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Dorothea Dix (1802 - 1887)

Born in the town of Hampden, Maine, she grew up first in Worcester, Massachusetts. At the age of twelve, she sought refuge with her wealthy grandmother in Boston to get away from her alcoholic parents and abusive father. She was the first child of three born to Joseph Dix and Mary Bigelow, who had deep […]

Dorothea Tanning (1910 - 2012)

Dorothea Tanning was born and raised in Galesburg, Illinois. After attending Knox College for two years (1928–30), she moved to Chicago in 1930 and then to New York in 1935. There she supported herself as a commercial artist while pursuing her own painting, and discovered Surrealism at the Museum of Modern Art’s seminal 1936 exhibition, […]

Dorothy Abbott (1920 - 1968)

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Abbott appeared in many films between the 1940s and 1960s as an extra. In Las Vegas she was a showgirl at the Flamingo Hotel and was known as “the girl with the golden arm”. She also appeared in guest roles on The Ford Television Theatre, Leave It to Beaver, and […]

Dorothy Arnold (1917 - 1984)

Actress. Born Dorothy Arnoldine Olson, she was performing by the age of 12 on amateur nights at Duluth’s Lyric Theater and with the local Salvation Army Band. Her first theatrical job was with the Band Box Revue, out of Chicago. She studied at Paramount School in New York and played bits in pictures as a […]

Dorothy Burgess (1907 - 1961)

Actress. After learning her art on the stage, she appeared in several dozen Hollywood features during the 1930s. Raised initially in Los Angeles where her father was in the transportation business, she studied painting and sculpture in New York, then got her theatrical start as a bit-player and dancer in productions that featured her maternal […]

Dorothy Collins (1926 - 1994)

As a youngster, Dorothy Collins sang on radio stations in Windsor and Detroit. In 1940, at age 14, she and her family were introduced to bandleader/composer Raymond Scott in Chicago. Shortly thereafter, she became Scott’s protégée. In early 1942, at age 15, she became a featured vocalist with Scott’s orchestra, performing on radio and on […]

Dorothy Comingore (1913 - 1971)

Born Margaret Louise Comingore in Los Angeles, California, Dorothy Comingore was discovered by Charles Chaplin when she was acting in a small playhouse in Carmel. Comingore played bit parts in Hollywood movies until Orson Welles cast her as Susan Alexander Kane|Susan Alexander, the second wife of press tycoon Charles Foster Kane, in his debut feature film […]

Dorothy Davenport (1895 - 1977)

Dorothy Davenport’s family was well known in the theater. Her grandfather Edward Loomis Davenport was a famous 19th century character actor and the patriarch of the family; his daughter and Dorothy’s aunt, Fanny Davenport, was considered one of the great actresses of the time. Her father, Harry Davenport, was a Broadway star. With her background […]

Dorothy Dene (1859 - 1899)

Dorothy Dene was born in New Cross, London, in 1859; he birth name was Ada Alice Pullen.  She came from a large family of girls, a number of whom earned their living from acting on stage. She lived with her four sisters in an apartment in South Kensington, London. She lived with her four sisters in […]

Dorothy Earle (1892 - 1958)

Dorothy Earle Dorothy Earle was born on September 4, 1892 in New Jersey, USA as Esther Lucille Elmendorf. She was an actress and writer, known for Pioneers of the West (1927), Pinched (1921) and Sweet Daddy (1921). She was married to Harry Burton Comber de Mattos and Marcel Perez. She died on July 5, 1958 […]

Dorothy Height (1912 - 2010)

Dorothy Height was born in Richmond, Virginia. During childhood, she moved with her family to Rankin, Pennsylvania, a steel town in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, where she graduated from Rankin High School in 1929. Height received a scholarship from the Elks, which helped her to attend college. She was admitted to Barnard College in 1929, […]

Dorothy Janis (1910 - 2010)

Born as Dorothy Penelope Jones in Dallas, Texas, her short film career began when she was visiting a cousin, who was working on a film for Fox Film Corporation in 1927. Her beauty was noticed at once and she was asked to make a screen test. Janis went on to make five films: four silents […]

Dorothy Lamour (1914 - 1996)

Born Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton in New Orleans, the daughter of Carmen Louise (née LaPorte) and John Watson Slaton, both of whom were waiters. 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 […]

Dorothy McGuire (1928 - 2012)

Dorothy McGuire She was one-third of the music trio The McGuire Sisters. Dorothy was the middle of three sisters Christine (oldest) and Phyllis (youngest), their mother was an ordained minister, they were born and raised in Middletown, Ohio, a Northern suburb of Cincinnati. Due to their strict upbringing, contemporary music was not allowed and the […]

Dorothy Shay (1921 - 1978)

Shay was born Dorothy Sims in Jacksonville, Florida. When she began her career as a ‘straight’ singer, she took vocal lessons to lose her Southern accent. She sang for the USO during World War II. Dorothy changed her name to “Shay” in order to not be confused with Ginny Simms, another performer of the day, […]

Dorothy Stickney (1896 - 1998)

