DOROTHY MELONE ,AMERICAN ACTRESS, OSCAR WINNER BORN 1924 JANUARY 29 - 2018 JANUARY 19

 

DOROTHY MELONE ,AMERICAN ACTRESS,

OSCAR WINNER BORN 1924 JANUARY 29 - 

2018 JANUARY 19

Born January 29, 1924 in Chicago, Illinois, USA

Died January 19, 2018 in Dallas, Texas, USA  (natural causes)

Birth Name Mary Maloney

Height 5' 6" (1.68 m)

Mini Bio (1)

The blonde, sultry, dreamy-eyed beauty of Dorothy Malone, who was born Mary Maloney in Chicago on January 29, 1924, took some time before it made an impact with American film-going audiences. But once she did, she played it for all it was worth in her one chance Academy Award-winning "bad girl" performance, a role quite unlike the classy and strait-laced lady herself.

Raised in Dallas, she was one of five children born to an accountant father and housewife mother. Two older sisters died of polio. Attending Ursuline Convent and Highland Park High School, she was quite popular (as "School Favorite"). She was also a noted female athlete while there and won several awards for swimming and horseback riding. Following graduation, she studied at Southern Methodist University with the intent of becoming a nurse, but a role in the college play "Starbound" happened to catch the eye of an RKO talent scout and she was offered a Hollywood contract.

The lovely brunette started off in typical RKO starlet mode with acting/singing/dancing/diction lessons and bit parts (billed as Dorothy Maloney) in such films as the Frank Sinatra musicals Higher and Higher (1943) and Step Lively (1944), a couple of the mystery "Falcon" entries and a showier role in Show Business (1944) with Eddie Cantor and George Murphy. RKO lost interest, however, after the two-year contract was up. Warner Bros., however, stepped up to the plate and offered the actress a contract. Now billed as Dorothy Malone, her third film offering with the studio finally injected some adrenaline into her floundering young career, when she earned the small role of a seductive book clerk in the Bogart/Bacall classic The Big Sleep (1946). Critics and audiences took notice of her captivating little part. As a reward, the studio nudged her up the billing ladder with more visible roles in Two Texas Knights (1948), Romance on the High Seas (1948), South of St. Louis (1949) and Colorado Territory (1949), with the westerns showing off her equestrian prowess if not her acting ability.

Despite this positive movement, Warner Bros. did not extend Dorothy's contract in 1949 and she returned willingly back to her tight-knit family in her native Dallas. Taking a steadier job with an insurance agency, she happened to attend a work-related convention in New York City and grew fascinated with the big city. Deciding to recommit to her acting career, she moved to the Big Apple and studied at the American Theater Wing. In between her studies, she managed to find work on TV, which spurred freelancing "B" movie offers in the routine form of Saddle Legion (1951), The Rebel (1952), the Martin & Lewis romp Scared Stiff (1953), Law and Order (1953), Slade (1953), Pushover (1954) and Private Hell 36 (1954).

Things picked up noticeably once Dorothy went platinum blonde, which seemed to emphasize her overt and sensual beauty. First off was as a sister to Doris Day in Young at Heart (1954), a musical remake of Four Daughters (1938), back at Warner Bros. She garnered even better attention when she appeared in the war picture Battle Cry (1955), in which she shared torrid love scenes with film's newest heartthrob Tab Hunter, and continued the momentum with the reliable westerns Five Guns West (1955) and Tall Man Riding (1955) but not with melodramatic romantic dud Sincerely Yours (1955) which tried to sell to the audiences a heterosexual Liberace.

By this time she had signed with Universal. Following a few more westerns for good measure (Gunpoint! (1955), Tension at Table Rock (1956) and The Tomahawk and the Cross (1956), Dorothy won the scenery-chewing role of wild, nymphomaniac Marylee Hadley in the Douglas Sirk soap opera Written on the Wind (1956) co-starring Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall and Robert Stack. Stack and Malone had the showier roles and completely out-shined the two leads, both earning supporting Oscar nominations in the process. Stack lost in his category but Dorothy nabbed the trophy for her splendidly tramp, boozed-up Southern belle which was highlighted by her writhing mambo dance.

Unfortunately, Dorothy's long spell of mediocre filming did not end with all the hoopla she received for Written on the Wind (1956). The Tarnished Angels (1957), which reunited Malone with Hudson and Stack faltered, and Quantez (1957) with Fred MacMurray was just another run-of-the-mill western. Two major film challenges might have changed things with Man of a Thousand Faces (1957) as the unsympathetic first wife of James Cagney's Lon Chaney Sr, and as alcoholic actress Diana Barrymore in the biographic melodrama Too Much, Too Soon (1958). Cagney, however, overshadowed everyone in the first and the second was fatally watered down by the Production Code committee.

To compensate, Dorothy, at age 35 in 1959,, finally married -- to playboy actor Jacques Bergerac ( Ginger Rogers's ex-husband). A daughter, Mimi, was born the following year. Fewer film offers, which included Warlock (1959) and The Last Voyage (1960), came her way as Dorothy focused more on family life. While a second daughter, Diane, was born in 1962, the turbulent marriage wouldn't last and their divorce became final in December 1964. A bitter custody battle ensued with Dorothy eventually winning primary custody.

