A former ballet dancer, graceful Mari Aldon married Hollywood director
Tay Garnett, who encouraged her to become an
actress. She did, but did not leave a deep imprint on film history,
with one exception, the role of Judy Beckett, a prisoner of the
Seminoles and
Gary Cooper's charming
romantic interest in
Distant Drums (1951). Besides
this, she appeared in few feature films, and then only briefly in two
major movies,
Joseph L. Mankiewicz's
The Barefoot Contessa (1954)
and
David Lean's 'Summer Vacation'
(1955). The rest of her career was devoted to television.