Dorothy Davenport

Birthday: 1895-03-13
Deathday: 1977-10-12
Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Gender: Female
Owned By: Unowned

Dorothy Davenport (March 13, 1895 – October 12, 1977) was an American actress, screenwriter, film director, and producer who appeared in silent film for Biograph Studios under the direction of D.W. Griffith.

While filming on location in Oregon for The Valley of the Giants (1919), Wallace Reid was injured in a train wreck. As a remedy for the pain from this injury, studio doctors administered large doses of morphine 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. After Reid's death, Davenport and Thomas Ince co-produced the film Human Wreckage (1923) with James Kirkwood, Sr., Bessie Love and Lucille Ricksen, a film that dealt with the dangers of narcotics addiction. Davenport took Human Wreckage on a roadshow engagement, followed up with another "social conscience" picture about excessive mother-love called Broken Laws in 1924, again billed as "Mrs. Wallace Reid" to capitalize on her husband's notorious death. She then produced The Red Kimona (1925) about white slavery. On screen she opens the film in silent narration or prologue. The details of the latter film were so realistic that Davenport was successfully sued.

She would later direct Linda (1929), Sucker Money (1933), Road to Ruin (1934), and The Woman Condemned (1934) and worked as a producer, writer, and dialogue director. Among her last credits are co-author of the screenplay for Footsteps in the Fog (1955), and as dialogue director for The First Traveling Saleslady (1956) with Ginger Rogers.

She and husband Wallace Reid had two children. She was married to him until his death on January 18, 1923. She never remarried. Dorothy Davenport died at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in 1977 in Woodland Hills, California. She is interred with her husband in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Dorothy Davenport, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Credits

Year Title Character
1934-05-14 The Road to Ruin Mrs. Merrill (uncredited)
1933-05-23 Man Hunt Mrs. Scott
1928-04-30 Hellship Bronson Mrs. Bronson
1927-07-24 The Satin Woman Mrs. Jean Taylor (as Mrs. Wallace Reid)
1925-11-16 The Red Kimona Woman Telling the Story (uncredited)
1924-11-09 Broken Laws Joan Allen
1923-06-17 Human Wreckage Ethel MacFarland
1920-08-01 The Fighting Chance Leila Mortimer
1918-10-05 His Extra Bit The Wife
1917-07-26 The Squaw Man's Son Edith, Lady Effington
1917-05-14 Treason Luella Brysk
1917-02-26 The Girl and the Crisis Ellen Wilmot
1917-02-05 The Scarlet Crystal Marie Delys
1917-01-01 Mothers of Men Clara Madison
1916-12-15 The Wrong Heart
1916-11-20 The Devil's Bondwoman Beverly Hope
1916-10-16 Barriers of Society Martha Gorham
1916-09-18 Black Friday Elionor Rossitor
1916-09-04 The Unattainable Bessie Gale
1916-08-14 A Yoke of Gold Carner
1916-07-03 The Way of the World Beatrice Farley
1916-05-01 Doctor Neighbor Hazel Rogers
1915-12-09 The Unknown Nancy Preston
1915-12-02 Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo Grand Duchess Feodora
1915-07-11 In Humble Guise Grace Hunt
1914-10-12 The Test of Manhood Ethel Crandall
1914-06-24 The Den of Thieves Dorothy
1914-06-17 'Cross the Mexican Line Dorothy West
1914-06-10 A Wife on a Wager
1914-06-03 Love's Western Flight Dorothy
1914-05-27 Passing of the Beast The Mountie's Wife
1914-05-20 The Man Within
1914-05-13 The Siren Renee
1914-05-06 The Quack Mary Rohan
1914-04-29 Women and Roses Wallace's Mistress
1914-04-22 The Fruit of Evil
1914-04-20 The Skeleton Jack's Wife
1914-04-15 The Test The Poor Man's Wife
1914-04-08 A Gypsy Romance Queen of the Gypsies
1914-04-01 Cupid Incognito Angela Graham
1914-03-26 The Spider and Her Web
1914-03-18 The Way of a Woman Dorothy
1914-03-15 The Mountaineer Dorothy - Jim's Sweetheart
1914-03-12 The Heart of the Hills The Government Detective
1914-03-04 The Voice of the Viola Dorothy
1914-02-25 Breed o' the Mountains Sue Jarvis
1914-02-18 A Flash in the Dark Mrs. Randall
1914-02-11 The Greater Devotion
1914-02-04 Fires of Conscience Ethel
1914-01-28 The Wheel of Life The Prospector's Wife
1914-01-21 The Countess Betty's Mine Countess Betty Ardmore
1914-01-14 The Intruder The Woodsman's Sweetheart
1913-12-31 A Hopi Legend
1913-12-24 The Lightning Bolt Dot
1913-12-19 A Cracksman Santa Claus Dot
1913-12-10 Retribution Dorothy
1913-11-20 The Fires of Fate Dot - Wally's Sweetheart
1913-11-14 The Cracksman's Reformation Dorothy
1913-10-10 The Revelation Mrs. Burns
1913-08-22 The Spark of Manhood
1913-02-10 Pierre of the North Mary McKenzie - the Factor's Daughter
1912-10-09 His Only Son Jessie Carter
1912-04-16 Her Indian Hero Veda Mead
1912-01-15 A Brave Little Woman Clara Lyttell
1910-12-12 The Golden Supper Flower Girl
1910-10-06 A Gold Necklace A Friend