It took the small screen to rejuvenate Dorothy's career in the mid-1960s when she earned top billing of TV's first prime time soap opera Peyton Place (1964). Dorothy, starring in Lana Turner's 1957 film role of Constance MacKenzie, found herself in a smash hit. The run wasn't entirely happy however. Doctors discovered blood clots on her lungs which required major surgery and she almost died. Lola Albright filled in until she was able to return. Just as bad, her the significance of her role dwindled with time and 20th Century-Fox finally wrote her and co-star Tim O'Connor off the show in 1968. Dorothy filed a breach of contract lawsuit which ended in an out-of-court settlement.

Her life on- and off-camera did not improve. Dorothy's second marriage to stockbroker Robert Tomarkin in 1969 would last only three months, and a third to businessman Charles Huston Bell managed about three years. Now-matronly roles in the films Winter Kills (1979), Vortex (1982), The Being (1983) and Rest in Pieces (1987), were few and far between a few TV-movies -- which included some "Peyton Place" revivals, did nothing to advance her. Malone returned and settled for good back in her native Dallas, returning to Hollywood only on occasion.

Dorothy's last film was a cameo in the popular thriller Basic Instinct (1992) as a friend to Sharon Stone. She will be remembered as one of those Hollywood stars who proved she had the talent but somehow got the short end of the stick when it came to quality films offered. She retired to Texas and died in Dallas shortly before her 94th birthday on January 19, 2018.

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

Spouse (3)

Charles Huston Bell (2 October 1971 - 14 August 1973) ( divorced)

Robert Tomarkin (3 April 1969 - 1 August 1969) ( annulled)

Jacques Bergerac (28 June 1959 - 8 December 1964) ( divorced) ( 2 children)

Trade Mark (4)

Blonde hair

Attractive, trim figure

Deep sultry voice

Dreamy blue eyes

Trivia (34)

Former beauty contest winner before coming to Hollywood.

In 1965, while working on Peyton Place (1964), she suffered a near-fatal illness that included a pulmonary embolism, blood clots on both lungs, an enlarged heart and pneumonia. Upon fully recuperating, she returned to the series after being temporarily replaced by Lola Albright.

She became embroiled in heavy litigation and a messy divorce action with husband Jacques Bergerac, whom she accused of marrying famous women only to promote his career. Bergerac was previously married to Ginger Rogers.

She often complained that her character on Peyton Place (1964) was not given enough to do, and that Mia Farrow's character was monopolizing the story lines. She was quoted as saying, "I live much more drama and tragedy in my own life than I ever do on 'Peyton Place'!" She was written out of the show in 1968 and sued 20th Century Fox for breach of contract. The case was settled out of court.

Was one of five children. Two older sisters died very young of complications from polio, and another younger brother was struck and killed by lightning while on a Dallas golf course. When she won the Oscar for Written on the Wind (1956), she dedicated the award to her late brother.

She turned blonde for Young at Heart (1954) and remained that way for the rest of her career except for Battle Cry (1955) and Too Much, Too Soon (1958).

Won the Golden Apple Award as "Most Cooperative Actress" in 1965. The male counterpart went to John Wayne. Ironically, later that year, she expressed her extreme dissatisfaction with her limited role on Peyton Place (1964). Three years later she was written off the series and sued 20th Century-Fox for $1.6 million for breach of contract. It was settled out of court.

Unlike other prominent Hollywood actresses, she did not have an "official Italian voice", she was often dubbed by Renata Marini, Rosetta Calavetta and Dhia Cristiani. Lydia Simoneschi, Micaela Giustiniani and Clelia Bernacchi lent their voice to her at some point as well.

Studied Drama at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

During her time in Hollywood, she was an active member of the Hollywood Republican Committee.

Retired from acting in 1992 after 50 years.

She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1716 Vine St. on February 8, 1960.

Has played Robert Keith's character's daughter twice on film: in Young at Heart (1954) and Written on the Wind (1956).

As of January 2012, was living a peaceful retirement in Dallas, TX.

Gave birth to her first child at age 35, daughter Mimi Esther Therese Bergerac, on April 3, 1960. Child's father is her first husband, Jacques Bergerac.

Gave birth to her second child at age 37, daughter Diane Alice Bergerac on February 20, 1962. Child's father is her first husband, Jacques Bergerac.

Mother-in-law of William Vanderstraaten (husband of Mimi since 1989) and John Thompson (husband of Diane since 1986).

Had her first date with Jacques Bergerac at a Sophie Tucker show in March 1958. They got engaged in May 1959, married in June 1959, before separating in March 1963. Their divorce was finalized in December 1964.

Was the 45th actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Written on the Wind (1956) at The 29th Annual Academy Awards (1957) on March 27, 1957.

Best known by the public for her starring role as Constance MacKenzie on Peyton Place (1964).

Acting mentor and friends of: Ryan O'Neal and Barbara Parkins.

Grandmother of Emily (b. December 16, 1991) and Willem Vanderstraaten (b. May 16, 1994), via daughter Mimi. They were both born in Dallas, Texas.

Grandmother of Mary (b. April 23, 1990), John (b. April 23, 1990), Lauren (b. June 20, 1992) and William Thompson (b. August 30, 1995), via daughter Diane. They were all born in Dallas, Texas.

Daughter of Robert Ignatius Maloney (1895-1985), born in Kansas, and Esther Emma Smith (1902-1983), born in Maryland.

Sister of Patsy Jane (1928-1936), Joan Esther (1931-1936), Robert Bruce (b. 1933) and George William Maloney (1937-1954). All her siblings were born in Dallas, Texas.

