Publicity photo of Patricia Dunlap
Ethel Emily Zeller (née Dunlap; May 20, 1911 - February 24, 2003), better known by her stage name, Patricia Dunlap was an American actress who appeared in over 7,000 radio series episodes[1]. She originated the role of The Daily Sentinel photographer Clicker Binney, portraying her in the Green Hornet radio series.
Early life[]
Dunlap was on May 20, 1911 in Bloomington, Illinois.[2] She aspired to be a young age, and as a child would perform plays in her backyard.[1] Upon graduating high school at age 17, she moved to Chicago to pursue acting and adopted the stage name "Patricia Dunlap[1][3]." During the 1930s, Dunlap appeared in theatrical performances across the country[4], however, she had difficulty sustaining a theater career and began and also began acting in radio programs.[1] She made her radio debut in an episode of The Smith Family in 1931. She also met her future husband, Richard Zeller, around this time[1], and she and Zeller married on April 1, 1936.[3]
Career[]
By the mid-1930s, Dunlap had secured long-running roles on a number of popular radio programs including the hero's romantic interest in the prehistoric adventure series Og, Son of Fire, one the principal roles in the daytime soap opera Bachelor's Children, and the role of Daily Sentinel photographer Clicker Binney in The Green Hornet. Her role in Bachelor's Children would prove to be her most popular and continue for 11 years. She also worked as a model and became a popular pin-up girl among American servicemen.[5] She considered transitioning into film and tested for the lead role of Scarlett O'Hara in the 1939 film version of Gone With the Wind.[4] However, after witnessing how difficulties an actor's life could place on a marriage, she decided to quit acting, and she and her husband relocated to southern California where she studied art.[4] In the late 1950s, they moved to the San Francisco and then Berkley, California, and Patricia established a second career as a modernist oil painter.[1]
Later life and death[]
Patricia's husband, Richard Zeller, died in 1990.[1] She returned to San Francisco for the last years of her life and died in a San Francisco nursing home at age 91 from pneumonia-related complications.[4]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 "Patricia Zeller — Chicago radio star, oil painter" by Suzanne Herel, San Fransisco Chronicle, Mar. 14, 2023, archived from the original
- ↑ Ancestry.com. U.S. Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014. Ancestry.com, 2008.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Ancestry.com. Cook County, Illinois Marriage Index, 1930-1960. Ancestry.com, 2008.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Obituary for Patricia Dunlap Zeller", Chicago Tribune, Mar. 7, 2003, archived from the original
- ↑ "Radio dramatic actress Patricia Dunlap," Digital Public Library of America, archived from the original