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Known For

Barbara Nichols is known for:

  • Sweet Smell of Success
    New York City newspaper writer J.J. Hunsecker holds considerable sway over public opinion with his Broadway column, but one thing that he can't control is his younger sister, Susan, who is in a relationship with aspiring jazz guitarist Steve Dallas. Hunsecker strongly disproves of the romance and recruits publicist Sidney Falco to find a way to split the couple, no matter how ruthless the method.
  • Pal Joey
    An opportunistic singer woos a wealthy widow to boost his career.
  • Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
    A newspaper publisher, wanting to prove a point about the insufficiency of circumstantial evidence, talks his possible son-in-law Tom into a hoax in an attempt to expose ineptitude of the city's hard-line district attorney. The plan is to have Tom plant clues leading to his arrest for killing a female nightclub dancer. Once Tom is found guilty, he is to reveal the setup and humiliate the DA.

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Biography

Barbara Marie Nickerauer (December 10, 1928 - October 5, 1976), better known by her stage name, Barbara Nichols, was an American actress and model, who became prominent in the 1950s and 1960s for playing brassy, comic roles in film and television. Early in her career, Nichols was a showgirl when a club owner offered her a much higher salary to perform striptease. She declined the offer, keeping her focus on becoming an actress. She began modeling for cheesecake magazines in the late 1940s and eventually was considered a minor rival to Marilyn Monroe. On Broadway, she appeared in the 1952 revival of Pal Joey (she also appeared in the 1957 film version) and in Let It Ride (1961). In the mid-1950s, she moved to Hollywood and began appearing in showy supporting roles in A-films, such as Miracle in the Rain (1956), The King and Four Queens (1956), The Naked and the Dead (1958), The Pajama Game (1957), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), That Kind of Woman (1958), and Where the Boys Are (1960), with high-profile actors, including Clark Gable, Susan Hayward, Sophia Loren, and Doris Day. One of her few starring roles was in the 1965 science-fiction film The Human Duplicators. Her final film was Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood in 1976.