by Hal Erickson
biography
The daughter of a Connecticut journalist, Arline Judge became a Broadway chorus dancer in her teens. She was given a chance to exhibit her instinctive comic talents in George White's Scandals and as a member of Jimmy Durante's nightclub act. Judge was in films from 1931, usually in hard-boiled, wisecracking parts. She gained prominence not through her largely forgettable film output, but from her marital record: among her seven husbands were director Wesley Ruggles and former Brooklyn Dodgers owner Daniel Topping. When asked why she continued pursuing matrimony despite failure after failure, Judge replied "you gotta keep trying." Retiring from films after 1949, Arline Judge spent her last years taking day work in TV commercials.
