Dorothy Davenport | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Davenport in 1923 | |
| Born | (1895-03-13)March 13, 1895 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | October 12, 1977(1977-10-12) (aged 82) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale |
| Years active | 1910–1956 |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2, includingWallace Reid Jr. |
| Parents |
|
| Relatives | Edward Loomis Davenport (grandfather) Fanny Vining Davenport (grandmother) Phyllis Rankin (step-mother) Arthur Rankin (step-brother) |
Fannie Dorothy Davenport (March 13, 1895 – October 12, 1977) was an American actress, screenwriter, film director, and producer.
Born into a family of film performers, Davenport had her own independent career before her marriage to the film actor and directorWallace Reid in 1913. Reid's star rose steadily, making feature films at a pace of one every seven weeks,[1] until 1919 when a dose of morphine administered for an injury on location grew into an addiction.[2] Reid died in January 1923 at age 31. Davenport took her own story as source material and co-producedHuman Wreckage (1923), in which she was billed as "Mrs. Wallace Reid" and played the role of a drug addict's wife. She advertised the film in terms of a moral crusade.
Davenport followed its success with other social-conscience films on other topics,Broken Laws (1924) andThe Red Kimono (1925), with expensive litigation connected with the latter. While Davenport's own production company dissolved in the late 1920s, she continued to take on smaller writing and directing roles. In 1929 Davenport directedLinda, a film about a woman who gives up her happiness for the sake of men and social expectations. Davenport directed her last film in 1934; however, she continued in the film industry in other roles until her last known credit in 1956 as dialogue supervisor ofThe First Traveling Saleslady.
Dorothy Davenport was born in Boston, Massachusetts on March 13, 1895. Davenport's father,Harry Davenport, was a Broadway star and comedian, and her mother,Alice Davenport, was a film actress who appeared in at least 140 films. Dorothy's grandparents were the 19th-century character actorsEdward Loomis Davenport, a successful tragedian stage actor, andFanny Vining Davenport, who began acting at age 3. Their daughter and Dorothy's aunt,Fanny Davenport, was considered one of the great stage actresses of the time.[citation needed]
Davenport's first professional role was in a stock company at age 6. At age 14, Davenport continued in the entertainment industry, doing a type of burlesque.[3]
Davenport attended school in Brooklyn and Roanoke, Virginia. At age 16, after performing vaudeville for a year and a half, she moved from Boston to Southern California to pursue acting. She began her career with theNestor Film Company, later acquired byUniversal Pictures. Her first known film appearance was inLife Cycle in a supporting role. She was a talented horsewoman and did many of her own stunts in films.[4]
Davenport andWallace Reid were prominent during Nestor's early years. Although Wallace Reid left for six months to make another film, he promptly returned to Nestor, and the pair married in October 1913.[citation needed]
The pair left Universal to work on other films but returned in 1916. On June 18, 1917, Davenport gave birth to her first son,Wallace Reid Jr., in Los Angeles.[5] The birth of her son caused Davenport to take a step back from her career to become a full-time mother. In 1920, Davenport and Reid adopted their second child, daughter Betty Anna Reid (1919–1967).[4][6]
While filming on location in California forThe Valley of the Giants (1919), Wallace Reid was injured in a train wreck. As a remedy for this injury's pain, studio doctors administered large doses ofmorphine to Reid, to which he became addicted. Reid's health slowly grew worse over the next few years, and he died of the addiction in 1923.[citation needed]
After Reid's death, Davenport andThomas Ince co-produced the filmHuman Wreckage (1923) withJames Kirkwood, Sr.,Bessie Love andLucille Ricksen, a film that dealt with the dangers of narcotics addiction. It was developed and marketed with expert assistance from members of the Los Angeles Anti-Narcotics League.[7] Davenport tookHuman Wreckage on a roadshow engagement with personal appearances, followed up with another "social conscience" picture about excessive mother-love calledBroken Laws in 1924, again billed as "Mrs. Wallace Reid".[citation needed]
Davenport then producedThe Red Kimono (1925) about white slavery. BothHuman Wreckage andThe Red Kimono were banned in theUnited Kingdom by theBritish Board of Film Censors in 1926.[8]Kimono is based on a real case of prostitution that took place in New Orleans in 1917. Billing it as a true story, Davenport used the real name of the woman played by Priscilla Bonner, who as a consequence sued Davenport and won a landmark privacy case.[9]
