It’s 2026! And it’s a new month, so we are starting the year off with “Worth a Million.” This month we are learning about the careers of several of the cast members from How to Marry a Millionaire. This show debuted in 1957 and aired for two years. Up today is Lori Nelson.

According to imdb.com, the plot of the show is “Motherly Mike (Merry Anders), ditzy but sexy Loco (Barbara Eden), and sensible Greta (Lori Nelson) move to the big city to find themselves wealthy men to turn into husbands. After the first year Greta gets married with Gwen (Lisa Gaye) the new roommate in this syndicated series.”

In season two, Lori Nelson left the show. She felt she was the best actress in the series, and she did not like the development of her character. She claimed Anders got all the wisecrack dialogue while Eden was the sexy, bubbly star. So, the writers married Greta off to a gas station owner, and they moved to California. Lisa Gaye was then hired as Gwen to take her place.

Lori was born Dixie Kay Nelson in New Mexico in 1933. Her father managed a metal mine company there. At age two she appeared in local theater productions. She was voted Santa Fe’s most-talented and beautiful child and toured the state as “Santa Fe’s Shirley Temple.”

By the time she was four, her family was living in California. By the ripe old age of five, Nelson won the Little Miss American pageant, and she toured veterans’ hospitals, took roles in local theater productions, and modeled for photographers.

When she was seven, she contracted rheumatic fever and was bedridden for four years. After she recovered, she continued her entertainment work and became Miss Encino at age 17.

While working as a model in 1950, Nelson signed a seven-year contract with Universal-International. Her film debut was in a western, Bend of the River.

She continued to appear in films throughout her career, taking roles in 24, with her last one being the uneventful The Naked Monster in 2005. I sometimes wonder how movies like this ever end up on the big screen before someone with a bit of common sense stops it. The description for this one, according to imdb.com is “A brain-dead sheriff, a stolid secret agent, and a sexy scientist team with a grumpy retired monster fighter to battle a 60-foot, three-eyed cross between a man and a dinosaur.” However, if you have seen this movie and want to make a case for it, I’d love to hear more about it.

Nelson transitioned to television with her role in How to Marry a Millionaire. After she left the show, she continued to take offers from a variety of series, 18 in all, including Wagon Train, Tales of West Fargo, and Bachelor Father, with Family Affair being her last television appearance in 1971.

Nelson began dating Tab Hunter in the fifties and their friends thought they would marry. In his autobiography, Hunter relayed that he almost married Nelson, but he was also involved with figure skater Ronald Robertson at the time and was struggling to determine his sexual identity. Nelson and Hunter ended their relationship, but they remained friends, and she guest starred in several episodes of The Tab Hunter Show.

In 1960 Nelson married composer Johnny Mann and the couple had two daughters before divorcing in 1973. In 1983 she married Joseph Reiner, a police officer. After 1971, she was only in a handful of movies and videos. I’m guessing she didn’t miss the limelight; she said she always preferred popcorn and peanut butter to champagne and caviar.

Nelson died at age 87 from Alzheimer’s disease. I don’t think Nelson had the career that she had envisioned for herself, but I’m grateful we have her as part of the history of this blog and How to Marry a Millionaire. The episodes I watched had some witty dialogue and fun plots.