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1-17 of 17
- Actress
- Soundtrack
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 Guys from Texas (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 Bushwhackers (1951), the Martin & Lewis romp Scared Stiff (1953), Law and Order (1953), Jack 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 (At Gunpoint (1955), Tension at Table Rock (1956) and Pillars of the Sky (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 was 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 (1981) 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.- Actress
Olivia Cole was born on 26 November 1942 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. She was an actress, known for Roots (1977), Backstairs at the White House (1979) and Something About Amelia (1984). She was married to Richard Venture. She died on 19 January 2018 in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Sandra Burns was born on 28 July 1934. She was an actress, known for The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950), Bob Monkhouse's Comedy Heroes (2004) and Meet the Stars #3: Variety Reel #1 (1941). She was married to Stephen Albert Luckman, Rod Amateau and Young James Wilhoite III. She died on 19 January 2018 in La Jolla, California, USA.- Pert blonde actress Marjorie Steele was in films for a very short time, making only four in all. She was born in Reno, Nevada on August 27, 1930 in a log cabin built by her father, a contractor. Her mother was part Russian and Swedish while her father came from German and Sioux Indian parentage. Marjorie's family moved to San Francisco when she was 9. It was here that she took an interest in acting while still young. She started with acting lessons and eventually won a scholarship to the Actors Lab in Hollywood.
To support herself in the early days, she worked as a cigarette girl at Ciro's, L.A.'s top nightclub. In what was to become a Cinderella story, the working teenager attracted the attention of multimillionaire Huntington Hartford. Smitten, Hartford not only signed her to a contract with a motion picture company he owned, he married her in 1949--shortly after her nineteenth birthday. She built up her reputation on stage and appeared in two films produced by her husband: Hello Out There (1949) and Face to Face (1952).
Her other two "B" films were Tough Assignment (1949) and No Escape (1953). Marjorie scored well in theater assignments, notably as the title role in "Sabrina Fair" in 1954, which played in London, and on Broadway when she took over the role of Maggie the Cat from Barbara Bel Geddes in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Shortly after this, she suddenly lost interest in her career and decided to retire and raise a family.
She married British actor Dudley Sutton following her 1961 divorce to Hartford, with whom she had two children,, but the marriage lasted only a few years. Her daughter by this marriage predeceased her mother, dying of a drug overdose at age 28. Steele's third husband was American-born Irish author Major Constantine Robert Louis Lee-Dillon FitzGibbon, who wrote "When the Kissing Had to Stop" and "The Irish in Ireland," and was the biographer of friend Dylan Thomas. Together the couple wrote "Teddy in the Tree." He died in 1983 from cancer and she never remarried.
Living in Ireland, Marjorie occupied her later years with painting and sculpting and has been commissioned for her work. She died on January 19, 2018 in Dublin. - Producer
- Additional Crew
Allison Shearmur was born on 23 October 1963 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. She was a producer, known for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015) and The Hunger Games (2012). She was married to Edward Shearmur. She died on 19 January 2018 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Art Department
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Camera and Electrical Department
Steve Goldenberg was born on 14 February 1968 in Ontario, Canada. He was an assistant director, known for The House on Tombstone Hill (1989), Top Cop (1990) and Best Shots (1990). He died on 19 January 2018 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.- Anna Campori was born on 22 September 1917 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. She was an actress, known for Biblioteca di Studio Uno (1964), Un turco napoletano (1953) and Suor Maria (1955). She was married to Pietro De Vico. She died on 19 January 2018 in Rome, Italy.
- Cinematographer
- Director
- Camera and Electrical Department
Joseph Consentino was born on 6 February 1939 in the USA. He was a cinematographer and director, known for The Big Blue Marble (1974), Muhammad Ali: The Whole Story (1996) and Two Tons of Turquoise to Taos Tonight (1975). He died on 19 January 2018.- Actor
- Music Department
- Producer
Fredo Santana was born on 4 July 1990 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Fredo Mafia, Fredo Santana feat. Gino Marley & SD: Want a Nigga Dead (2014) and Drake Feat. Majid Jordan: Hold on, We're Going Home (2013). He died on 19 January 2018 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Bunny Kahanamoku was born on 25 January 1931 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. He was an actor, known for Hawaii Five-O (1968). He died on 19 January 2018 in Waimea, Hawaii, USA.
- Producer
- Writer
Lin Bolen was born on 23 March 1941 in Benton, Illinois, USA. Lin was a producer and writer, known for Stumpers! (1976), W.E.B. (1978) and Farrell for the People (1982). Lin was married to Paul Wendkos. Lin died on 19 January 2018 in San Fernando Valley, California, USA.- Producer
- Production Manager
John Conboy was born on 18 March 1934. He was a producer and production manager, known for The Young and the Restless (1973), Santa Barbara (1984) and The ABC Afternoon Playbreak (1972). He died on 19 January 2018.- Muneer Ahmed Qureshi was born in Wazirabad city in what is now Pakistan in 1933. He was known as Munnu Bhai (Munnu nickname for Muneer, and Bhai meaning brother) by his siblings. Munnu Bhai later became his pen-name and a name by which he became famous.
Munnu Bhai started his career as a journalist with Daily Jang newspaper. He also penned poetry in Urdu and Punjabi. Munnu Bhai became a household name after he wrote several TV serials and series in which he used very relatable down-to-earth characters to highlight problems of Pakistani society with humour and mockery.
Munnu Bhai in an interview revealed that from early childhood he had speech impediment, although, it was hardly discernible. He passed away in 2018 in Lahore (Punjab, Pakistan) after an undisclosed illness. - Dan Erbach was born on 14 August 1933 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Sportkill (2007) and Blown (2005). He died on 19 January 2018 in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA.
- Ute Bock was born on 27 June 1942 in Linz, Austria. She died on 19 January 2018 in Vienna, Austria.
- Doris Gronlund was born on 8 May 1924 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She died on 19 January 2018 in Sag Harbor, New York, USA.
- János Szentiványi was born on 6 January 1920 in Budapest, Hungary. He died on 19 January 2018.