Sci-Fi author Frederik Pohl began his writing career in the 1930’s, and edited pulp magazines *Astonishing Stories *and Super Science Stories from 1939 to 1943.
Yeah, but does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?
Actress Ann Rutherford was well known as Andy Hardy’s girlfriend and Scarlett O’Hara’s younger sister.
Reminds me that Andy Rooney was a fairly well known reporter back then.
I considered Rooney, but wasn’t sure how well known he would have been:
It’s been addressed in several recent GQ threads, and “Elizabeth of York” has not been the proper title of any Queen Regnant or Consort since Henry VII’s wife (and the Yorkist heiress in her own right). “Elizabeth Windsor” is, per the Royal Family’s own website, the proper usage for her on those rare occasions when she needs to show a surname.
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Not surviving presently, but surviving to an exceptionally recent date, were several secondary public figures associated with the warmaking nations themselves, as opposed to the living celebrities from entertainment so far listed: Vyacheslav M. Molotov, Foreign Minister of the USSR, and Harold Macmillan, Minister of State Resident in the Middle East (where he was in charge of logistics and political fall-out) during the war, both lived until 1986. Emperor Hirohito of Japan, whose decision to override his generals and surrender ended the war, died only in 1989, and of course Elizabeth, then Queen Consort of England, lived until 2002.
Pete Seeger was fairly well known even before the war, as one of the Almanac Singers along with Woodie Guthrie.
Petula Clark began her career as a child singer on a BBC Radio show for the troops.
I’m not really an expert on The Royals - just a semi-interested bystander. I guess that “Elizabeth Windsor” would have worked. I wasn’t 100% sure on the name of The Royal House at her birth until I just looked it up. She was born a Windsor.
She was not, however, a Queen Regnant during WWII and she has never been a Queen Consort. Elizabeth of York does not have to be considered a title as much as it could simply be a way of referring to her. As one might refer to her father, Albert of York around the same time.
Robert Blake started his movie career in Our Gang comedies in 1939, though he was known as Mickey Gubitosi back then. Still, he started being credited as Bobby Blake before the end of the War.
If you need to call her something, call her Queen Elizabeth the Second, or QE2 for short. There’s no need to invent names, she’s already got a name that everyone knows.
Not really a national figure, but Albert Rosellini who was most famous for being the governor of Washington State in the 50’s and 60’s, was the state senate majority leader during World War Two and is still alive today at 101 years old (and still somewhat politically active).
She’s hugely famous - she’s on TV loads and ‘We’ll Meet Again’ is played on every other programme about the war.
She was always Princess Elizabeth. But I knew who you meant, hence me mentioning it to the other person.
A Pink Floyd related woosh there, I think?
Oops, yes–didn’t mean it as a whoosh though.
Oh, actually that’s vaguely familiar - silly me. 
Doris Day was reasonably well-known as a singer during WWII. Her first big hit, “Sentimental Journey,” coincided with VE Day.
Angela Lansbury, still alive. Her first movie was Gaslight, 1944. Also starred in wartime hits National Velvet (Sadly, Elizabeth Taylor just misses the cutoff) and The Portrait of Dorian Gray.
I was worried that if I were to refer to her as Queen then some pedantic jerk would feel entitled to educate me about 20th Century Royalty. Little did I know…
She was replaced by Elizabeth Sargent, with no explanation offered.
Patty Andrews, the sole surviving member of the Andrews sisters
Rose Marie, famous for the “Dick van Dyke” and “Hollywood Squares” shows in the 1960s, actually started in the late 1920s, made a short with Al Jolson that is on “The Jazz Singer” DVD (her memory is that when they were done, Jolson said…fine kid, beat it, scram and had a radio show and records in the 30s. Not much on movies which is why we seldom think of her.
Not quite sure how famous Harry Morgan was in WWII…he had a substantial role in 1943’s “The Ox-bow Incident” but the former “Dragnet” and MAS*H" actor is still around. One of the few in the Dragnet ensemble who didn’t die in his 50s or 60s like Jack Webb and Barton Alexander. It’s the clams, Joe, the clams (a line from the 1966 TV movie)