Audrey Totter, who died last month in Southern California, may not have been quite a household name, but her film and television career spanned decades. She not only appeared alongside some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, but was an accomplished actress in her own right – certainly one of the most successful performing artists of Slovenian heritage ever to grace the silver screen.

Born in 1917 to a Slovenian father (a streetcar driver whose first name was originally Janez -- later anglicized to John) and a Swedish American mother, Totter began acting on the radio. Her talents caught the attention of MGM, and she signed a seven-year contract with the studio. This was Hollywood’s studio era, a period where actors were contractually bound to various studios.

In the 1940s, Totter appeared in a number of classics, mostly film noirs. Among other movies, she acted alongside Lana Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice (Totter’s role has been described as “small but sizzling”), Claude Rains in The Unsuspected (directed by Michael Curtiz of Casablanaca fame), and Clark Gable in Any Number Can Play (Apparently, Gable himself convinced Totter to appear in that film.) From years, Totter specialized in playing “bad girls” – sexy seductresses and strong-willed “femme fatales” with pronounced mean streaks.

With the decline of film noir, Totter was no longer offered the types of roles that had made her a success, so she left MGM. In the 1950s, she appeared in several films released by other studios, but failed to repeat the success she had in the ‘40s.

Instead, Totter turned to the relatively new medium of television. Beginning in 1954, she played episodic roles in several TV series, including a number of Westerns. She later got a permanent role in the sitcom Our Man Higgins. Her longest running role was that of Nurse Wilcox on the CBS drama Medical Center. Totter only had a bit part at first, but was so convincing as a competent, efficient nurse that she was given a regular role and even co-star status in 1972. The production of the series lasted until 1976.

Totter’s final acting role was an appearance on Murder, She Wrote in 1987. She died last year, just a few days shy of her 96th birthday, of congestive heart failure.

Totter received widespread recognition for her film noir roles only decades after she portrayed her “femme fatales” on the silver screen. Those roles remained her favorites later in life. Asked in 2000 about accepting other roles, she wondered what other role would have suited her so much. “A nice grandmother? Boring! Critics always said I acted best with a gun in my hand.”