Biography
In British films from her teens, actress Patricia Medina came to Hollywood in the company of her first husband, actor
Richard Greene, in 1946. Invited to film a screen test at MGM by studio president Louis B. Mayer, the raven-haired actress was signed to a contract -- then promptly ignored when Mayer left the studio on an extended business trip. Spending much of her MGM contract on loan-out, Medina appeared in 20th Century-Fox's
Moss Rose (1948) and
The Foxes of Harrow (1948), and at Universal in
Francis (1950) and Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion (1950). With the 1951 Columbia quickie
The Magic Carpet, Medina established herself as the queen of the "B" costume pictures. One of her more worthwhile film assignments was as a femme fatale in
Orson Welles' Mr. Arkadin (1955). She was also an impressive wicked queen in
Snow White and the Three Stooges (1961), and surprisingly adept at portraying a predatory lesbian in
The Killing of Sister George (1968). On television, Medina guest-starred on such series as
Thriller,
Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Man From UNCLE, usually as black-widow villainesses. Patricia Medina is the widow of actor
Joseph Cotten, whom she married in 1960. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide