Carla Balenda

Career Balenda had contracts with RKO Pictures and Columbia Pictures, but a 1954 newspaper article noted, "she didn't really hit her stride until she was chosen to be Mickey Rooney's TV love." After being billed as Sally Bliss in "a few minor roles in RKO productions," she changed her name to Carla Balenda. She explained: "Sally Bliss was just too cute. And I'm not cute at all. That name would type me, probably in ingenue roles -- and I'm not the type."

Personal life and death In 1944, Balenda married her high school sweetheart, John Martin, who was a pilot during World War II. They stayed together for fifteen years, having two boys from the union before divorcing in 1959. She married secondly, in 1965, to William Rutter, until his death in 2012.

Balenda died at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Los Angeles, on April 9, 2024, at the age of 98.

Filmography

Television The Mickey Rooney Show: Hey, Mulligan (1954–55) The Adventures of Dr. Fu Manchu (1956) Perry Mason (1962) Wagon Train (1963) Lassie (1958–63)