She later continued in the social-consciousness line with filmsLinda (1929),Sucker Money (1933),Road to Ruin (1934), andThe Woman Condemned (1934), and worked as a producer, writer, and dialogue director. Among her last credits is the co-author of the screenplay forFootsteps in the Fog (1955), and as dialogue director forThe First Traveling Saleslady (1956) withGinger Rogers. In the 1970s, near the end of her life, Dorothy still had a print of her husband's 1921 featureForever. She gave the print to an organization planning a museum. The museum plans fell through, and Dorothy's last remaining print of Wally's favorite movie waslost.[citation needed]
On October 12, 1977, Davenport died at theMotion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital inWoodland Hills, California, aged 82.[4] She is interred with her husband atForest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale.[citation needed]
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| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1910 | The Troublesome Baby | Cast member | [10] |
| A Mohawk's Way | Indian | [11] | |
| 1911 | The Best Man Wins | Cast member | [12] |
| 1912 | His Only Son | Cast member | [4] |
| 1915 | The Explorer | Lucy Allerton | [10] |
| 1915 | Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo | Grand Duchess Feodora | [10] |
| 1915 | The Unknown | Nancy Preston | [10] |
| 1916 | A Yoke of Gold | Carmen | [10] |
| 1916 | The Devil's Bondwoman | Beverly Hope | [10] |
| 1916 | Barriers of Society | Martha Gorham | [10] |
| 1916 | Doctor Neighbor | Hazel Rogers | [10] |
| 1916 | Her Husband's Faith | Mabel Otto | [13] |
| 1916 | The Unattainable | Bessie Gale | [10] |
| 1916 | Black Friday | Elinor Rossitor | [10] |
| 1916 | The Way of the World | Beatrice Farley | [10] |
| 1917 | The Squaw Man's Son | Edith, Lady Effington | [10] |
| 1917 | The Girl and the Crisis | Ellen Wilmot | [10] |
| 1917 (re-released in 1921) | Mothers of Men | Clara Madison | [10] |
| 1917 | The Scarlet Crystal | Marie Delys | [10] |
| 1917 | Treason | Luella Brysk | [10] |
| 1920 | The Fighting Chance | Leila Mortimer | [10] |
| 1921 | Every Woman's Problem | Clara Madison | [10] |
| 1922 | The Masked Avenger | Valerie Putnam | as Mrs. Wallace Reid[10] |
| 1923 | Human Wreckage | Ethel MacFarland | as Mrs. Wallace Reid[10] |
| 1924 | Broken Laws | Joan Allen | as Mrs. Wallace Reid[10] |
| 1925 | The Red Kimono | Herself | Prologue, as Mrs. Wallace Reid[10] |
| 1926 | The Earth Woman | Producer, as Mrs. Wallace Reid[10] | |
| 1927 | The Satin Woman | Mrs. Jean Taylor | as Mrs. Wallace Reid[10] |
| 1928 | Hellship Bronson | Mrs. Bronson | as Mrs. Wallace Reid[10] |
| 1929 | Linda | Director, as Mrs. Wallace Reid[10] | |
| 1926 | The Dude Wrangler | Producer, as Mrs. Wallace Reid[10] | |
| 1932 | The Racing Strain | Writer (story), as Mrs. Wallace Reid[10] | |
| 1933 | Man Hunt | Mrs. Scott | as Mrs. Wallace Reid[10] |
| 1933 | Sucker Money | Co-director, as Dorothy Reid[10] | |
| 1934 | The Road to Ruin | Mrs. Merrill | Also director and writer (story), as Mrs. Wallace Reid[10] |
| 1934 | The Woman Condemned | Director, as Mrs. Wallace Reid[10] | |
| 1935 | Redhead | Producer, as Dorothy Reid[10] | |
| 1935 | Honeymoon, Limited | Producer and screenwriter, as Dorothy Reid[10] | |
| 1935 | Two Sinners | Story supervisor, as Mrs. Wallace Reid[10] | |
| 1935 | Women Must Dress | Writer (story and screenplay), as Dorothy Reid[10] | |
| 1936 | The House of a Thousand Candles | Producer, as Dorothy Reid[10] | |
| 1937 | Paradise Isle | Producer, as Dorothy Reid[10] | |
| 1937 | A Bride for Henry | Producer, as Dorothy Reid[10] | |
| 1938 | Prison Break | Screenwriter, as Dorothy Reid[10] | |
| 1938 | Rose of the Rio Grande | Producer, as Dorothy Reid[10] | |
| 1940 | The Old Swimmin' Hole | Screenwriter, as Dorothy Reid[10] | |
| 1940 | Drums of the Desert | Screenwriter, as Dorothy Davenport together withGeorge Waggner | |
| 1947 | Curley | Screenwriter, as Dorothy Reid[10] | |
| 1948 | Who Killed Doc Robbin | Screenwriter, as Dorothy Reid[10] | |
| 1949 | Impact | Screenwriter, as Dorothy Reid[10] | |
| 1951 | Rhubarb | Screenwriter, as Dorothy Reid[10] | |
| 1952 | It Grows on Trees | Dialogue coach, as Dorothy Reid[10] | |
| 1954 | Francis Covers the Big Town | Dialogue director, as Dorothy Reid[10] | |
| 1955 | Footsteps in the Fog | Screenwriter, as Dorothy Reid[10] | |
| 1956 | The First Traveling Saleslady | Dialogue supervisor, as Dorothy Reid[10] |
Richard Otto and his wife, Mabel, have a very happy home
