Lonnie Pierce
- Actress
Yolanda 'Lonnie' Diane Baiano is among the last surviving actresses of the 1950s. She got into the industry because her father Solly Baiano worked at Warner Bros and her mother Charlotte Pierce was a 1920s-era actress. They helped Lonnie get a contract at the studio and she proceeded to appear in movies like The Doughgirls (1944), Anchors Aweigh (1945), My Wild Irish Rose (1947), Adventures of Don Juan (1948), Neptune's Daughter (1949), and Mister Roberts (1955). She wasn't a trained actress, but she had experience in the theater as a pianist while at University High School. Her brother Michael Baiano was an actor too who made headlines after marrying singer Jaye P. Morgan.
She had a walk-on role in That Hagen Girl (1947), but it left an impression on her co-star Shirley Temple who told a reporter that "maybe someone will discover her [Lonnie] as future star material." It was good publicity, as was her winning pageants like Miss Cleopatra and Queen of the National Peanut Week where the sponsors awarded a role in The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady (1950). She married screenwriter Vincent Fotre -who had gone steady with Ann Miller for years- on the condition that they don't have children immediately so she could focus on her career, which is when she got a plum role in The Jazz Singer (1952). It was supposed to be a 'plum role' but changes in the script reduced it to a mere walk-on. She reported to Howard Hughes a year later who cast her in The French Line (1954) where she's heard saying "au revoir" as Gilbert Roland approaches her singing 'With a Kiss'.
She had a walk-on role in That Hagen Girl (1947), but it left an impression on her co-star Shirley Temple who told a reporter that "maybe someone will discover her [Lonnie] as future star material." It was good publicity, as was her winning pageants like Miss Cleopatra and Queen of the National Peanut Week where the sponsors awarded a role in The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady (1950). She married screenwriter Vincent Fotre -who had gone steady with Ann Miller for years- on the condition that they don't have children immediately so she could focus on her career, which is when she got a plum role in The Jazz Singer (1952). It was supposed to be a 'plum role' but changes in the script reduced it to a mere walk-on. She reported to Howard Hughes a year later who cast her in The French Line (1954) where she's heard saying "au revoir" as Gilbert Roland approaches her singing 'With a Kiss'.
