Sara Shane, Actress in ‘Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure’ and ‘The King and Four Queens,’ Dies at 94

Sara Shane, who starred opposite Gordon Scott in Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure and appeared alongside Clark Gable in The King and Four Queens, has died. She was 94.

Shane died July 31 on the Gold Coast of Australia, her family announced.

Shane also starred with Kathleen Hughes and Marla English in the melodrama Three Bad Sisters (1956) and had the female lead in Affair in Havana (1957), featuring John Cassavetes and Raymond Burr.

With the Jane character absent in the John Guillermin-directed Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure (1959), Shane stepped in to portray Angie Loring, an American model and pilot who meets up with the King of the Jungle in Africa. The film was Scott’s fourth as Tarzan.

And in The King and Four Queens (1956), helmed by Raoul Walsh, Shane played Oralie McDade, one of four young widows — Eleanor Parker, Jean Willes and Barbara Nichols are the others — who are living with their mother-in-law (Jo Van Fleet) and harboring stolen loot.

Elaine Sterling was born in St. Louis on May 18, 1928. She worked as a model in her hometown and for the Powers agency in New York before heading out to California, where she was signed by MGM and appeared in Easter Parade (1948), Julia Misbehaves (1948) and Esther Williams‘ Neptune’s Daughter (1949).

After MGM dropped her, her agent placed ads in The Hollywood Reporter and Variety to drum up publicity for her career. As Bob Thomas of the Associated Press wrote in 1954, one trade paper “featured a pin-up pose of her from the waist. An ad in the other trade showed her assets from the waist down. Put them both together and you got a lovely girl.”

She signed with Universal, adopted the stage name Sara Shane and made two films for director Douglas Sirk, Sign of the Pagan and Magnificent Obsession, both released in 1954. However, her stay at that studio didn’t last long, either.

She worked mostly in television in the 1960s, appearing on episodes of Perry Mason, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Outer Limits and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

Shane was married to real estate tycoon William Hollingsworth from 1949 until their 1957 divorce, and they had a son, Jamie.