Dorothy Malone

She was one of those actresses that is not forgotten, also because her roles often haunted her like that. She was extremely attractive and she was good at playing the loose, intriguing and seductive woman, with a smiling and devious mischief that she covered wonderfully with her wavy blond hair, her tan complexion and those bright blue eyes. The actress had some glory years in the 1950s, but her star would soon fade and she would only appear in low-class television series and telefilms. Fame mysteries.

Dorothy Eloise Maloney was born on January 30, 1925 in Illinois (Chicago). Her family soon moved to Dallas, where the young lady herself studied at the Ursuline College. While she was studying at the University she was discovered by an agent and signed a contract with RKO. She made her film debut with that production company in 1943 with a tiny role in the thriller The Falcon and the Coe-eds . Her name was uncredited, just like in the half dozen movies that came after her, none of them memorable. Young Dorothy had to wait until 1945 to see her name in the credits. She was in the romantic Too Young to Know , directed by Frederick De Cordova. Little by little, her face became known to the croutons of the industry and she began to appear in juicier roles in bigger films. This happened in 1946 inNight and Day , Cole Porter biopicstarring Cary Grant , and inThe eternal dream , where she finely embodied the owner of a bookstore who was in a relationship with Humphrey Bogart . She later excelled in a major role in the westernTogether Until Death (1949) by the great Raoul Walsh , which was followed by other not-so-good western films, among which it is worth notingThis is how the brave die (1955), along with a Fred MacMurray reminiscent of Gary Cooper fromAlone in the face of danger .

The actress had reached the age of 30 and was going to begin her ascension to the top. After working with Frank Sinatra and Doris Day on the musical melodramaAlways you and me (1954) and after joining the choral cast of the war dramaBeyond Tears (1955), Dorothy Malone played one of the key characters in her career, the capricious, lively, manipulative, but also romantic and suffering Marylee from one of the heights of melodrama,Written on the Wind (1956), the work of expert Douglas Sirk . The role of Dorothy Malone is exceptional, captivating, so much so that at times she dwarfs her co-star, the great Lauren Bacall , with whom she had already worked in The Big Sleep . The Hollywood Academy gave in and awarded the Oscar to Dorothy Malone in the supporting actress category. She had no luck with other films likeBet on a Horseman (1957), thriller with Robert Taylor , or the westernThe Pillars of Heaven (1956), although he did stand out in the wonderful The Man with a Thousand Faces (1957), with an extraordinary role by the great James Cagney and again in a high-voltage emotional melodrama,Tarnished Angels , again with Douglas Sirk and with the same male cast that helped him achieve his greatest success, Rock Hudson and Robert Stack . To end the 50’s he appeared in the biopicToo Soon to Live (1958) and in the estimable westernThe Man with the Golden Guns (1959), starring Henry Fonda . He kicked off the new decade by sharing the screen again with Hudson inThe last sunset , interesting western by Robert Aldrich . The same year she married Jacques Bergerac , with whom she had two children, but the couple divorced five years later. The actress would marry and separate on two other occasions.

It seemed that his career was going from strength to strength. However, in the 1960s his name practically disappeared from the cinema. He only worked in brief television appearances, until his last great work came, that of Constance Mackenzie in the hit series Peyton Place , which was on the screen from 1964 to 1968. After this, Dorothy Malone’s filmography is practically non-existent and includes very poor telefilms. Her swan song wasBasic Instinct , where she played an imprisoned assassin.