A Pine Bluff native with a successful acting career later wrote the script for a legendary monster movie. Kate Linaker was born in 1913 and attended acting classes in the Northeast before landing her first movie role in 1936.
She starred in five Charlie Chan movies and worked with actors from Henry Fonda to Claudette Colbert to Lum and Abner. She served in the Red Cross during World War II, meeting her future husband, Howard Phillips. After the war, they teamed up to write for television. They ended up in New Hampshire, and in 1958 Kate Phillips co-wrote the script for The Blob, Steve McQueen’s first major acting role.
She remembered, “Both Steve McQueen and I were to receive $150 plus 10 percent of the gross. Neither of us got the percentage – and the film and its remake have earned millions – but I got an important writing credit and Steve became a star!” She later taught acting and screenwriting at colleges in New Hampshire and Canada. Kate Phillips died in 2008.
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