Mildred Helen Shay (September 26, 1911 – October 15, 2005) was an American film actress of the 1930s whose affairs, marriages and glamorous social life became a popular subject for gossip columnists.

The family's friends and neighbors included Laurence Olivier, Harpo Marx, Gary Cooper and Ginger Rogers whom Shay said was her spa and skinny-dipping partner.

When Shay decided she wanted to be an actress, her father contacted the heads of Fox and Paramount movies studio for their help.

[2] Quickly, she was given her first screen test with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and then studied acting with Clark Gable's wife, Josephine Dillon.

Her first screen roles were small uncredited parts in such films as The Age of Consent (1932), A Bill of Divorcement (1932) starring John Barrymore and Billie Burke, and Roman Scandals (1933) with Eddie Cantor.

[3] After moving to England during World War II, and except for the 1948 film I Killed the Count, Shay gave up acting for the next two decades.

Shay's dates included Errol Flynn, Howard Hughes, Johnny Weissmuller, Victor Mature, Roy Rogers and Cecil B.

[4] After only six months, Shay filed for divorce because of Gardiner's much-publicized affair with ice skater Sonja Henie whom he later married.