Patricia Dane born August 4, 1917 – June 5, 1995 , an American film actress of the 1940s.

 

Patricia Dane born August 4, 1917 – June 5, 1995

 an American film actress of the 1940s.

Patricia Dane (born Thelma Patricia Pippins, August 4, 1917 – June 5, 1995)[1] was an American film actress of the 1940s.

Early life

Dane was born Thelma Patricia Pippins to William Pippins and Emma F. Montford. Sources differ as to her birth year (1917 - 1919) and birthplace (Jacksonville, Florida or Blountstown, Florida).[2][3] She was later known as Thelma Patricia Burns and Thelma Patricia Byrnes after her mother's second husband, whose surname was Burns. She attended the University of Alabama for almost three years. In 1938 she moved to New York, where she worked as a model for a dress design firm.[4] During this period she met industrialist and film industry executive Howard Hughes, who encouraged her to move to Los Angeles and helped her find an apartment there.[5][6]

Career

Dane was signed to a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract in 1941. As she gained attention in Hollywood, gossip columnists Louella Parsons and Jimmy Fidler both noted her strong resemblance to Hedy Lamarr, who was also under contract to MGM.[7] Dane's earliest appearances were two uncredited roles in Ziegfeld Girl and I'll Wait for You (both 1941). She played the part of "Jennitt Hicks" in Life Begins for Andy Hardy (1941) and her well-received performance earned her a long-term contract. Dane played "Garnet" in Johnny Eager (1942) directed by Mervyn LeRoy. The film starred Robert Taylor and Lana Turner. Dane received favorable press for her acting in Grand Central Murder (1942), in which she was billed second to Van Heflin.[8]

Patricia Dane in Yank, the Army Weekly

Dane married bandleader Tommy Dorsey in Las Vegas on April 8, 1943.[9] Dorsey did not want his wife to work, and she took a break from her film career.[10] Her MGM contract lapsed in 1945.

Dorsey's biographer described both parties to the marriage as temperamental.[11] Their union was said to be "tempestuous from the start."[12] They separated three times before Dane filed for divorce on July 3, 1947, citing "extreme mental cruelty" and Dorsey's constant travel with his touring orchestra. However, the divorce was essentially amicable, and they had various rendezvous in the years ahead.[13]

Following her divorce, Dane resumed her movie career at the low-budget Monogram Pictures studio[14] with Joe Palooka in Fighting Mad (1948). Her final film appearances were uncredited parts in Road to Bali (1952) and The Harder They Fall (1956).[15]

Later life

Tommy Dorsey died in 1956. He left Dane a $26,000 insurance policy after she informed him that she was unable to work due to injuries sustained in a 1956 boating accident.[16][17] In 1973 she returned to Blountstown, where she lived with her mother and worked as a librarian. She never remarried.[18][19]

Born August 4, 1919 in Blountstown, Florida, USA

Died June 5, 1995 in Blountstown, Florida, USA  (lung cancer)

Birth Name Thelma Patricia Ann Pippen

Mini Bio (1)

Resembling Hedy Lamarr with her brunet sultry looks, beautiful second-string actress Patricia Dane possessed a rough and rowdy exterior, which worked much better for her in front of the camera than off of it. Born Thelma Patricia Ann Pippen in Jacksonville, Florida, her father died shortly after her birth and the infant was placed in the care, for a time, of her grandparents. When her mother remarried a man named Byrnes, young Thelma went back to live with her and was raised with the new name of Thelma Byrnes.

Following graduation from Andrew Jackson High School in Jacksonville, Patricia entered the University of Alabama. She moved to New York in 1938 with the intentions of being a fashion designer, but her dark-eyed beauty instead led her to instant money with modeling jobs. This opened a few doors and she quickly got caught up in the New York whirlwind "high life," becoming known around town as a feisty party girl.

Cast in her first role as a well-endowed Ziegfeld Girl in MGM's splashy, musical aptly named Ziegfeld Girl (1941), the studio immediately signed her up. She made minor impressions in Life Begins for Andy Hardy (1941) and as gangster Robert Taylor's girl in Johnny Eager (1941), which led to co-star billing in the "B" films Grand Central Murder (1942), as a volatile, cold-hearted actress who meets a nasty end, _Northwest Rangers (1942) and _Manhattan Melodrama (1942)_.

Patricia was squired about town with a number of eligible bachelors but on April 8, 1943 she became Mrs. Tommy Dorsey. Following a role in the Red Skelton vehicle I Dood It (1943), she left films per the renowned bandleader's insistence. The marriage was stormy to say the least, with some grand knockout fights that made headlines as both were pretty wild tipplers (she would often refer themselves as "The New Battling Bogarts"). This marriage had little chance for survival and on August 26, 1947 it was finished. She never remarried.

Patricia could now return to films and did so with the minor entries Joe Palooka in Fighting Mad (1948) and Are You with It? (1948). Nothing came of it. She made more unattractive news in 1949 when she and MGM actor Robert Walker were arrested for driving erratically, public drunkenness and resisting arrest. After this, all she could find were unbilled parts in Road to Bali (1952) and A Life of Her Own (1950).

Moving to Blountsown, Florida, Patricia's life quieted down considerably becoming, of all things, a librarian in town. She died completely out of the limelight of lung cancer on June 5, 1995.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

Family (1)

Spouse Tommy Dorsey (8 April 1943 - 26 August 1947)  (divorced)

Julian Lang (1938 - 1939)  (divorced)

Trivia (3)

Signed to MGM in 1941. Admired by fellow actors after she brusquely told off an MGM studio executive. Changed name to Pat after this incident but only starred in minor roles and bit parts after 1945.

According to Laura Wagner, whose article on Patricia appeared in the magazine Films of the Golden Age, Issue #79, Winter 2014-2015, MGM wanted to change her name at one point to Sandra Sherwood. Louis B. Mayer tried but failed to groom her as a brunette Jean Harlow.

On August 5, 1944, at one of Patricia Dane and Tommy Dorsey's parties, a fight broke out between Tommy and actor Jon Hall over Patricia, who also got into the fight. More people got into the fight, including actor Edward Norris, and both Dorsey and Dane wound up being arrested for felonious assault. Hall lost a portion of his nose by a knife probably wielded by Dane. With suits and counter suits in full wing, all charges were dismissed.