Vera Miles

In the late 1940s, she made a television commercial for Lustre Creme shampoo.

Born in Boise City, Oklahoma, Vera Miles attended school in Pratt, Kansas and Wichita, Kansas. The patrician beauty of Miss Miles won her the title of "Miss Kansas" in 1948, leading soon to small roles in Hollywood films and television series. Fame came to the forthright, spirited Miles when she attracted the attention of two master directors, Alfred Hitchcock and John Ford.

Mother of Debra Miles (b. 1950) and Kelley Miles (b. 1952) with Bob Miles; Michael Scott (b. 1957) with Gordon Scott; and Eric Larsen (b. 1961) with Keith Larsen.

Was a contestant on You Bet Your Life (1950) on April 4, 1951. She and her partner won $8 in the quiz, guessed the secret word ("hand") and incorrectly answered the De Soto-Plymouth $5,500 Question ("Who was the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court?").

Had appeared in the trailer for The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953).

Ford cast her in the classic western The Searchers (1956) and Hitchcock, who put her under personal contract and hailed her as his "new Grace Kelly", paired her with the great Henry Fonda in The Wrong Man (1956).

Hitchcock cast Miles in the potentially star-making role of Judy Barton in Vertigo (1958), but Miles withdrew from the film when she became pregnant.

Hitchcock gave Miles a supporting role in another masterpiece Psycho (1960), as did Ford when he cast her opposite John Wayne and James Stewart in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), She also starred in such films as Beau James (1957) opposite Bob Hope, The FBI Story (1959) opposite Stewart, Back Street (1961) opposite Susan Hayward and John Gavin and Sergeant Ryker (1968) opposite Lee Marvin, as well as showing her consistently remarkable and versatile talent on dozens of popular television movies and series including The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962), The Twilight Zone (1959), The Outer Limits (1963), The Fugitive (1963), My Three Sons (1960), Bonanza (1959), Columbo (1971) and Murder, She Wrote (1984).

In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), John Wayne pursued Miss Miles, but lost her to James Stewart. Six years later, his luck improved. Miles played Wayne's wife in Hellfighters (1968) and The Green Berets (1968), though her scenes in the latter were left on the cutting room floor.

Her scenes as John Wayne's wife in The Green Berets (1968) were cut from the movie prior to its release.

She was cast as the wife of the U.S. President (played by Charles Durning) in Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977), a role involving two scenes only. Director Robert Aldrich praised her performance, but, as the film was running long, he cut both her scenes out completely.

In 1983, she reprised her role as "Lila Crane" in the film sequel Psycho II (1983), starring Anthony Perkins.

Retired from acting in 1995 after 45 years in the motion picture industry; lives in Palm Desert, California.

By sheer coincidence, all three of Vera's handsome, strapping ex-husbands died within a short time span of each other. Her third husband, Keith Larsen died on December 13, 2006; first husband/stuntman and small part actor Bob Miles died on April 12, 2007; and bodybuilder second husband actor Gordon Scott, who played Tarzan in films, died on April 30, 2007.

She was portrayed by Jessica Biel in Hitchcock (2012).