Was approached by the producers of Dallas (1978) to play the role of Miss Ellie Ewing, when Barbara Bel Geddes vacated the part in 1984, but she declined.

Despite playing the oldest sister of Doris Day and Elisabeth Fraser in Young at Heart (1954), Malone was actually the youngest of the three actresses.

Passed away on January 19th 2018, but was not remembered in the 90th Academy Awards In Memoriam segment, despite being a Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner.

She is buried at Calvary Hill Cemetery and Mausoleum in Dallas, Texas.

On August 10, 2018, she was honored with a day of her film work during the TCM Summer Under The Stars.

Malone and her co-star from Peyton Place (1964) Tim O'Connor, both died within three months of each other in 2018.

Though many other sources list January 30, 1925 as her date of birth. Her old census and birth records indicate she was born on January 29, 1924.

At the time of her death, she was the last Oscar winner in the Best Supporting Actress category and despite this she was omitted from the 2018 Oscars telecast "In Memoriam" tribute. To date, Malone is the only actor or actress to have ever won an Oscar who was left out of the yearly memorial tribute.

Passed away only ten days shy her 94th birthday.

Personal Quotes (13)

The only thing I did at RKO of any note was lose my Texas accent.

We had cocktail parties and I'd stay up until 5 in the morning.

I never turned down a mother role.

I was born in Everett; I went through grade school in Everett, high school in Seattle.

I was the first movie star to plunge into night-time soap opera.

I acted three times with Fred MacMurray, three times with Martin and Lewis, four times with Rock Hudson. Three times with Glenn Ford.

My father was a minister, so I was a P.K., a preacher's kid.

I get crushes on directors because they are so brilliant.

I loved to get all dusty and ride horses and plant potatoes and cotton.

Everybody said Peyton Place would be a mistake.

I started out as a very young girl in Hollywood doing westerns portraying a mother with a couple of kids.

I was a bridesmaid at a wedding in one picture.

Sirk was every woman's dream of a director.

Salary (3)

Young at Heart (1954) $90,000

Quantez (1957) $125,000

Modus Operandi (1964) $6,000

DOROTHY, LOVETT ,HOLLYWOOD, ACTRESS, BORN, 1913, FEBRUARY 15, -1998 ,APRIL 28

 

DOROTHY LOVETT ,HOLLYWOOD ACTRESS 

BORN 1913 FEBRUARY 15 -1998 APRIL 28

Dorothy Lovett is a nice twist on the usual trope – she was a model who became an actress, based mostly on her looks, but before that, she was actually an actress who became an model because she couldn’t find thespian work. Dorothy actually had a pretty decent career in Hollywood, being featured prominently in a popular movie serial of the day, but gave up her career in order to raise family.  

Let’s learn more about her!

EARLY LIFE

Dorothy Elizabeth Lovett was born on February 15, 1913, in Providence, Rhode Island, to William Francis Lovett and Katherine E. Galligan. She was the youngest of three children and the only daughter – her siblings were William, born in 1909, and Thomas, born in 1910. Her father was a letter carrier (postman). 

Dorothy grew up in Providence in a happy family unit. had some early stage experience, as this story can attest:

Dorothy Lovett made a false start as an actress at the age of 5, with the Albee stock company. Burton Churchill was the star, and Dorothy was the little girl who got kidnaped in Only a Woman. Looking back at it now, she regards her earlier self with awe and wonderment because little Miss Lovett was bored by show business. She also was temperamental. After about the second performance, she began to sulk in the wings and refuse to go on until bribed with a new toy a football or a fire truck or a baseball bat. One evening she embellished her role by falling down a flight of stairs in the second act. Her two idolatrous brothers in the audience dashed down the aisle to her rescue and were halted only as they were trying to clamber over the musicians.

Dorothy gave up acting for the time being, attending elementary and high school, and devoting her time to becoming a top notch athlete. She became a typical tomboy, spending a great deal of her time in treetops, hacked off all her hair to be more mobile. Pretty soon, she was the fastest broken-field runner in her neighborhood. Her life changed one day in high school, when she was struck on the larynx by a hard-hit baseball. She fainted from the shock, and afterwards decided to change lanes in life once more. 

After she graduated from high school, Dorothy started to attend Pembroke college, and there she got feminine touches. She also got back into acting again –  she didn’t have any interest in the matter until she, by pure chance, got a speaking part in a little theater play, and slowly, bit by bit, upped the scale.  She did some summer theater, and ultimately decided to try her hand in showbiz for a living. After graduation, not being able to secure acting roles, she worked as a model. In a strange twist of fate, her first job was conducting a recipe program on the air. Dorothy at the time couldn’t cook, but she developed such a convincing manner on her cooking program that thousands’ of listeners would rush to their kitchens and do just what she told them. Pretty soon Dorothy progressed to a program about fashions, which she really knew something about. As time went by, Dorothy became a very successful model – she was voted the most beautiful model in New York City in 1940/41. 

All the while, she tried to getting roles but failed. Finally she heard about an interview for John Powers models that RKO was holding. The fact that she was not a Powers model did not deter her. The movie scouts saw her, liked what they saw, and she got her RKO contract. Thus her career started! 

