- Born
- Died
- Birth nameBarbara Marie Nickerauer
- Nicknames
- The Queen of the B movies
- The Blonde Bombshell
- Miss Long Island
- Height5′ 5¾″ (1.67 m)
- She was the archetypal brassy, bosomy, Brooklynesque blonde with a highly distinctive scratchy voice. Barbara Nichols started life as Barbara Marie Nickerauer in Queens, New York on December 10, 1928, and grew up on Long Island. Graduating from Woodrow Wilson High School, she changed her reddish-brown hair to platinum blonde and worked as a post-war model and burlesque dancer. As a beauty contestant, she won the "Miss Long Island" title as well as the dubious crowns of "Miss Dill Pickle", "Miss Mink of 1953" and "Miss Welder of 1953", and also became a GI pin-up favorite. She began to draw early attention on stage (particularly in the musical "Pal Joey") and in television drama.
Barbara found herself stealing focus in small, wisecracking roles, managing at times to draw both humor and pathos out of her characters -- sometimes simultaneously. She seemed consigned to play strippers, gold-diggers, barflies, gun molls and other floozy types, but Barbara made the best of her stereotype, taking full advantage of the not-so-bad films that came her way. While most of them, of course, emphasized her physical endowments, she could also be very, very funny when given a decent script. By far the best of her work came out in one year: Pal Joey (1957), Sweet Smell of Success (1957) and The Pajama Game (1957). By the decade's end, though, her film career had allowed down, and she turned more and more to television, appearing on The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), Adam-12 (1968), The Twilight Zone (1959) (the classic "Twenty-Two" episode), The Untouchables (1959) and Batman (1966), to name a few.
Barbara landed only one regular series role in her career, the very short-lived situation comedy Love That Jill (1958) starring husband-and-wife team Anne Jeffreys and Robert Sterling. Barbara played a model named "Ginger". She also co-starred on Broadway with George Gobel and Sam Levene in the musical "Let It Ride" in 1961 and played roles in a few low-budget movies from time to time, including the campy prison drama House of Women (1962) and the science fiction film The Human Duplicators (1964) starring George Nader and Richard Kiel, who played "Jaws" in the James Bond film series.
A serious Long Island car accident in July 1957 led to the loss of her spleen, and another serious car accident in Southern California in the 1960s led to a torn liver. Complications would set in over a decade later and she was forced to slow down her career. Barbara eventually developed a life-threatening liver disease and her health deteriorated. In summer 1976, she was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, where she went into a coma. She awoke for a few days just before Labor Day, but sank back shortly after. She died at age 47 of liver failure on October 5 and was survived by her parents, George and Julia Nickerauer. She was interred at Pinelawn Memorial Park in Farmingdale, New York.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
- ChildrenNo Children
- ParentsGeorge NickerauerJulia NickerauerGeorge A. NickerauerJulia-Marie Nickerauer Wurst
- A serious automobile accident in Long Island in July 1957 damaged her spleen, and another serious automobile accident in Southern California in the 1960s damaged her liver.
- As a beauty contestant, she was crowned Miss Long Island, Miss Dill Pickle, Miss Mink of 1953 and Miss Welder of 1953.
- In summer 1976, she was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Memorial Hospital in Los Angeles, CA, where she went into a coma. She awoke for several days just before Labor Day, but sank back shortly after. She passed away on October 5, 1976, two months away from what would have been her 48th birthday on December 10. She was interred at Pinelawn Memorial Park in Farmingdale, New York.
- In the late 1940s, she was a showgirl at New York City's famed Latin Quarter nightclub.
- Attended and graduated from Woodrow Wilson Vocational High School in Jamaica, New York.
- Ten North Frederick (1958) - $1,000
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