Early life

Born Elsie Lillian Kornbrath to Frederick and Elizabeth Kornbrath in Hartford, Connecticut

Hartford, Connecticut

Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...

, she studied at the Traphagen School of Fashion in Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

 then embarked on a career in fashion design

Fashion design

Fashion design is the art of the application of design and aesthetics or natural beauty to clothing and accessories. Fashion design is influenced by cultural and social latitudes, and has varied over time and place. Fashion designers work in a number of ways in designing clothing and accessories....

. Her good looks enabled her to model some of her own creations for Vogue

Vogue (magazine)

Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...

magazine that led to a contract offer from Twentieth Century Fox film studio in 1937.

Career

Knox performed mainly in minor or secondary roles until 1942 when she had a leading role with Lon Chaney, Jr.

Lon Chaney, Jr.

Lon Chaney, Jr. , born Creighton Tull Chaney, was an American character actor. He was best known for his roles in monster movies and as the son of famous silent film actor, Lon Chaney...

 in The Mummy's Tomb

The Mummy's Tomb

The Mummy's Tomb is the 1942 sequel to The Mummy's Hand .Lon Chaney, Jr. disliked the role of Kharis the mummy. Make-up artist Jack Pierce spent up to eight hours to wrap Lon Chaney. A rubber mask was used for long shots...

, one of the series of Mummy horror film

Horror film

Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

s made by Universal Studios

Universal Studios

Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....

. Knox appeared as herself in the Universal Studios 1944 production "Follow the Boys," one of the World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 morale-booster films made for both the soldiers serving overseas as well as civilians at home. Knox also was a pin up girl during the War, appearing in such magazines as YANK

Yank

Yank may refer to:* Yank, the Army Weekly, a newspaper for American soldiers during World War II* Yank , the rate of change in force* Yanks, a 1979 film* Short form of Yankee, a slang term for someone of American origin or heritage...

, a weekly put out by the United States Military.

In late 1945, she was signed by Monogram Pictures

Monogram Pictures

Monogram Pictures Corporation is a Hollywood studio that produced and released films, most on low budgets, between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram is considered a leader among the smaller studios sometimes referred to...

 to portray Anne Howe, the love interest of fictional boxer

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

 Joe Palooka

Joe Palooka

Joe Palooka was an American comic strip about a heavyweight boxing champion, created by cartoonist Ham Fisher in 1921. The strip debuted in 1930 and was carried at its peak by 900 newspapers....

 in Joe Palooka, Champ. Based on the very popular comic strip

Comic strip

A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....

, the instant success of the May 1946 film led to Elyse Knox appearing in another five Joe Palooka productions. After acting in thirty-nine films, Elyse Knox retired in 1949 following her performance in the musical film

Musical film

The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...

 There's a Girl in My Heart.

Personal life

Knox continued to do modeling work for print ads and while appearing on the Bing Crosby

Bing Crosby

Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....

 radio show she met football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 star Tom Harmon

Tom Harmon

Thomas Dudley Harmon was a star player in American college football, a sports broadcaster, and patriarch of a family of American actors...

. They became engaged, but broke up when Harmon entered the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942. That year, Knox married fashion photographer Paul Hesse, who had shot many of her print ads and magazine covers. The marriage was brief. Following her divorce and Tom Harmon's return from World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 (during which he survived two plane crashes and being lost in the jungle), she and Harmon married in 1944. Knox's wedding dress was made from silk from the parachute Harmon used when bailing out of his crippled plane. The couple remained together until his death in 1990. They had three children, Kristin (b.1945), an actress and painter who at seventeen married recording artist Ricky Nelson

Ricky Nelson

Eric Hilliard Nelson , better known as Ricky Nelson or Rick Nelson, was an American singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, and actor...

 and had Tracy

Tracy Nelson (actress)

Tracy Kristine Nelson is an American actress.-Early life:Tracy Nelson is a third generation performer; her parents were Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Ricky Nelson and actress/artist Kristin Nelson . She has three younger siblings: Matthew Nelson, Gunnar Nelson of the '90s rock group Nelson,...

, twins Gunnar

Gunnar Nelson

Gunnar Eric Nelson is an American musician, singer, and songwriter and international multi-platinum recording artist.-Family:...

 and Matthew, and son Sam; Kelly (b. 1948), who modeled and also acted in film and television (TJ Hooker) and was once married to automaker John DeLorean; and Mark

Mark Harmon

Mark Harmon is an American actor who has been starring in American television programs and films since the mid-1970s, after a career as a collegiate football player with the UCLA Bruins. Since 2003, Harmon has starred as Leroy Jethro Gibbs in the CBS series NCIS.-Early life:Harmon was born Thomas...