CAREER

Dorothy started her career with Twelve Crowded Hours, a very minor Lucille Ball movie, a crime comedy by genre. In fact, it’s hardy a Lucy movie at all, although she does play the leading female role, but she relegated to being a second banana to leading man, Richard Dix, a reported who’s tracing Lucy’s wayward brother. Nothing special,  not bad but not really memorable. Next came something a bit more impressive – The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, one of the Rogers/Astaire pairings. What to say, these movies are classics and remain a staple of the genre and 1930s in general. Then came The Flying Irishman,  an unusual movie where aviator Douglas Corrigan stars as himself “accidentally” flying across the ocean to Ireland. Corrigan got some fame in 1938 when this happened, and the movie was made in to cash that fame, since Corrigan is hardly known today, except to hard-core enthusiast. Corrigan, who was not a thespian by any stretch of imagination (albeit in possession of an easy, affable charm), was supported by an able body of RKO staples – Paul Kelly, Donald McBride, Robert Armstrong… 

Dorothy then appeared in Fixer Dugan, a Lee Tracy/Peggy Shannon teaming, with Virginia Wielder, where they play a couple of circus people who develop a deep affection for orphaned girl, Wielder, who mother just died in an aerial accident. Tracy was a specific actor who excelled playing smooth talking conman with just some traces of morality, and he’s always tops playing those roles, no matter the movie nor the story. As you can guess, he plays the fixer. The movie was sadly a B class affair, and Peggy Shannon not the greatest of all leading ladies, but she is cute and pert, Virginia is perky and heartwarming, and we get to see how a circus lived in the 1930s. Dorothy’s last uncredited role before breakthrough was in These Glamour Girls, a biting social satire disguised as a frilly upper class comedy. Lew Ayres plays a preppy boy who, by drunken design, invites a taxi dancer to his all-too-snobbish elite school and she unintentionally causes havoc. This is a role I think Lana Turner played best – naughty but nice independent woman who fight for themselves and know their way around men. She was very often miscast as a upper class lady – she never and could never be one, she just didn’t’ have the sheen, but had plenty of other attributes. The cast is outstanding, Turner, Ayres, Ann Rutherford, Anita Louise, Billie Burke.  

Dorothy’s claim to fame was her role in the Dr. Christian series of movies, where she played nurse Judy in five movies – Meet Dr. Christian, The Courageous Dr. Christian, Dr. Christian Meets the Women,Remedy for Riches, They Meet Again. Whoever loved medical series will probably like this more wholesome and slightly naïve take on the profession. Christian is played by Jean Hersholt, and his support is  good – Robert Baldwin, Edgar Kennedy, and a string of players from the RKO supporting roster. 

Between Dr. Christian movies, Dorothy appear in an odd-RKO feature. The first one was That’s Right – You’re Wrong, a Kay Kyser vehicle, where Kyser plays himself trying to make it in Hollywood. The plot is very thin, but the music is nice if you like Kyser, and there are some good supporting players – Adolphe Menjou, May Robson, Lucille Ball. Next Dorothy had a role in the movie serial The Green Hornet Strikes Again! – about the legendary Green Hornet character. 

Dorothy played a prominent role in Lucky Devils, a completely forgotten movie that doesn’t even have a summary on IMDB. Luckily, her next movie, Look Who’s Laughing, was better known, featuring Fibber McGee and Molly and Edgar Bergen. It’s a typical silly comedy, but for anyone who loved either the McGees or Charlie McCarthy will enjoy it immensely. More nostalgia than art, but who’s asking? 

Dorothy had an okay role in Call Out the Marines but it didn’t really help her career. As one reviewer perfectly wrote in IMDB: The tail end of McLagen and Lowe’s adventures as Flagg and Quirt from WHAT PRICE GLORY (the names are marginally changed) is a piece of production line entertainment that turns the battling buddies into Abbott & Costello substitutes complete with another undercranked chase for a finale. Too bad, those are two very talented actors. Sing Your Worries Away was another comedy, just this time with Bert Lahr and his own very specific brand of funny. You either like or don’t like him – his movies are mostly just for those who like him. 

Next up – Powder Town, a  low budget movie in it’s own category. Perhaps it can be called a SF-comedy-propaganda movie, it mixes a few genres so it’s impossible to really mark it down into one. Edmund O’Brien, who later in his career became a top class noir actor, plays against type here – he’s a scatterbrained, nutty scientist working on a secret formula for explosives. Then add some spies into the mix, and the fact that O’Brien is hot commodity, desired by all the women who live in his hotel. Vic McLagen plays his brawling sidekick, and he’s as good as always in such roles. Dorothy’s last RKO movie was The Mantrap, a very witty and funny mystery movie, with Henry Stephenson playing a Sherlock Holmes-like detective solving a murder. Lloyd Corrigan, known today as a B western hero, plays his Watson substitute, and the two make a dandy and very appealing companions. Too bad they didn’t make a movie serial out of it. 

Dorothy gave up her RKO contract to get married. She gave acting another go in the 1950s, appeared in TV series, and made another movie in 1960, Why Must I Die?, a weird little Debra Paget movie, conceived as a critique of capital punishment. 1950s brought with them an unusual genre (which did exist before, but not so prominently) – the sleazy, lurid movie, usually featuring young actors and actresses, often bordering on camp. Why must I die is one of those movies, a late 1950s relic, with little to recommend it except the over-the-top story and acting.

Dorothy’s last movie was one of her best, A Patch of Blue. The leads, Sidney Poitier and Elizabeth Hartman are both excellent in their roles – she plays a blind young woman, neglected and abused by her rough mother (played by Shelley Winters), and he is a idealistic African American teacher – she slowly falls for him without knowing his skin color, and when her mother finds out, all hell breaks loose. A very relevant movie, even today, with wonderful performances and plenty of positive subtext, it’s truly a 1960s classic. 

