Few actors could have asked for a more startling debut to their film careers than Cloris Leachman, who has died aged 94. In the opening of Robert Aldrich’s masterly film noir Kiss Me Deadly (1955), she is first seen running along a dark country highway at night, barefoot and clad only in a pale trench coat.
Terrified, she tries to flag down several cars until she forces one driven by the private eye Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) to stop. He reluctantly lets her get in. As the opening credits roll, we hear her highly amplified heavy breathing while, from the radio, Nat “King” Cole sings I’d Rather Have the Blues.
Leachman is in the film for less than 10 minutes but, during that time, she expresses a range of emotions: fear, strength, inscrutability, wit and sensuality. Her last words to Hammer are “Remember me”, a plea that does not go unheeded by the hero, or the audience, throughout the film.
Cloris Leachman obituary / Guardian