b. Eunice Quedens, 30 April 1908, Mill Valley, California, USA, d. 12 November 1990, Los Angeles, California, USA. As a dancer Arden appeared on New York stages but made her mark in films. As Eunice Quedens she made Song Of Love (1929) and Dancing Lady (1933, which includes a Fred Astaire cameo). Under her new name Arden typically appeared as an acerbic, cool sophisticate, stealing scenes with devastating one-liners. She was in 1937’sStage Door in which were also Ginger Rogers, Ann Miller and Lucille Ball. In 1938 came Cocoanut Grove (with Fred MacMurray and Harriett Hilliard), and Having Wonderful Time (with Rogers and Ball). Arden appeared in At The Circus (1939), No, No, Nanette (1940), Ziegfeld Girl (1941), Let’s Face It! (1943), and Cover Girl (1944, featuring Rita Hayworth, Gene Kelly and Phil Silvers). Her performance in Mildred Pierce (1945) brought an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress. In 1946 were The Kid From Brooklyn and Night And Day (a Cole Porter biopic starring Cary Grant), followed by The Voice Of The Turtle (1947), One Touch Of Venus (1948), two Doris Day vehicles, My Dream Is Yours (1949) and Tea For Two (1950), and We’re Not Married! (1952, with Astaire, Rogers, David Wayne, Victor Moore and Marilyn Monroe). Arden’s dramatic films include Anatomy Of A Murder (1959) and The Dark At The Top Of The Stairs (1960). Arden also enjoyed radio success as English teacher Connie Brooks in Our Miss Brooks (1948-56), in which Jeff Chandler, Gale Gordon and Richard Crenna appeared. When the show transferred to television in 1956-57 co-stars included Gordon and Gene Barry. For this show Arden was nominated for Emmy awards each year from 1952-55, winning as Best Actress In A Regular Series in 1953. Arden also appeared in the show’s 1956 film version. Also on television was The Eve Arden Show (1957-58) and after a poor Frankie Avalon film, Sergeant Dead Head (1965), she appeared in a briefly popular television situation comedy, The Mothers-in-law (1967-69), in which her co-star was Kaye Ballard. Arden returned to films for The Strongest Man In The World (1975), in which Silvers also appears, and was then in Grease (1978) and Under The Rainbow (1981). She and Donald O’Connor had guest spots in 1982’s Pandemonium, the year in which she made her final screen appearance, in Grease 2. Arden wrote her autobiography in 1985.