Marion Davies and Antonio Moreno in a scene from the movie "Beverly of Graustark."
Gallery of Marion Davies
1927
Marion Davies playing a game of cards with a group of actors at an outdoor table, during the filming of a movie, for MGM Studios, November 3, 1927.
Gallery of Marion Davies
1927
Marion Davies and Harry Crocker in a scene from the movie "Tillie the Toiler."
Gallery of Marion Davies
1928
Marion Davies sitting in a car with a group of other actors on a film set, for MGM Studios, April 10, 1928.
Gallery of Marion Davies
1928
Marion Davies and Nils Asther in a scene from the movie "The Cardboard Lover."
Gallery of Marion Davies
1928
Marion Davies and Dell Henderson in a scene from the movie "Show People."
Gallery of Marion Davies
1930
Marion Davies sitting in a car with an actor on a film set, for MGM Studios, February 16, 1930.
Gallery of Marion Davies
1930
Portrait of actress Marion Davies sitting on a large tree branch with her bicycle next to her, for MGM Studios, April 12, 1930.
Gallery of Marion Davies
1930
Marion Davies
Gallery of Marion Davies
1930
Marion Davies and Claude Allister in a scene from the movie "The Florodora Girl."
Gallery of Marion Davies
1931
Portrait of actress Marion Davies standing on a trapeze as she appears in the film 'Polly at the Circus,' for MGM Studios, December 12, 1931.
Gallery of Marion Davies
1931
Marion Davies in a scene from the movie "The Bachelor Father."
Gallery of Marion Davies
1932
Marion Davies sitting in an armchair with a pet dog and a suitcase at her feet, as she appears in the film 'Peg o' My Heart,' for MGM Studios, February 16, 1932.
Gallery of Marion Davies
1932
Marion Davies leaning on her suitcase with a pet dog, as she appears in the film 'Peg o' My Heart,' for MGM Studios, February 16, 1932.
Gallery of Marion Davies
1934
Portrait of actress Marion Davies in costume as she appears in the film 'Operator 13' for MGM Studios, April 10, 1934.
Gallery of Marion Davies
1934
Marion Davies and Gary Cooper in a scene from the movie "Operator 13."
Gallery of Marion Davies
1935
Marion Davies, around the time of her appearance in the 1935 movie Page Miss Glory, wears a feather-decorated dress.
Gallery of Marion Davies
1935
Marion Davies and Allen Jenkins in a scene from the movie "Page Miss Glory."
Gallery of Marion Davies
1936
Clark Gable and co-star Marion Davies in "Cain and Mabel."
Gallery of Marion Davies
1936
Marion Davies and Dick Powell in a scene from the movie "Hearts Divided."
Marion Davies sitting in an armchair with a pet dog and a suitcase at her feet, as she appears in the film 'Peg o' My Heart,' for MGM Studios, February 16, 1932.
The Times We Had: Life with William Randolph Hearst
(She was the unofficial empress of Hollywood and she spent...)
She was the unofficial empress of Hollywood and she spent a lifetime as the mistress of one of America's richest men. Gathered from tapes recorded a decade before Marion Davies' death, read, in her own words, the story of a fantastic and glittering life, as never told before.
(Prudence Cole is an unsophisticated Quaker girl being rai...)
Prudence Cole is an unsophisticated Quaker girl being raised by her two aunts. Prudence is flirted with by snobbish Henry Garrison, who actually disdains the girl for her lack of worldliness and savoir faire. When Henry and his friends try to embarrass her at a posh resort, Prudence turns the tables on them.
(Davies is cast as Dutch barmaid Tina, who falls in love w...)
Davies is cast as Dutch barmaid Tina, who falls in love with handsome hero Dennis. Alas, Dennis doesn't return her affections, whereupon Tina mounts a campaign to win his heart.
(A minister is removed from his post and can’t find anothe...)
A minister is removed from his post and can’t find another after he marries a circus performer in this romantic drama starring Marion Davies and Clark Gable.
(Marion Davies, Billie Dove, Robert Montgomery, and Jimmy ...)
Marion Davies, Billie Dove, Robert Montgomery, and Jimmy Durante star in this tale of two showgirls on the road from rags to riches who compete for the same man.
(Union spy Gail Loveless impersonates a black maid in the ...)
Union spy Gail Loveless impersonates a black maid in the early days of the Civil War, but complications arise when she falls in love with a Confederate officer.
