Gloria DeHaven, perky star of 1940s-50s, dies

Gloria DeHaven, the perky singing actress who starred in a parade of breezy Hollywood musicals in the 1940s and 1950s, has died at age 91, her agent said yesterday.DeHaven, who appeared in more than two dozen films starting as a child in a bit role in Charlie Chaplin’s last silent movie, died on Saturday in hospice care in Las Vegas, Scott Stander said.The actress suffered a stroke a few months ago, the agent said.A versatile singer from a show business family, she thrived in Hollywood musicals, mostly from the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio, until the genre fell out of fashion in the 1950s.DeHaven starred in Two Girls and a Sailor (1944) with Van Johnson, June Allyson and Jimmy Durante; Summer Holiday (1948) with Mickey Rooney; Yes Sir That’s My Baby (1949) with Donald O’Connor; Summer Stock (1950) with Judy Garland and Gene Kelly; and So This Is Paris (1955) with Tony Curtis.