Midge Ware

A pretty brunette leading lady who had her heyday in the early days of television, she was born Muriel Florence Bendelson (nicknamed 'Midge') in New York's Bronx. Midge came to the screen after extensive work as a photographer's model, appearing in fashion ads and on the cover of more than a hundred popular magazines, including Esquire. In 1953, she was named "the girl with the trimmest torso" and selected from 5000 applicants as 'Miss No-Cal' to promote a high profile beverage company on billboards and in printed media (No-Cal specialised in producing carbonated, sugar-free, zero-calorie soft drinks). Midge had already been snapped up by Universal-International two years earlier and was cast in a few films, but her total screen time amounted to little more than background eye candy. Her sole featured performance for the studio was in The Prince Who Was a Thief (1951), a swashbuckler set in medieval Tangiers, now chiefly remembered for its star (Tony Curtis, as an Arabian prince) uttering the immortal line "Yonduh lies de castle of de caliph, my fadder" in his best Brooklynese accent. Much later, in the 60's, Midge had a rare leading role as an aspiring Broadway dancer in All Woman (1967), a little-seen drama in which a composer (Robert Alda) befriends and variously aids three women who consecutively reside in a neighbouring apartment.

Rather better served by television, Midge briefly enjoyed a higher screen profile as the spirited love interest of Tony Young's post-Civil War military intelligence operative in the off-beat CBS western series Gunslinger (1961). The premise did not catch on, however, and Gunslinger was cancelled after just 12 episodes. Midge then guested in a few TV shows of varying genres, ranging from The Virginian (1962) and The Beverly Hillbillies (1962) to Serpico (1976). Following her retirement from screen acting in 1980, she became strongly involved in community service. For her volunteer work at the Motion Picture and Television Retirement Community in Woodland Hills, California, she received The President's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016. Midge was married three times. Two previous husbands included actor Arthur Batanides and writer/director David Moessinger.