And that was it from Dorothy! 

PRIVATE LIFE 

Dorothy was famous in Hollywood for her good looks, and Motion Picture Fan Club voted her the most beautiful girl in B pictures. She was good friends with fellow actress Margaret Hayes.

In 1940 Dorothy started to date Jack Hively, best known as Gloria Swanson’s director. The got engaged in 191 and planned to wed that December, but  Hively’s enlistment in the Army Signal Corps and they had to change plans. In the end they married on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 1942, in Patterson Field, where Hively was stationed. The base was decorated with many lovely flower arrangements to make it more in sync for a wedding revenue. Now something about the groom. Jack Besden Hively was born on September 5, 1910, in Denver, Colorado, to George and Georgenie Hively. His father was an Academy Award-nominated editor, and his brother, George Jr., would become a television editor. Jack grew up in an artistical environment, and when his family moved to California, he decided to go into showbiz himself. He worked at RKO from 1933, first as a editor, then, starting in 1939, as a director. 

The couple were pressed for time – since Dorothy was working at RKO, she was given two weeks off to get married and have a honeymoon, So they decided to honeymoon in vicinity of Patterson Field.  Dorothy cut short her honeymoon and rushed hack to the coast to tell her sailor brother goodbye— only to find him gone when she got here. See then returned to established a permanent home in Osborn. Hively started working with the training film unit of the signal corps place. 

Hively later served under General MacArthur in the Pacific Theater, all the while Dorothy worked back home, and was active in the war effort, selling war bonds and touring. After Jack was discharged from the army, he returned to Hollywood, where the couple settled. Their daughter Katherine Gordon Hively was born on December 8, 1945. Dorothy took some time off to devote herself to family life and only occasionally returned to acting. 

Hively and Dorothy divorced in the mid 1950s, about 1955, and Hively later remarried, in 1958, to Muriel Bixby. He died on December 19, 1995, in California. 

Dorothy chose not to remarry, remained living in California, and retired to Sherman Oaks, where she spent her golden years. 

Dorothy Hively died on April 28, 1998, in Sherman Oaks, California. 

DOROTHY LAMOUR ,AMERICAN ACTRESS BORN 1914 DECEMBER 10,

DOROTHY LAMOUR ,AMERICAN ACTRESS 

BORN 1914 DECEMBER 10,

Dorothy Lamour (December 10, 1914 – September 22, 1996) was an American actress and singer. She is best remembered for appearing in the Road to... movies, a series of successful comedies starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope.[1]

Lamour began her career in the 1930s as a big band singer. In 1936, she moved to Hollywood where she signed with Paramount Pictures. Her appearance as "Ulah" in The Jungle Princess (1936) brought her fame and marked the beginning of her image as the "Sarong Queen."

In 1940, Lamour made her first Road to... comedy film, Road to Singapore. The Road to... films were popular during the 1940s. The sixth film in the series, Road to Bali, was released in 1952. By that time, Lamour's screen career began to wane, and she focused on stage and television work. In 1961, Crosby and Hope teamed up for one more, The Road to Hong Kong, but actress Joan Collins was cast as the female lead. Lamour made a brief appearance and sang a song near the end of that film.

In the 1970s, Lamour revived her nightclub act and, in 1980, released her autobiography My Side of the Road. She made her final onscreen appearance in 1987.

Lamour married her second husband, William Ross Howard III, in 1943. They had two sons and remained married until Howard's death in 1978. Lamour died at her home in 1996, at the age of 81.
Early life[edit source]
Born Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton[2] in New Orleans,[3] (her birth name is often incorrectly cited as "Kaumeyer", the legal surname of her first husband, Herbie Kay) the daughter of Carmen Louise (née LaPorte) and John Watson Slaton, both of whom were waiters.[citation needed] Lamour was of French Louisianan, Spanish, and Irish descent. Her parents' marriage lasted only a few years. Her mother married for the second time to Clarence Lambour, whose surname Dorothy later adopted and modified as her stage name.[4] That marriage also ended in divorce when Dorothy was a teenager.


In Road to Bali (1952)

Lamour quit school at the age of 14 and, after taking a business course, worked as a secretary to support herself and her mother. She began entering beauty pageants and was crowned "Miss New Orleans" in 1931. Miss Lamour was close friends with Dorothy Dell, of whom was part of the Ziegfeld Follies. Lamour used the prize money to support herself while she worked in a stock theatre company. She and her mother later moved to Chicago where Lamour found a job working at Marshall Field's department store. At Marshall Field's department store, she worked as an elevator operator at the age of 16. Her then boss, Douglas Singleterry referred to her as 'Dolly Face', he also recalled that she'd spend a lot of her time auditioning around Chicago. She was discovered by orchestra leader Herbie Kay when he spotted her in performance at a Chicago talent show held at the Hotel Morrison. She had an audition the very next day with Mr. Kay to be a girl singer in his orchestra. Kay hired her as a singer for his orchestra and, in 1935, Lamour went on tour with Kay. Her work with Kay eventually led Lamour to vaudeville and work in radio.[5] In 1935, she had her own fifteen-minute weekly musical program on NBC Radio. Lamour also sang on the popular Rudy Vallee radio show and The Chase and Sanborn Hour. On January 30, 1944, Lamour starred in "For This We Live," an episode of Silver Theater on CBS radio.[6]

