Vera Miles

Born: 23 August 1929
Where: Boise City, Oklahoma

At the age of 19, Vera won third place in the Miss America contest, and worked as a model for a time, before breaking into films in 1951 with Two Tickets to Broadway.

She played her first female lead in The Rose Bowl Story, before working on a series of TV anthologies with the directors who helmed her most important films.

She first worked with Alfred Hitchcock on an episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" which he also directed, then she worked with John Ford on Rookie of the Year an episode of "Screen Directors Playhouse".

Hitchcock obviously saw in Miles a gift and cast her in The Wrong Man opposite Henry Fonda. She was also cast in Hitchcock's Vertigo, but had to withdraw when she became pregnant.

In 1960, she appeared in her last feature with Hitchcock, Psycho, and two years later was in her second and last feature, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, with director Ford.

Beginning with A Tiger Walks and Those Calloways, Miles made six films for Disney over the next eight years, including Follow Me, Boys! and The Castaway Cowboy.

Though she acted less often and in smaller films, Miles continued playing leads into the 80s, reprising her role as Lila in the sequel, Psycho II, before appearing in The Initiation and Separate Lives.