 (b.1951), film and television actor who starred in films such as The Presidio

The Presidio (film)

The Presidio is a 1988 American mystery film directed by Peter Hyams, starring Sean Connery and Mark Harmon. Hyams also photographed. The score was composed by Bruce Broughton.-Plot:...

 and the current TV show NCIS

NCIS (TV series)

NCIS, formerly known as NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service, is an American police procedural drama television series revolving around a fictional team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which conducts criminal investigations involving the U.S...

.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1937	Wake Up and Live Wake Up and Live Wake Up and Live is a 1937 Fox musical film directed by Sidney Lanfield and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. The movie stars Walter Winchell, Ben Bernie and Alice Faye and was based upon the self-help bestseller by Dorothea Brande...	Nurse	uncredited
1940	Lillian Russell Lillian Russell (film) Lillian Russell is a 1940 biographical film of the life of the singer and actress. The screenplay was by William Anthony McGuire. The film was directed by Irving Cummings and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. It starred Alice Faye in the title role, Don Ameche, Henry Fonda and Edward Arnold as Diamond...	Lillian Russell's Sister	performer: "Brighten the Corner Where You Are"
	Youth Will Be Served	Pamela
	Yesterday's Heroes	Undetermined role	uncredited
	Girl from Avenue A	Angela
	Girl in 313	Judith Wilson
	Star Dust	Girl	uncredited
	Free, Blonde and 21	Marjorie
1941	Miss Polly	Barbara Snodgrass
	All-American Co-Ed	Co-ed	uncredited
	Tanks a Million	Jeannie
	Sheriff of Tombstone	Mary Carson
	Footlight Fever	Eileen Drake
1942	Arabian Nights Arabian Nights (1942 film) Arabian Nights is a 1942 adventure film starring Sabu, Maria Montez, Jon Hall and Leif Erickson and directed by John Rawlins. The film is derived from The Book of One Thousand and One Nights but owes more to the imagination of Universal Pictures than the original Arabian stories...	Duenna	uncredited
	The Mummy's Tomb The Mummy's Tomb The Mummy's Tomb is the 1942 sequel to The Mummy's Hand .Lon Chaney, Jr. disliked the role of Kharis the mummy. Make-up artist Jack Pierce spent up to eight hours to wrap Lon Chaney. A rubber mask was used for long shots...	Isobel Evans
	Top Sergeant	Helen Gray
	Hay Foot Hay Foot - Cast :*William Tracy as Sergeant "Dodo" Doubleday*Joe Sawyer as Sergeant Ames*James Gleason as Colonel J. A. Barkley*Noah Beery Jr. as Sgt. Charlie Cobb*Elyse Knox as Betty Barkley*Douglas Fowley as Captain Rossmead*Harold Goodwin as Lieutenant Caldwell...	Betty Barkley
1943	Hi'ya, Sailor	Pat Rogers
	So's Your Uncle	Patricia Williams
	Hit the Ice	Nurse Peggy Osborne
	Mister Big	Alice Taswell
	Keep 'Em Slugging	Suzanne
	Don Winslow of the Coast Guard Don Winslow of the Coast Guard Don Winslow of the Coast Guard is a Universal Pictures film serial based on the comic strip by Frank V. Martinbek.-Production:Martinbek's comic strip was approved by the US Navy...	Mercedes Colby
1944	Army Wives	Jerry Van Dyke
	A Wave, a WAC and a Marine	Marian
	Moonlight and Cactus	Louise Ferguson
	Follow the Boys Follow the Boys Follow the Boys , also known as Three Cheers for the Boys, is a musical film made by Universal Pictures as an all-star cast morale booster to entertain the troops abroad and the civilians at home. The film was directed by A. Edward "Eddie" Sutherland and produced by Charles K. Feldman...	Herself
1946	Sweetheart of Sigma Chi	Betty Allen
	Gentleman Joe Palooka	Anne Howe
	Joe Palooka, Champ	Anne Howe
1947	Linda Be Good	Linda Prentiss
	Joe Palooka in the Knockout	Anne Howe
	Black Gold	Ruth Frazer
1948	Joe Palooka in Winner Take All	Anne Howe
	I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes	Ann Quinn
	Joe Palooka in Fighting Mad	Anne Howe
1949	There's a Girl in My Heart	Claire Adamson
	Joe Palooka in the Counterpunch	Anne Howe
	Forgotten Women	Kate Allison
1953	I Was a Burlesque Queen	Linda Prentiss	archive footage
1999	Mummy Dearest: A Horror Tradition Unearthed	Isobel Evans	archive footage

External links