A sultry, smoky-voiced master of understatement, Julie London (1926-2000), born Gayle Peck, enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1950s.

London never had the range of Ella Fitzgerald or Sarah Vaughan, but often used restraint, softness, and subtlety to maximum advantage. An actress as well as a singer, she co-starred along heavyweights as Gregory Peck and Rock Hudson in several films, and married Jack Webb of Dragnet fame for seven years before marrying songwriter Bobby Troup.

Her biggest hit, “Cry Me a River,” London performed in the Jayne Mansfield film The Girl Can’t Help It (1956). After the release of her final album, Yummy, Yummy, Yummy in 1969, she continued to act, playing a nurse on the NBC medical drama Emergency for four years in the mid-1970s. In spite of her sex symbol status—London had been a pinup girl prized by GIs during World War II and was known for her sensual LP covers—she was surprisingly shy, and left show biz altogether in the late ’70s. She suffered a stroke in 1995, which led to a half-decade of poor health and ultimately contributed to her death in 2000.