(A young woman living in an Irish fishing village inherits...)
A young woman living in an Irish fishing village inherits her late grandfather's estate, but is forced to spend three years in England training to be a proper lady to collect the fortune.
Marion Davies was an American actress who was more renowned for her 34-year relationship with publishing giant William Randolph Hearst than for her performance career. Nonetheless, she was a popular movie star in the 1920s, and she was particularly admired for her comic talents.
Background
Marion Davies was born on January 3, 1897 in New York City, New York, United States. She was the youngest of five children of Bernard and Rose Douras. Marion had three sisters - Ethel Douras, Rose Douras, and Reine Douras (Lederer). Her older brother, Charles, drowned.
Education
Davies' education was complicated by a childhood stutter that would remain with her throughout her life, eventually becoming a disarming asset. After several public schools refused to take her, Davies was sent away to a convent school in Hastings, New York. During her weekends at home, she studied ballet with her sisters and, beginning in the summer of 1912, took tap-dancing lessons for a year or so, although she lacked concentration and believed that daily practice was bad for her system. Her earliest stage appearances were in the "pony" (chorus) lines of a few small-time reviews and in a musical version of Maeterlinck's The Bluebird.
By 1914, now a stunning blonde with a slightly wicked smile, Davies began to draw attention. That year, she made her Broadway debut as one of some 500 hoofers in a show called Chin-Chin and embarked on the frenetic social life of a popular New York chorine.
Throughout 1915, Davies appeared in a number of revues. Her affair with 52-year-old Hearst began when she was 19, during the run of The Ziegfeld Follies of 1916, and was at first kept secret.
Davies' career in the theater continued on the upswing, resulting in a number of film offers. In 1918, with the backing of her ex-brother-in-law, George Lederer (who had been married to her sister Reine), Davies made her first film, Runaway Romany, a poorly written, poorly executed movie even by the standards of early feature-film production. Even so, after viewing an early screening, Hearst announced that he would make her a star, and from that day forward he took over every aspect of her career. Her 1918 film, Cecilia of the Pink Roses, was given a less than enthusiastic review in The New York Times, but Hearst's New York American ran a three-column headline announcing the arrival of a new cinema star. Each Hearst review outdid the previous one, a pattern that would continue for over 20 years.
In 1919, Hearst formed an agreement with Paramount to release Davies' pictures, which were produced through his Cosmopolitan Production Company. The films that followed, including The Dark Star (1919), April Folly (1920), The Restless Sex (1920), and Buried Treasure (1921), all lost money, mostly due to Hearst's enormous production budgets. In April 1920, Davies made her last stage appearance in Ed Wynn's Carnival. The film Enchantment followed in 1921, her best to date as well as Photoplay's pick as best picture of the month. In 1922, Hearst spent an extraordinary $1.5 million to produce When Knighthood Was in Flower and commissioned Victor Herbert to write two songs to accompany the film. Davies' performance as Mary Tudor was praised in both Hearst and non-Hearst papers alike, particularly for its comic moments. Davies solidified her reputation with her next film, Little Old New York (1923), which premiered in a theater Hearst bought and renovated especially for the event.
In 1924, Cosmopolitan moved to the Goldwyn lot. When Goldwyn subsequently merged with Metro to form MGM, Cosmopolitan went along. Realizing the value of the Hearst association, MGM head Louis B. Mayer financed all of Cosmopolitan's films and paid Davies an unprecedented $10,000 a week. The Goldwyn partnership produced several moderately profitable movies: Yolanda (1924), Zander the Great (1925), and Lights of Old Broadway (1925), which resulted in a growing following for Davies. However, Hearst continued to limit her roles to fragile, virginal heroines, even though she was more suited to gutsy comic roles. It is generally agreed that only a few of Davies' films ever fully displayed her gifts as an actress, among them two directed by King Vidor in 1928: The Patsy, in which she impersonated Pola Negri, May Murray, and Lillian Gish; and Show People, a burlesque chronicling the career of a movie star known for slapstick who eventually triumphs as a dramatic actress.
Davies' last silent movie, The Cardboard Lover (1928), was warmly received, but her career was about to take a dip with the advent of sound. Before they heard her speak, moviegoers heard Davies sing in MGM's star-studded extravaganza, The Hollywood Revue of 1929. Her next film, Marianne (1929), featured her delightful imitations of Sarah Bernhardt and Maurice Chevalier, which were added to the movie as an afterthought on the last day of filming. In 1934, after Davies was passed over for several roles, she moved to Warner Bros., where she starred in Page Miss Glory (1935), playing comic scenes opposite Patsy Kelly. But her age, now 38, was beginning to work against her. Her film Hearts Divided (1936) was a stretch, as was Cain and Mabel (1936), with Clark Gable.
