Devera Burstein Kettner, a former actress and model who once managed the

Curran Theatre in San Francisco.

Born and raised in San Francisco, Mrs. Kettner was a famous beauty who

graduated from Lowell High School and worked as a professional fashion

model.

She acted in local small theater productions and then moved to Southern

California, where she studied theater at the Pasadena Playhouse. She soon

got a number of bit parts in movies.

Her big break came in 1949, when, under her screen name Devera Burton, she

landed a starring role in the South Seas epic "Omoo-Omoo the Shark God,"

which was loosely based on a novel by Herman Melville. The movie remains a

minor cult classic still available on videotape. After the film, she gave up

her screen career to marry the late Max Kettner and move to New York.