Elaine Devry Dies: Actress & 4th Wife of Mickey Rooney Was 93
Veteran actress Elaine Devry, who appeared in classic television shows such as Perry Mason, I Dream of Jeannie, and Family Affair, has died. She was 93.
According to the funeral home website since1928hull.com, Devry passed away on Wednesday, September 20, at her home in Grants Pass, Oregon. A cause of death was not specified.
Born on January 10, 1930, in Compton, California, Devry started her career as a model before moving to Butte, Montana, where she married her high school sweetheart, Dan Ducich. A year later, Ducich was convicted of armed robbery, and the couple divorced in 1952. Duchic died in 1954 of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot.
After moving back to California, Devry met actor Mickey Rooney at a driving range in Woodland Hills; the pair began dating and married in Las Vegas in November 1952. She was his fourth wife.
The Everett Collection
Devry made her first on-screen acting appearances in the Rooney-starring film A Slight Case of Larceny and an episode of the CBS anthology series General Electric Theater. She also starred alongside her husband in the 1954 sci-fi comedy The Atomic Kid. The couple had a son and a daughter and divorced in 1958.
She went on to appear in films such as China Doll (1958), The Last Time I Saw Archie (1961), and Man-Trap (1961). On the TV side, she made three guest appearances on Perry Mason, most memorably playing defendant Janice Wainright in the 1962 episode “The Case of the Shapely Shadow.”
Her other television credits include Death Valley Days, Bonanza, 77 Sunset Strip, Family Affair, I Dream of Jeannie, Dragnet, Marcus Welby, M.D., Tales of Wells Fargo, and My Three Sons.
Devry continued to appear in films throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, such as A Guide for the Married Man, With Six You Get Eggroll, Once You Kiss a Stranger, and Herbie Rides Again.
She retired from acting in the late 1970s, though she did briefly return for a one-off role in the 1999 movie Heart to Heart.com.
In 1975, she married actor Will J. White, who she first met on NBC’s The Dick Powell Theater. The couple remained married until White’s death in 1992.
“I enjoyed meeting Elaine thru my work. She told me about her poems that she wrote and she often talked about the animals that used to be on her property over the years,” wrote a friend on Devry’s obituary page. “Elaine always had a lot of good family life stories, was a kind, fun & wonderful person to have known. I will miss you.”
