| Carla Balenda | |
| Birth Name: | Sally Bliss |
| Birth Date: | 22 November 1925 |
| Birth Place: | Carthage, New York, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation: | Actress |
| Years Active: | 1944–1966 |
| Spouse: |
|
| Children: | 2 |
Carla Balenda (born Sally Bliss; November 22, 1925 – April 9, 2024) was an American film and television actress. With a career spanning from the 1940s to the 1960s, she was one of the last surviving actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Carla Balenda was born as Sally Bliss in Carthage, New York, on November 22, 1925.[1] She attended high school in Baldwin, Long Island, and participated in summer stock theatre.[2]
Balenda had contracts with RKO Pictures and Columbia Pictures, but a 1954 newspaper article noted, "she didn't really hit her stride until she was chosen to be Mickey Rooney's TV love."[3] After being billed as Sally Bliss in "a few minor roles in RKO productions," she changed her name to Carla Balenda.[4] She explained: "Sally Bliss was just too cute. And I'm not cute at all. That name would type me, probably in ingenue roles -- and I'm not the type."[4] On television, Balenda portrayed Pat in The Mickey Rooney Show (1954–1955) and Betty Leonard on The Adventures of Dr. Fu Manchu (1955–1956).[5]
In 1944, Balenda married her high school sweetheart, John Martin, who was a pilot during World War II.[6] They stayed together for fifteen years, having two boys from the union before divorcing in 1959. She married secondly, in 1965, to William Rutter, until his death in 2012.[7]
Balenda died at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Los Angeles, on April 9, 2024, at the age of 98.[8]
| Year | Title | Role | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1944 | Swing in the Saddle | Judy Bayliss | |
| Dancing in Manhattan | Billie | ||
| Meet Miss Bobby Socks | Pillow | ||
| 1945 | Eadie Was a Lady | Doris | |
| Rustlers of the Badlands | Sally Boylston | ||
| 1950 | Hunt the Man Down | Rolene Wood | |
| 1951 | Sealed Cargo | Margaret McLean | |
| The Whip Hand | Janet Keller | ||
| 1952 | The Pace That Thrills | Eve Drake | |
| Outlaw Women | Beth Larabee | ||
| 1953 | Prince of Pirates | Princess Maria | |
| 1954 | Phantom Stallion | Claire | |
| 1966 | Seconds | Operating room nurse |