Dorothy Stickney Born in Dickinson, North Dakota, Stickney attended the North Western Dramatic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She sang and danced as one of the four Southern Belles in vaudeville and began acting in summer stock companies including Atlanta‘s Forsyth Players in the early 1920s before she married Howard Lindsay, to whom she would stay […]

Dorothy Stratten (1960 - 1980)

Dorothy Stratten Stratten was born in a Salvation Army hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia, to Simon and Nelly Hoogstraten, who were Dutch immigrants. In 1961 her brother John Arthur was born. Her sister Louise Stratten followed in May 1968. In 1977 she was attending Centennial High School in Coquitlam when, while working part-time at a […]

Dorothy Thompson (1893 - 1961)

Dorothy Thompson was born in Lancaster, New York, in 1893 to Margaret and Peter Thompson. Margaret died when Dorothy was seven (in 1901), leaving Peter, a Methodist preacher, to raise his daughter alone. Peter soon remarried, but Dorothy did not get along with his new wife, Elizabeth Abbott Thompson. In 1908, Peter sent Dorothy to […]

Dorothy Tree (1906 - 1992)

She was born in Brooklyn, New York, the eldest of three daughters of Herman Triebitz (1877–1943) and Bertha Hert (1885–1967). Her sisters were Sylvia Triebitz (1911–1949) and Mildred “Mimi” Triebitz (1918–?) Her parents were born in Austria, and immigrated to the United States. Their native language was Yiddish. He was the proprietor of a shoe […]

Dorothy Wellman (1913 - 2009)

Wellman was born Dorothy Coonan in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She moved to Los Angeles, California with her family as a child. Her career as a dancer began at the age of 14 with Warner Brothers Studios. Her early film credits as an on-screen dancer and actress included small, uncredited parts in such early talkies as The Broadway […]

Dory Previn (1925 - 2012)

Previn was born in Rahway, New Jersey, the eldest daughter in a strict Catholic family of Irish origin. She had a troubled relationship with her father, especially during childhood. He had served in the First World War and been gassed, and experienced periods of depression and violent mood swings. He tended to alternately embrace and […]

Dottie Rambo (1934 - 2008)

Dottie Rambo Throughout her career, beginning with the 1960s “Gospel Singing Jubilee”, Rambo appeared on numerous television programs on virtually every Christian network as well as the TNN, PAX, and GMT Women’s Entertainment channels. She had her own series, “Dottie Rambo Magazine” in the 1980s on TBN which was the No. 1 rated program on […]

Dottie West (1932 - 1991)

Born Dorothy Marie Marsh outside McMinnville, Tennessee, she was the oldest of 10 children of Hollis and Pelina Marsh. The family soon moved to a bigger, better house, but like many rural families at the time, the family was still so poor they lacked electricity and indoor plumbing and had to make their own soap […]

Doug Engelbart (1925 - 2013)

Engelbart was born in Portland, Oregon on January 30, 1925, to Carl Louis Engelbart and Gladys Charlotte Amelia Munson Engelbart. His ancestors were of German, Swedish and Norwegian descent.  He was the middle of three children, with a sister Dorianne (3 years older), and a brother David (14 months younger). The family lived in Portland, […]

Doug Henning (1947 - 2000)

Doug Henning Henning was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, began practicing magic at Oakenwald School in Fort Garry, and later moved to Oakville, Ontario.  He performed his first show at the age of 14 at the birthday party of a friend and was inspired by his audience’s spellbound reaction. Within a few months of placing an […]

Doug McClure (1935 - 1995)

Doug McClure McClure had a minor part in 1957 as an Army officer in “California Gold Rush in Reverse” on the syndicated anthology series Death Valley Days. The episode is a dramatization of the race in 1848 between the Army and the Navy to be the first to deliver gold nuggets from California to Washington, […]

Douglas Edwards (1917 - 1990)

A native of Oklahoma, Edwards grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. Edwards joined CBS Radio in 1942, eventually becoming anchor for the regular evening newscast The World Today as well as World News Today on Sunday afternoons. Edwards came to CBS after stints as a newscaster and announcer at WSB in Atlanta, Georgia and WXYZ in […]

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (1909 - 2000)

Actor. Movie star of the 1930s and 1940s. He was the son of silent film star Douglas Fairbanks Sr., and the first husband of actress Joan Crawford. He began his career during the silent era in bit parts until 1923 when he starred in the film Stephen Steps Out which quickly went out of circulation. […]

Douglas Fairbanks Sr. (1883 - 1939)

Fairbanks was born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman (spelled “Ulman” by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. in his memoirs) in Denver, Colorado, the son of H. Charles Ullman (born September 15, 1833) and Ella Adelaide (née Marsh; born 1847). He had a half-brother, John Fairbanks, Jr. (born 1873), and a full brother, Robert Payne Ullman (March 13, 1882 […]

Douglas Kennedy (1915 - 1973)

Douglas Kennedy was a character player and occasional leading man in Hollywood. He attended Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Massachusetts, and afterwards graduated from Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Making his debut in 1935, he played a significant number of supporting roles and was able to secure contract-player status, first at Paramount Pictures and later at […]