Career[edit source]

In 1936, Lamour moved to Hollywood. Around that time, Carmen married her third husband, Ollie Castleberry, and the family lived in Los Angeles.[7] That same year, she did a screen test for Paramount Pictures and signed a contract with them.[5] Lamour began appearing regularly in films for Paramount Pictures. She made her first film for Paramount, College Holiday, in which she has a bit part as an uncredited dancer. Her second film for Paramount, The Jungle Princess (1936), solidified her fame. In the film, Lamour plays the role of "Ulah," a jungle native who wore an Edith Head-designed sarong throughout the film. The Jungle Princess was a big hit for the studio and Lamour would be associated with sarongs for the rest of her career.[8] From 1937 to 1939, Lamour appeared in John Ford's The Hurricane (1937), Spawn of the North (1938; with George Raft, Henry Fonda, and John Barrymore), and Disputed Passage (1939).

In Road to Bali (1952)
In 1940, Lamour co-starred in the first of several Road to... films with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. The movies were enormously popular during the 1940s, and they regularly placed among the top moneymaking films each year. While the films centered more on Hope and Crosby, Lamour held her own as their "straight man", and sang some of her most popular songs. The series essentially ended with the release of Road to Hong Kong, in 1962, in which Lamour made only a cameo appearance. Actress Joan Collins was the female lead in that picture.

During World War II, Lamour was among the most popular pinup girls among American servicemen, along with Betty Grable, Rita Hayworth, Lana Turner, and Veronica Lake. Lamour was also known for her volunteer work, selling war bonds during tours in which movie stars would travel the country selling U.S. government bonds to the public. Lamour reportedly sold $300 million worth of bonds earning her the nickname "The Bond Bombshell." She also volunteered at the Hollywood Canteen where she would dance and talk to soldiers. In 1965, Lamour was awarded a belated citation from the United States Department of the Treasury for her war bond sales.[1]


With Bing Crosby in Road to Bali (1952), a pinnacle after which Lamour's career declined.

Some of Lamour's other notable films include Johnny Apollo (1940; with Tyrone Power), Aloma of the South Seas (1941), Beyond the Blue Horizon (1942), Dixie (1943; with Bing Crosby), A Medal for Benny (1945), My Favorite Brunette (1947; with Bob Hope), On Our Merry Way (1948), Slightly French (1949) and a supporting role in the best picture Oscar-winner The Greatest Show on Earth (1952; with Charlton Heston). Her other leading men included William Holden, Ray Milland, James Stewart, Jack Benny, and Fred MacMurray.

Lamour emceed Front and Center, a 1947[9] variety comedy show, as a summer replacement for The Fred Allen Show, with the Army Air Force recruiting as sponsors. The show changed to The Sealtest[10] Variety Theater in September[11] 1948.

Lamour starred in a number of movie musicals and sang in many of her comedies and dramatic films as well. She introduced a number of standards, including "The Moon of Manakoora," "I Remember You," "It Could Happen to You," "Personality," and "But Beautiful."

The Road To Bali would prove to be the swan song of Lamour's film career. Afterwards, she began a new life as a nightclub entertainer and a stage actress. In the 1960s, she returned to the screen for secondary roles in three films, including John Ford's Donovan's Reef (1963) with John Wayne and Lee Marvin, and became more active in live theater, headlining a road company of Hello Dolly! for over a year near the end of the decade.

Later years[edit source]

With Bob Hope in Road to Bali (1952)
In the 1970s, Lamour was a popular draw on the dinner theatre circuit.

In 1980, Lamour published her autobiography, My Side of the Road, and revived her nightclub act. During the remainder of the decade, she performed in plays and television shows such as Hart to Hart, Crazy Like a Fox, Remington Steele, and Murder, She Wrote. In 1987, she made one last big-screen appearance in the movie Creepshow 2, appearing with George Kennedy as an aging couple who are killed during a robbery. The wooden, Native American statue in front of their general store comes to life to avenge their death. The 72-year-old Lamour quipped: "Well, at my age you can't lean against a palm tree and sing 'Moon of Manakoora'," she said. "People would look at that and say, 'What is she trying to do?'"[12]

During the 1990s, she made only a handful of professional appearances but remained a popular interview subject for publications and TV talk and news programs. In 1995, the musical Swinging on a Star, a revue of songs written by Johnny Burke (who wrote many of the most famous Road to ... movie songs as well as the score to Lamour's film And the Angels Sing (1944)) opened on Broadway and ran for three months; Lamour was credited as a "special advisor." It was nominated for the Best Musical Tony Award; the actress playing her in the road movie segment, Kathy Fitzgerald, was also nominated.[citation needed]

Personal life[edit source]

In The Hurricane (1937)
Lamour's first marriage was to orchestra leader Herbie Kay, whose orchestra Lamour sang with. The two married in 1935 and divorced in 1939.[13][14]

Early in her career, Lamour met J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. According to Hoover's biographer Richard Hack, Hoover pursued a romantic relationship with Lamour, and the two spent a night together at a Washington, D.C. hotel. When Lamour was later asked if she and Hoover had a sexual relationship, she replied: "I cannot deny it."[15] In her autobiography, My Side of the Road (1980), Lamour does not discuss Hoover in detail; she refers to him only as "a lifelong friend".[16]

On April 7, 1943, Lamour married former Air Force Captain and advertising executive William Ross Howard III in Beverly Hills.[17] The couple had two sons: John Ridgely (born January 1946) and Richard Thomson Howard (born October 1949).[18][19]

