Born 1920 as Irene Vivian Coe in Hollywood, California, American actress Vivian Austin played a variety of bit parts (as well as extra and stunt work) in movies before being cast as the female romantic lead in The Adventures of Red Ryder (1940). She was signed to a stock contract in 1943 by Universal and as Vivian Austin (for Universal) or Terry Austin (under contract to Eagle-Lion Films) appeared in movies such as Destiny (1944), Trigger Trail (1944), Born To Speed (1947) and Philo Vance Returns (1947).
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Her career was cut short in the late 1940s by kidney failure and resultant blindness. After her retirement, Austin helped Jane Russell to found the World Adoption International Fund (WAIF) and herself founded the Braille Auxiliary of the Desert, an organization to support the charitable activities of the Braille Institute.
In 1996, Austin lived in Palm Springs, California. She died from natural causes in a hospital in Los Angeles, California in 2004, aged 84. Take a look at these gorgeous photos to see the beauty of a young Vivian Austin in the 1940s.
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