Born in Fresno, California,[1] to Jesse H. Blattenberger and his wife Zola (née Redden), she was raised by her maternal grandmother.
[3] She was under contract with 20th Century Fox, and she acted in Prairie Moon (1936), the Flash Gordon serial, and some of the Charlie Chan films.
[4] Deane also toured in revues, singing "some stirring patriotic and soft sentimental numbers".
[5] She was the headline attraction in Star Dust Revue, a stage show that toured the southern United States in 1942,[6] and she performed in U. S. military camps.
[7] On December 20, 1941, Dean married theatrical agent Thomas Kettering Jr. in Reno, Nevada.