Lois Leigh Manson was an actress, best known for her starring role as Nefertiti in the 1937 film, Pharaoh.
Biography[]
Lois was born on August 12, 1917, in Trenton, New Jersey. When she was four years old, she had begun appearing in theater performances. By the time she was 16, she had moved to Hollywood.
In 1935, she caught the attention of director Z. B. Collingwood, who was immediately enamored by her. He cast her in the leading role of Nefertiti in his film, Pharaoh. In his journals, Collingwood recalled that Lois was a terrible actress, but he wanted to make sure the world would remember her for something other than her acting skills.
On January 4, 1937, Lois was filming a death scene for Pharaoh, when she died after being fatally bitten by a snake thought to be non-poisonous. Production quickly wrapped, with Pharaoh being released that same year. Footage of her death, along with Nefertiti's Jewel of Karnak, were bulldozed over with the set, which later became an amusement park. For many years, the circumstances surrounding her death and the film itself remained a mystery for years. Many believed that Collingwood arranged to have Lois murdered; he even wrote her obituary.
In 2008, Pharaoh was being remade, with Eda Brooks starring in the lead role. Nancy Drew, who was investigating sabotage on the set of the remake, found the lost footage on the set. Depending on which ending the player gets in Lights, Camera, Curses!, Lois either walks out of the scene, or first opens her bracelet to take out the Jewel of Karnak and hide it in a corner, which Nancy then goes back and finds. Nancy surmises that her death was faked because she must have been some kind of government agent.
The life of Lois after the making of Pharaoh is unknown.
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