In the 1960s and 1970s, Lamour and Howard lived in the Baltimore suburb of Sudbrook Park.[20] She also owned a home in Palm Springs, California.[21] Howard died in 1978.[1]

Death[edit source]

Grave of Dorothy Lamour, at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills
Lamour died at her home in North Hollywood on September 22, 1996, at the age of 81.[1] She was interred in the Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.[22]

For her contribution to the radio and motion picture industry, Lamour has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her star for her radio contributions is located at 6240 Hollywood Boulevard and her star for her motion picture contributions is located at 6332 Hollywood Boulevard.[23]

DOROTHY LAMOUR , THE FASHION ICON OF HOLLYWOOD DIED SEPTEMBER 22,1996

DOROTHY LAMOUR , THE FASHION ICON OF HOLLYWOOD DIED SEPTEMBER 22,1996

Dorothy Lamour Born December 10, 1914 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA 
- Miss New Orleans in 1931
THE FASHION ICON OF HOLLYWOOD

Died September 22, 1996 in Los Angeles, California, USA (heart attack)
Birth Name Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton
Nicknames The Beautiful One
The Sarong Girl
Dottie
Height 5' 5" (1.65 m)

Mini Bio (2)
In addition to being Miss New Orleans in 1931, Dorothy Lamour worked as a Chicago elevator operator; band vocalist for her first husband, band leader Herbie Kaye; and radio performer. In 1936 she donned her soon-to-be-famous sarong for her debut at Paramount, The Jungle Princess (1936), and continued to play female Tarzan-Crusoe-Gauguin-girl-with make-up parts through the war years and beyond. The most famous of these was in the popular Bob Hope/Bing Crosby "Road" pictures - a strange combination of adventure, slapstick, ad-libs and Hollywood inside jokes. Of these she said, "I was the happiest and highest-paid straight woman in the business." As she aged, however, the quality of her films dropped. Among her serious films were Johnny Apollo (1940) and A Medal for Benny (1945).
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

Dorothy Lamour was born with the birth name of Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton on December 10, 1914, in New Orleans, Louisiana. She was a beautiful child who turned heads as a teenager with her long dark hair. However, her dream was to become a professional singer not actress. After she won a beauty contest as Miss New Orleans in 1931, she headed to Chicago to find her work as a singer. For a time, Dorothy worked as an elevator operator in a department store before going on to become a vocalist in the Herbie Kay band. Kay became her first husband in 1935, but the marriage only lasted four years. In addition to the band, Dorothy also sang on a Chicago radio program. Besides Kay, she performed with Rudy Vallee and 'Eddie Duchin (I)'. 1933 found Dorothy in Hollywood where she landed an uncredited bit part as a chorus girl in the musical Footlight Parade (1933). She didn't appear in films again until 1936 when she landed a part as a coed in College Holiday (1936). Later in 1936, Dorothy got the part of Ulah in The Jungle Princess (1936) produced by E. Lloyd Sheldon and filmed at Paramount. This film was a tremendous moneymaker as Dorothy stole the show in her wrap-around sarong. Dorothy became an instant star as the child of nature/female Tarzan, raised with a pet tiger among the tropical natives. Ray Milland starred opposite her as the man from civilization who woos and wins her. The scene where Milland is trying to teach her the word kiss is touching yet humorous. When he kisses her and tells her that is a kiss she runs away.

She went on to play similar parts in the sarong in productions including The Hurricane (1937), Typhoon (1940), Beyond the Blue Horizon (1942) and her final big-screen sarong feature, Donovan's Reef (1963). Although Dorothy actually only wore a sarong in six of her 59 pictures, it defined her career. The sarong stayed with her in the Bob Hope / Bing Crosby "Road" pictures for Paramount. The trio starred in Road to Singapore (1940), Road to Zanzibar (1941), Road to Morocco (1942), Road to Utopia (1945) and Road to Bali (1952). A final "Road" picture, "Road to the Fountain of Youth" was in the works in 1977, until Bing Crosby's sudden death. The final completed "Road" picture, The Road to Hong Kong (1962), had Hope and Crosby in their usual roles, but no Dorothy this time - Joan Collins had the female lead in it.
Dorothy was a great actress with roles in Disputed Passage (1939), Dixie (1943) and On Our Merry Way (1948)_ . She could show great range in both comic and dramatic roles. After making three films in 1949, her career began to trail off. She only made ten films between 1951 and 1987. That last one was Creepshow 2 (1987) where she played a housewife who gets murdered, a long way from the "Road" pictures and movies such as Johnny Apollo (1940) and A Medal for Benny (1945).
Dorothy died at 81 of an undisclosed ailment on September 22, 1996 in Los Angeles, California.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Denny Jackson

Spouse (2)

William Ross Howard III (7 April 1943 - 15 February 1978) (his death) (2 children)
Herbie Kaye (10 May 1935 - 21 April 1939) (divorced)

Trade Mark (1)

Often wore a floral print wrap-around sarong

Trivia (34)

Femme fatale in the Bing Crosby - Bob Hope "Road" series of Paramount Pictures offerings from 1941 to 1953. In the final entry, The Road to Hong Kong (1962), she appeared with Crosby and Hope but the femme fatale this time was Joan Collins.
Miss New Orleans 1931.
Interred at Forest Lawn (Hollywood Hills), Los Angeles, California, USA, in the Enduring Faith section, lot 387, space 2.
Derived her acting name name "Dorothy Lamour" from her stepfather, whose surname was "Lambour".

