Jan Ford (1929- )

Helen Luella Koford was born January 7, 1929, in Glendale, California. She grew up in a very strict Mormon (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) household. Helen worked as a child model before breaking into movies in 1940. As an actress, she worked under the names of Judy Ford, Jan Ford, and Helen Koford. It was under the name Jan Ford in which she is known on radio (Jan was short for January and Ford was shortened from her last name, Kofford). She did a radio show called The Smiths of Hollywood. When the program was done as a pilot (The Smiths of the San Fernando Valley), the part of Shirley "Bumps" Smith was done by Barbara Jean Wong. Barbara Jean was busy with other projects, so "Jan Ford" was called upon to do the part of ten year old Bumps (Helen was 18 and Barbara Jean was 24 at this time). She was in the process of finishing high school and this allowed her to act without missing any school or school activities.

In 1948, she took the new stage name of Terry Moore. Despite her strict Mormon upbringing, she was marketed as a sex symbol. Her first movie under her new monicker was first used in Mighty Joe Young, a remake of King Kong (1933). It was during this time that Terry Moore (we'll use that name for the rest of the story) claimed that she married wealthy industrialist Howard Hughes. No one can prove that did or didn't happen but, after Hughes' death, Terry received a sizable settlement. She was married to five other men, despite never having a divorce from Howard Hughes. Her first of these marriages was to former West Point football star Glenn Davis. Her last husband was Jerry Rivers, who died in 2001, leaving her a widow. She has two children from her marriage to Stuart Cramer, one being actor Grant Cramer.

After her name change, Terry had an impressive radio career, being heard on Bob Hope, Family Theater, and several episodes of the Lux Radio Theater.

In 1984, Terry posed nude for Playboy magazine, probably the only OTR star to do so. She was 55 years old.

Terry Moore continues to act in movies to the present. She is now 79 years old.