The Peekaboo Girl

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Born Constance Frances Marie Ockelman on November, 14, 1922 she was diagnosed early on with schizophrenia. Her mother put her into a acting school in hopes this would help her condition. In the later 1930's director Johan Farrow noticed how her hair always fell over her right eye which seemed to create an air of mystery and enhanced her natural beauty. This was the beginning of her being dubbed "The Peekaboo Girl". It was the Paramount producer Arthur Hornblow, Jr. who changed her name to Veronica Lake. She made seven pictures with Alan ladd because she was the only actress at the studio that matched his short stature of five feet five inches. She wrote in her memoirs about romances she had with Howard Hughes, Aristotle Onassis. and Marlon Brando Her film career soared from the early 40's to the early 50's and then alcoholism took over her life. She worked in several New York bars and was arrested several times for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct. Having earned her flying license in 1946 she flew solo between New York and Los Angeles. In 1948 her mother sued her for support. Because of a piece that ran in the New York Post about her being found working as a barmaid in 1962 fans began to send her money thinking she was destitute. She quickly sent it back to them. She was married four times between 1943 and 1970 and had four children, one which died. She died of hepatitis and acute renal failure in 1973 at the age of 50.