SOME weeks ago, I asked if descendants of a Greenock-born Hollywood actor still lived in the district.
He was Frank Barlowe Borland, who was born on 6 August, 1877 and died in Los Angeles on 31 August, 1948. As Barlowe Borland, he appeared in 63 films including a 1939 version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Hound of the Baskervilles with Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes.
To date no member of the Borland family has come forward but I have received details of a Hollywood actress with local connections.
Janan Castle of Gourock told me about her great aunt, Sally Hill-Hynes, who was born in Glasgow in 1901 and left for America at the age of 20.
After a spell in New York, she went to Los Angeles and joined a Hollywood studio company.
By a strange coincidence, just as was the case with Barlowe Borland, she appeared with Basil Rathbone in his role as Sherlock Holmes.
She used several names but was best known in Hollywood as Sally Shepherd. Aside from being in two Sherlock Holmes films with Basil Rathbone, she appeared in the Snake Pit which starred Olivia De Havilland and in Abilene Town with Randolph Scott and Lloyd Bridges.
There was also a war film called Cry Havoc. Recalling one of Sally's several visits to the family, Janan said: "Sally came to see my mother and grandmother, who was her sister in Gourock in 1948.
"She brought all sorts of goodies from America when we were still on rations here after the war. My sister Sally was named for her and I was inspired to do amateur drama for 40-odd years." Sally Shepherd's later films were all small parts but she made a good living and became a dialogue coach for Scottish accents, her most significant involvement being to coach Cyd Charisse for Brigadoon.
Sally retired in the 1970s, and passed away in 1987.
Janan's youngest sister Sally also went into the entertainment world.
She trained with local ballet teacher June Suttie Bell and then did modern stage dancing, appearing with comedian Lex McLean in Edinburgh.
Sally next became a cruise line dancer and met her Greek husband-to-be. She married in Greece where she opened her own ballet school, which now has more than 100 pupils.
Janan's younger sister Marie left for Canada in 1974 with her husband Jim Lindsay and their two children.
The couple own a successful toolmaking company which markets Jim's invention, the Dowelmax jig.
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