by Hal Erickson
biography
American actress Lynn Merrick was billing herself as Marilyn Merrick when she began playing western ingenues in 1938. Merrick's most frequent co-star during her formative film years was Republic cowboy hero Don "Red" Berry. Shortening her first name from Marilyn to Lynn, she signed on with Columbia in 1941. During the war years, she was an all-purpose heroine in such Columbia "B"-picture series as "Boston Blackie," "Crime Doctor" and "The Whistler". Her best performance was as pretentious drama student Eve Sharon in the lively mystery Nine Girls (1944). Lynn Merrick retired from films in 1948. She died at her home in West Palm Beach, Florida, on March 25, 2007, after a long illness.
