Boots Mallory(1913-1958)
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Patricia Boots Mallory was raised in Mobile, Alabama. She was
discovered by Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.,
where she got her start in show biz. A tall, thin, natural blond
teenager, she caught his keen eye. Her career began in the era of early
talkies. In 1933 she married James Cagney's brother William. When Boots' younger sister, Viola
"Bodie" (Mallory) Avinger, gave birth to identical twin boys Cleveland
(Cleve) and Steven (Steve) Lewis on February 19, 1941, Boots Mallory
Cagney wanted twins like her middle sister and so she adopted fraternal
twins Jill and William shortly after that. Her youngest sister,
Joan Mallory Seeley, was briefly in movies
and later was a singer in some of the biggest night clubs in New York.
A car accident cut short her time in movies. (Joan also served a brief
stint in the Ziegfeld Follies). Boots Mallory was one of a large family
in Mobile, AL. Boots Mallory was married a second time to British-born
actor Herbert Marshall until
her untimely death from lung cancer.