Julie London

Julie London (nee Peck) was an American actress and a singer who toured for more than 40 years. London, a torch singer loved for her smooth, pleasant vocals and languid contralto voice and recorded more than 30 albums of pop and jazz standards between 1955 and 1969. Her debut album "Cry me a river" which she recorded was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001. London was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for 1974 for her part in Emergency as nurse Dixie McCall. London was born in Santa Rosa to vaudevillian parents. Her first professional job was as an actress when she worked as an elevator operator in downtown Los Angeles. London's 35-year acting career started on film in 1944 which included roles for female leads in many westerns. She also starred alongside Rock Hudson in The Fat Man (1951), with Robert Taylor and John Cassavetes in Saddle the Wind (1958) along together with Gary Cooper in Man of the West (1958) and alongside Robert Mitchum in The Wonderful Country (1959). She signed a recording deal with Liberty Records in the mid-1950s. This was the start of her professional music career. The album she released was her last studio album in 1969, but achieved continuing success playing the lead female character of nurse Dixie McCall in the television show Emergency! (1972-1979), where she was co-starring alongside Bobby Troup. The show was created by her ex-husband Jack Webb.