Background
Wilson was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, moving to Los Angeles, California, after her high school graduation.
Wilson was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, moving to Los Angeles, California, after her high school graduation.
Ironically, she had no interest in acting and had moved to Los Angeles due to an urge to traveling In 1930, she began working as a secretary and applied at several employment agencies. She received a job at Radio-Keith-Orpheum Pictures, and for two years she worked there as a secretary.
She often took notes for director Gregory Louisiana Cava.
She was noticed by the executive in charge of casting and offered a screen test for Louisiana Cava"s upcoming 1932 film The Age of Consent. Her performance in the film received good reviews.
That same year, she was selected as one of the "WAMPAS Baby Stars", along with future Hollywood legend Ginger Rogers and Gloria Stuart. She would go on to star opposite some of Hollywood"s biggest names, including Harold Lloyd, Richard Dix, Tom Keene, Preston Foster and Will Rogers.
She appeared in twenty films between 1932 to 1937.
She would star in only two films after the marriage, after which she retired from acting to devote time to her family. She returned to acting only once, in an uncredited role in the 1943 film Whistling in Brooklyn. She and Foster remained together and raised a family of two children.
Foster died in 1974.
Dorothy never remarried and was residing in Lompoc, California, at the time of her death on January 7, 1998.