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Actress/singer Hilda Simms gained her first professional experience with the American Negro Theater in the early '40s. She debuted on Broadway in a 1944, all-black production of Anna Lucasta. When the show went to London, she went too. Finding Europe to her liking, Simms moved to Paris and, billing herself as Julie Riccardo, built a successful nightclub career as a singer. In 1953, she returned to the U.S. and obtained a co-starring role in The Joe Louis Story (1953). The film was a hit, but Simms preferred the stage. She would only appear in one more film, The Black Widow (1954). During the 1960s, Simms played the role of Nurse Ayres on the dramatic television series The Nurses (1962-1965).