Frances Gifford in the 1940s

 Born 1920 in Long Beach, California, American actress Frances Gifford landed her first leading role in the low-budget Mercy Plane in 1939. She played several more minor roles before she was, in 1941, lent to Republic Pictures and cast in the role which would arguably produce her most enduring fame: as the semiclad Nyoka in Jungle Girl, a 15-chapter movie serial, based very loosely on the novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The role was the first time since Pearl White in the silent era that an actress had played the lead in the movie serial genre.