When Davies made her last picture Ever Since Eve in 1936, the Hearst empire was struggling financially and several unflattering biographies had appeared about the newspaper tycoon. Later, Davies would make her last professional appearance as an actress in a "Lux Radio Theater" broadcast of Peg o' My Heart. Although Davies was subsequently offered the role of the mother in Claudia, Hearst refused to let her take a character part, especially that of a character who dies.
Hearst, forced to cut back on spending, lived relatively quietly with Davies at San Simeon until the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Fearing the castle might be shelled by the Japanese, they then moved to Wyntoon, a residence in the middle of a wilderness, 700 miles from Hollywood on the Oregon line. Davies referred to Wyntoon as "Spittoon" and found the exile intolerable. In 1944, they returned to San Simeon, where she once again immersed herself in Hollywood's social scene.
After the death of William Randolph Hearst, Davies enjoyed several successful real-estate ventures, as well as a profitable return from investment on the musical Kismet, which ran 583 performances on Broadway and spawned countless roadshows and revivals. In 1960, she appeared briefly on Hedda Hopper's television show "This Is My Hollywood," which included a tour of her Beverly Hills home.
(A love-struck teacher pursues a radio singer to Hollywood.)
1933
Politics
Marion Davies campaigned on behalf of John F. Kennedy in 1960.
Views
Throughout her later years, Davies was known for her generosity to charities. During the 1920s, she donated over $1 million to children's charities. In 1952, she donated $1.9 million to establish a children's clinic at UCLA. Marion also established the Marion Davies Foundation to fight childhood diseases.
Quotations:
"Love is not always created at the altar. Love doesn't need a wedding ring."
"I had a really good time at MGM. And we had no quarrels much, except once in a while, I'd go up to the front office and say I thought I should be doing something big, like washing elephants... All my life I wanted to have talent... Finally, I had to admit there was nothing there."
"An imitator is always a poor example."
"To me, Venice and Ocean Park were gaiety. I had not been allowed to go to those things as a youngster."
Personality
Marion Davies was a genuinely funny actress who did good work. She had more screen potential than Hearst's heavy care noticed.
Marion was very generous and was loved by everyone who knew her.
Physical Characteristics:
Marion Davies was 5' 5" (1,65 m) tall. She had blonde hair and blue eyes.
In 1956, Davies suffered a minor cerebral stroke. Three years later, during a dental examination, a growth was discovered on her jaw. Later, Davies was diagnosed with cancer. In 1961, she underwent surgery for malignant osteomyelitis. Twelve days after the operation, Davies broke her leg.
Marion Davies died of malignant osteomyelitis in September 1961.
Quotes from others about the person
Orson Welles: "[Marion Davies] was never one of Hearst's possessions: he was always her suitor, and she was the precious treasure of his heart for more than thirty years until his last breath of life. Theirs is truly a love story. Love is not the subject of Citizen Kane."
Connections
Marion Davies was William Randolph Hearst's mistress for over 30 years. It was widely considered the "worst kept secret in Hollywood" that she lived with him in California while his wife Millicent resided in New York. His wife would not grant him a divorce so that he could marry Davies. Davies retired from the screen in the late 1930s so she could be with Hearst as his health was declining.
Some time after the death of Hearst, Davies married an old friend, sea captain Horace G. Brown. Although she twice filed for divorce, she withdrew both suits, and Brown survived her.
In 1993, the family of Patricia van Cleve (wife of actor Arthur Lake) revealed, upon her death, that she was actually the child of Marion and William Randolph Hearst. Van Cleve had been raised by Davies' sister Rose and had always been introduced as her niece and Lake as her nephew.
Marion Davies
In this detailed biography of film star Marion Davies (née Douras) who was in so many ways created by and for William Randolph Hearst - the symbiotic relationship spanned from 1915 when W. R. first ogled her chorus-girl charms to his death in 1951. But she was much more quickly superannuated cinema - historically speaking by the Orson Welles-Herman Mankiewicz dumb-blond caricature in Citizen Kane, paradoxically the most important film in her life.