died in Burbank, California from double pneumonia at the age of 52, and was interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery.
