Drue Leyton (born Dorothy Elizabeth Blackman;[1] 12 June 1903 – 8 February 1997)[2] was an American actress and member of the French Resistance.
[3] Leyton was born in California[3] (or Somers, Wisconsin)[1] but lived with her family in Mexico, where her father was a mining engineer.
[3][1] Her Broadway credits also included Red Harvest (1937), A Hero Is Born (1937),[4] and We Are No Longer Children (1932), for which she was billed as Freya Leigh.
[9] In September 1942, she was arrested by the Nazis after northern and western France came under German occupation — but only because she was an American woman, her true identity unknown to the authorities.
[11] She was assisted at times in hiding the airmen by Sylvia Beach, American-born owner of the Paris bookstore Shakespeare and Company.