Birthday: 1897-01-03
Deathday: 1961-09-22
Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
Gender: Female
Owned By: Unowned
From Wikipedia
Marion Davies (January 3, 1897 – September 22, 1961) was an American film actress, producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist.
Davies was already building a solid reputation as a film comedienne when newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, with whom she had begun a romantic relationship, took over management of her career. Hearst financed Davies' pictures, promoted her heavily through his newspapers and Hearst Newsreels, and pressured studios to cast her in historical dramas for which she was ill-suited. For this reason, Davies is better remembered today as Hearst's mistress and the hostess of many lavish events for the Hollywood elite. In particular, her name is linked with the 1924 scandal aboard Hearst's yacht where one of his guests, film producer Thomas Ince, became ill. Despite the legend surrounding Ince's death, likely from alcohol consumption, he did not die on the Hearst yacht. The producer died a few days later in the arms of his wife.
In the film Citizen Kane (1941), the title character's wife—an untalented singer whom he tries to promote—was widely assumed to be based on Davies. But many commentators, including Citizen Kane writer/director Orson Welles himself, have defended Davies' record as a gifted actress, to whom Hearst's patronage did more harm than good. She retired from the screen in 1937, choosing to devote herself to Hearst and charitable work.
In Hearst's declining years, Davies provided financial as well as emotional support until his death in 1951. She married for the first time eleven weeks after his death, a marriage which lasted until Davies died of stomach cancer in 1961 at the age of 64.
Year | Title | Character | |
---|---|---|---|
1937-07-15 | Ever Since Eve | Marge Winton | |
1936-09-26 | Cain and Mabel | Mabel O'Dare | |
1936-06-20 | Hearts Divided | Betsy Patterson | |
1935-11-20 | Pirate Party on Catalina Isle | Marion Davies | |
1935-09-07 | Page Miss Glory | Loretta | |
1934-06-08 | Operator 13 | Gail Loveless | |
1933-12-22 | Going Hollywood | Sylvia Bruce | |
1933-05-26 | Peg o' My Heart | Margaret 'Peg' O'Connell | |
1932-09-01 | Blondie of the Follies | Blondie McClune | |
1932-02-27 | Polly of the Circus | Polly Fisher | |
1931-06-13 | Five and Ten | Jennifer Rarick | |
1931-04-10 | It's a Wise Child | Joyce Stanton | |
1931-01-10 | The Bachelor Father | Antoinette "Tony" Flagg | |
1930-05-31 | The Florodora Girl | Daisy Dell | |
1930-02-02 | Not So Dumb | Dulcy | |
1929-08-24 | Marianne | Marianne | |
1928-11-20 | Show People | Peggy Pepper | |
1928-09-02 | The Cardboard Lover | Sally | |
1928-04-22 | The Patsy | Patricia Harrington | |
1927-11-01 | Quality Street | Phoebe Throssel | |
1927-10-22 | The Fair Co-Ed | Marion | |
1927-06-05 | Tillie the Toiler | Tillie Jones | |
1927-01-29 | The Red Mill | Tina | |
1926-04-18 | Beverly of Graustark | Beverly Calhoun | |
1925-12-25 | Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ | Chariot Race Spectator (uncredited) | |
1925-10-31 | Lights of Old Broadway | Fely / Anne | |
1925-05-01 | Zander the Great | Mamie Smith | |
1924-12-08 | Janice Meredith | Janice Meredith | |
1924-12-01 | The Wife of the Centaur | Cameo in chorus line | |
1924-09-15 | Yolanda | Princess Mary / Yolanda | |
1923-08-01 | Little Old New York | Patricia O'Day | |
1923-02-19 | The Pilgrim | Congregation Member (uncredited) | |
1923-02-11 | Adam and Eva | Eva King | |
1922-09-15 | When Knighthood Was in Flower | Mary Tudor | |
1922-08-27 | The Young Diana | Diana May | |
1922-05-14 | Beauty's Worth | Prudence Cole | |
1922-01-22 | The Bride's Play | Enid of Cashell / Aileen Barrett | |
1921-10-29 | Enchantment | Ethel Hoyt | |
1921-04-09 | Buried Treasure | Pauline Vandermuellen | |
1920-11-12 | The Restless Sex | Stephanie | |
1920-03-20 | April Folly | April Poole | |
1919-12-14 | The Cinema Murder | Elizabeth Dalston | |
1919-08-03 | The Dark Star | Rue Carew | |
1919-04-19 | Getting Mary Married | Mary Bussard | |
1919-03-26 | The Belle of New York | Violet Gray | |
1918-09-21 | The Burden of Proof | Elaine Brooks | |
1918-06-02 | Cecilia of the Pink Roses | Cecilia | |
1917-12-23 | Runaway Romany | Romany |