Host of NBC Radio's "Sealtest Variety Theater" (aka The Dorothy Lamour Show) (1948-1949).
"The Moon of Manakoora" from The Hurricane (1937), was her signature song.
During World War II, she toured the country, selling in excess of $300 million worth of war bonds.
In 1946 (with the full assistance of Paramount's publicity department), she staged a memorable stunt by publicly burning a sarong, the garment with which she had been associated since her first starring role.
Went to secretarial school where she became an excellent typist. Even as a star, she typed her own letters.
Her stepson gave her a dog, CoCo, when her husband died. She did not want it at first, but he insisted. She soon learned to love the dog and referred to him as her boyfriend.
Her stepson William Ross "Bill, Jr." Howard IV was born in 1933. Her son John Ridgely "Ridge" Howard was born January 8, 1946. Her son Richard Thomson "Tommy" Howard was born on October 20, 1949.
She was awarded 2 Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Motion Pictures at 6332 Hollywood Boulevard; and for Radio at 6240 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
Biography in: "American National Biography." Supplement 1, pp. 338-339. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

In Italy, almost all her films were dubbed by Rosetta Calavetta.
She had French, Irish and Spanish ancestry.
Sang the show-stopping "Broadway Baby" in a 1990 Long Beach, California revival of Stephen Sondheim's "Follies".
John Ford began filming his classic The Hurricane (1937) with Margo in the leading female role, but Samuel Goldwyn halted production and replaced her with Lamour because of the success of The Jungle Princess (1936).
Lamour is named in the film J. Edgar (2011) as having had an early affair with J. Edgar Hoover. Books on Hoover also report that she was his great love, something she never confirmed or denied.
Was scheduled to make her Broadway debut in the 1957 musical "Oh, Captain!" as a replacement for Abbe Lane. She played a few previews, but the show closed before her official opening night.
Had co-starred as a featured regular with Don Ameche, W.C. Fields and Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy on the popular "Chase and Sanborn Radio Hour".
Toured successfully for a year in the musical "Hello, Dolly!" including a lengthy run at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas, where she alternated performances with Ginger Rogers because of the 14 show-a-week schedule. Lamour was the first to play Dolly Levi as a brunette.

She first met Bob Hope while working as a singer at the popular nightclub 1 Fifth Avenue in New York's Greenwich Village, where she was accompanied on twin pianos by Julius Monk and Cy Feuer. She had top billing over him in several of their first pictures together at Paramount.
She opened the first of what was meant to be a chain of "Dorothy Lamour" beauty salons in New York's Greenwich Village in 1960, not far from where she had begun her nightclub career in the 1930s.
She was one of the few film stars who was allowed to make records throughout her career. She rivaled Alice Faye for the number of songs she introduced on screen, including "Moon of Manakoora", "Moonlight and Shadows", "Moonlight Becomes You", "I Remember You", "Personality" and "It Could Happen to You".
Her famous "Road" co-stars Bing Crosby and Bob Hope are seen watching her from the audience as she performs in Cecil B. DeMille's circus drama The Greatest Show on Earth (1952).
Her original sarong for The Jungle Princess (1936) was designed by Edith Head. She also wore special sandals to cover her feet.
Was a staunch conservative Republican who was active both personally and financially in the campaigns of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.
Was a Girl Scout.

Was considered for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939), which went to Vivien Leigh.
Turned down the role of Crystal Allen in The Women (1939) for she considered the character to be "less then desirable".
Was friends with Betty Grable, Carole Landis, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Linda Darnell and Betty Hutton.
At the start of her career, she was in a romantic relationship with FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.
In the 1940s, she was the celebrity spokeswoman for Chesterfield Cigarettes.
Mother of Ridgely Howard.
Personal Quotes (9)
I made 60 motion pictures and only wore the sarong in about six pictures, but it did become a kind of trademark.
[on working with Hope and Crosby] I felt like a wonderful sandwich, a slice of white bread between two slices of ham.
I was the happiest and highest-paid straight woman in the business.
[on Bing Crosby] As I look back, I think he was a very shy, insecure man. The world looked upon him as one of the great talents, he just never saw himself in that light.
I'm no prude. I know you have to come up a little bit modern. But all this filth and homosexuality and sex and nudity today are ruining any hope of our young people having the beautiful life.

Glamor is just sex that got civilized. A pretty girl, tastefully posed in a scant costume, is even a sort of cultural achievement.
After the first "Road" film, I never studied dialogue. Never. I'd wait to get on the set to see what they were planning. I was the happiest and highest paid straight woman in the business.
Some day I hope the critics will say of me, not only that I wear a sarong becomingly, but also that I gave a good performance. I've never had any real theatrical training you know.
My first sarong was blue. I asked for it because that's my lucky color. We made the picture [The Jungle Princess (1936)] on some hard-to-reach mountain crags in California. While we were there they remembered I could sing, so they wrote "Moonlight and Shadows" and sent the guy on a donkey with it through the passes.

Salary (7)

Tropic Holiday (1938) $1,000 /week
Spawn of the North (1938) $1,500 /week
St. Louis Blues (1939) $1,500 /week
Road to Zanzibar (1941) $5,000 /week
Caught in the Draft (1941) $5,000 /week
Aloma of the South Seas (1941) $5,000 /week
The Fleet's In (1942) $5,000 /week