Background
She was born in Saint Louis, Missouri and died in Monrovia, California.
She was born in Saint Louis, Missouri and died in Monrovia, California.
Yost finished her fourth year of high school before heading to California to begin work for the film industry.
Over her lifetime she worked on more than ninety-four films, including her own screenplays. Before screenwriting, Yost appeared in plays produced by the Scovell Juvenile Stock Company. In 1917, she was hired as a secretary assisting the scenario editor at Triangle Film Corporation.
Just six months after she was hired, she was promoted to the head of reading department where she reviewed and edited scripts.
Yost wrote her first continuity script at the age of twenty-one in 1920. lieutenant was an adaptation of Foreign the Soul of Rafael, based on 1906 novel by Marah Ellis Ryan.
Soon enough, in 1927, Los Angeles Times praised Dorothy Yost as being Hollywood’s youngest and most successful scenarist. In her writing, Yost included a focus on Hollywood’s representation of ethnic and racial minorities as well as regional settings.
Her films taught lessons for life and often highlighted moral principles.
Aside from her screenplays, Dorothy published her novel, Prodigal Lover.