Tanis Chandler

Chandler was born in Nantes, France. Her father was musician Chandler Goldthwaite, who was billed as Rex Chandler for his performances of popular music. Her mother was Leon Lorfray De Rousier. Chandler was educated initially by private tutors in Paris and, after the family moved to the United States in 1936, at the Westlake School for Girls in Los Angeles. After her father's illness interrupted his work on radio programs, she became a model to help with finances.[1]

In 1940, Chandler acted in a production of Prison Without Bars at the Troupers theater. Her film debut came in Devotion (1943),[1] and she appeared in Cinderella Jones (1946),[2] George White's Scandals and Wanderer of the Wasteland. She also used her fluency in French and Spanish to dub parts for foreign versions of approximately 30 films.[1]

Chandler pulled off a hoax on film executives when she obtained a part in The Desert Song (1943) by pretending to be a male, Robert Archer. A wire-service news story distributed nationwide explained, "She was aided in the deception by the fact that she and most of the other players were clad in flowing robes and burnooses ..."[3] Her success was such that the casting office sent Archer for work in another 1944 film, My Reputation (released 1946). That venture ended, however, when a scene called for being shirtless while mowing a lawn. At that point, Chandler admitted to being a female, ending her male-impersonation efforts. Her explanation for the hoax was that studio executives frequently complained about a lack of men, and she hoped for a better opportunity for roles in films.[3]

In 1945 RKO Radio Pictures signed her for one year; she worked mostly in budget features for staff producer Herman Schlom, and generally appeared as hostesses, waitresses, and showgirls. Described as an "up-and-coming Hollywood starlet", Chandler was featured on the cover of Parade magazine's April 7, 1946, issue.[4] She then signed with Monogram Pictures for more prominent roles in "B" features, in which she sometimes spoke with a French accent. Her highest-profile film is probably the 1946 Warner Bros. feature The Big Sleep.

Tanis Chandler journeyed to France is 1949, where she was hired by a production crew making the multi-part feature Return to Life; she played a British army captain.

In October 1949, Chandler married Paul Mills.[5] Chandler worked for a stock brokerage firm for a year, and she and her mother operated a kindergarten in which she taught when she was not working in films.[1] She returned to Monogram for one more assignment in 1951, and to RKO for her final film, released in 1952.

She died in May 2006 at the age of 81.[6]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tanis Chandler.

• Tanis Chandler at IMDb