Gaby Rodgers


Gaby Rodgers is a German-born American actress, theater director, and journalist.

Biography

Rodgers was the daughter of Jewish art dealer Saemy Rosenberg, and the great-niece of the philosopher Edmund Husserl. Rodgers was born in Germany but emigrated with her family to Amsterdam, London and finally into the United States because of the Third Reich. In Amsterdam, she played marbles with Anne Frank as her family knew the Franks.
Although she worked extensively as a television actress in the 1950s, Rodgers is perhaps best remembered as Lily Carver in the 1955 theatrical release Kiss Me Deadly. Her only other film role was in the 1953 New York indie The Big Break. She appeared on the cover of the January 1957 issue of Cosmopolitan, representing "The New Face of Broadway". Rodgers continued to work as a stage actress and director into the new century.

Private life

Rodgers was married for many years to lyricist Jerry Leiber, half of the songwriting team of Leiber & Stoller, who wrote "Hound Dog", "Jailhouse Rock", and other songs. Rodgers frequently is cited as co-author of the song "Jackson" with Billy Edd Wheeler, but this is untrue; Leiber wrote the song with Wheeler, using his then-wife's name as a pseudonym.