Hollywood bombshell who ended up working as a waitress and died penniless at 50

Hollywood siren Veronica Lake's sultry looks, peek a boo hairstyle, and seductive voice shot her to fame in the 1940s. Born in 1922, she was a household name before she even turned 20, thanks to her role in the huge hit movie Wanted Wings in 1941. Based on the previews and trailers alone, she was dubbed "the find of 1941". However, just two decades later, she would be outed by a newspaper as working as a waitress in a cocktail lounge in Manhattan.

It was a huge fall from grace for the star who was known for playing femme fatales in film noirs such as This Gun For Hire and The Glass Key opposite iconic leading man Alan Ladd during the 1940s. She forever earned her place in pop culture history with the leading role in the 1942 film I Married a Witch, which was the inspiration for the beloved 1960s TV show Bewitched.

Her decline began in the 1950s, compounded by mental health issues and alcoholism. She had made 23 films throughout the 1940s but would make only one, Stronghold, in the 1950s. However, she did book a dozen TV appearances in that decade. She also undertook stage work.

In 1944, she was wealthy enough to purchase an aeroplane for her second husband, Andre de Toth. Less than a decade later, in 1951, it was a different story as the IRS seized their home for unpaid taxes. Later that same year, the couple filed for bankruptcy. She left him, taking the plane and flying alone to New York. They divorced in 1952.

Reflecting on it years later, she recalled: "They said, 'She'll be back in a couple of months. Well, I never returned. Enough was enough already. Did I want to be one of the walking dead or a real person?"

In 1955, she married her third husband, Joseph Allan McCarthy, but they would divorce four years later, leading to further decline as she drifted between cheap hotels. Always a heavy drinker, she found herself arrested several times for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct.

In 1962, a journalist for the New York Post discovered she was living at the all-women's Martha Washington Hotel in Manhattan. Using the name Connie de Toth, her real first name and her married name from her second marriage, she was making a living working as a waitress downstairs in the cocktail lounge.

When the story came out, it was widely believed she was destitute, leading fans to send her money. Vehemently denying she was broke she returned it all as "a matter of pride" claiming she took the job in part because "I like people. I like to talk to them". "It's as though people were making me out to be down-and-out. I wasn't. I was paying $190 a month rent then, and that's a long way from being broke," she said.

One welcome byproduct of the story was a revival in interest in the faded star, and she booked some television and stage appearances. She made Footsteps in the Snow, her only film that decade, in 1966. In 1969, she released her candid autobiography, Veronica: The Autobiography of Veronica Lake. In the book, she discussed her career, her failed marriages, romances with Howard Hughes, Tommy Manville and Aristotle Onassis, her alcoholism, and her guilt over not spending enough time with her children. "I never did cheesecake like Ann Sheridan or Betty Grable. I just used my hair," she quipped. She also laughed off the term "sex symbol" calling herself a "sex zombie".

She used the money from the book to produce her final film, Flesh Feast, released in 1970, but it was a flop. Three years later, in June 1973, she visited a local doctor while travelling in Vermont, complaining of stomach pains. She was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver as a result of her years of drinking.

She died on July 7, 1973, of acute hepatitis and acute kidney injury. Her son, Michael, claimed her body, and her memorial service was held at the Universal Chapel in New York City on July 11. She was cremated; however, her ashes were unclaimed for years due to unpaid funeral expenses. Eventually, according to her wishes, her ashes were scattered off the coast of the Virgin Islands. In a further tragic twist in 2004, some of her ashes were reportedly found in a New York antique store.