Did a search on her soon after watching the film for the first time and learned that she was a staunch conservative in real life, an activist even. Also that she had then just recently died... in 2015, and age 92.
Personal life
Gray married Rod Amateau, a screenwriter, on August 10, 1945; they divorced on February 11, 1949, and had one daughter, Susan (born 1946). Gray’s second husband was William Clymer Bidlack, an aviation executive. They were married from July 14, 1953,[11] until his death in 1978. The union produced a son, Bruce Robin Bidlack (born 1954).[12]
In 1979, Gray married widowed biblical scholar Joseph Fritz Zeiser;[13] they remained together until his death in March 2012. They were active with the non-profit organization, Prison Fellowship, founded in 1976 by Chuck Colson, a convicted felon in the Watergate scandal. Prison Fellowship assists the church in ministering to prisoners and their families and victims.
Gray was a staunch conservative Republican[14].
In 1964, along with actors Victor Jory and Susan Seaforth, Gray testified before the United States Congress as part of “Project Prayer,” arguing in favor of a constitutional amendment allowing school prayer.
Gray died in her Bel Air, Los Angeles home on August 3, 2015, of natural causes. She was 92.[15][16] She was cremated at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery and her ashes given to her stepson, Rick Zeiser[17]. Her memorial service was held at the Bel-Air Presbyterian Church where she, and her husband Joseph Fritz Ziesier, were active members[18][19][20][21].
Public service
Gray was a member of the board of directors at her alma mater, Hamline University.[4] Gray was also active within the following organizations: WAIF, the child adoption organization as President, The March of Dimes, American Cancer Society, American Red Cross, American Mental Health Association, Los Angeles Epilepsy Society, Junior Blind, The Bel-Air Republican Women’s Group, and The Boy and Girl Scouts of America[22].
Partial filmography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coleen_Gray#Personal_life
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From the NY Times, Aug 3, 2015...
Coleen Gray, an actress who dreamed of playing femmes fatales but was repeatedly cast as innocents in noir films like Stanley Kubrick’s “The Killing,” died on Monday at her home in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles. She was 92.
David Schecter, a friend, confirmed her death.
With wavy hair and luminous skin, Ms. Gray had the looks to play one of film noir’s leading ladies in the 1940s and ’50s. But her girl-next-door demeanor effectively typecast her as the love interest in crime movies and cowboy pictures.
“I was always Goody Two-Shoes,” Ms. Gray was quoted as saying in “Dark City Dames: The Wicked Women of Film Noir,” by Eddie Muller. “The juicier parts, it was determined, were not for me.”
Ms. Gray made the most of her niche, however, appearing with some of the biggest stars of the time.
Her first major part was as the love interest of a parolee, played by Victor Mature, in Henry Hathaway’s “Kiss of Death” (1947), which she also narrated. The film was the movie debut of Richard Widmark, who played the murderer. [Tommy Udo]
Ms. Gray played a wife who refused to take part in a grift with her husband, a carnival con man played by Tyrone Power, in “Nightmare Alley” (1947). She also appeared in westerns, notably as the sweetheart of John Wayne’s cattle-rancher character in Howard Hawks’s “Red River” (released in 1948).
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In “The Killing” (1956), Ms. Gray was the love interest of Sterling Hayden’s criminal, who is bent on robbing a racetrack before settling down with her. But she would much rather have played the scheming wife who double-crossed her husband, she told The New York Times in 1999, and not getting the part — Marie Windsor did — “was frustrating.”
http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-coleen-gray-20150804-story.html
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They don't make (many) women like her anymore! She was the complete package! :)