04-07-2025
Maureen Hingert Dies: ‘Gunmen From Laredo', ‘The King And I' Actor Was 88
Maureen Hingert, who represented Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in the 1955 Miss Universe pageant and went on to become an actor in such films as Gunmen From Laredo and The King and I as well as several 1950s TV series, died June 30 at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, Calif.. She was 88.
Her death was announced on Facebook July 1 by Sri Lankan actress and Angela Seneviratne.
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Maureen Neliya Ballard was born on January 9, 1937, in Columbo, Ceylon, to Bank of Ceylon president Lionel Hingert and Lorna Mabel del Run. In 1955, at the age of 18, she was crowned Miss Ceylon and that same year was selected as a Miss Universe contestant (she finished as second runner-up).
She subsequently moved to Los Angeles and in the mid-1950s had several small, uncredited roles in films, the most notable of which was 1956's The King and I. In 1958, sometimes under her stage name Jana Davi, she appeared in the films Gun Fever, The Rawhide Trail and Fort Bowie and an episode of Death Valley Days.
The following year she starred in the Western film Gunmen From Laredo and an episode of the short-lived series Captain David Grief, based on Jack London stories, before retiring to raise a family. She is survived by a daughter.
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