Dorothy Dalton
Encyclopedia
Dorothy Dalton was an American silent film
actress and stage personality who worked her way from a stock company to a movie career. Beginning in 1910, Dalton was a player in stock companies in Chicago and Holyoke, Massachusetts
. She joined the Keith-Albee-Orpheum
Corporation vaudeville
circuits. By 1914 she was in Hollywood.
, Illinois
, Dalton made her movie debut in 1914 in Pierre of the Plains, co-starring Edgar Selwyn
, followed by the lead role in Across the Pacific that same year. In 1915, she appeared with William S. Hart
in The Disciple. This production came before she left Triangle Film Corporation
and was signed to Thomas Harper Ince Studios. Ince's company was operative from 1919 until his death in 1924. With Ince, she played in The Price Mark and Love Letters, both co-starring William Conklin
. Dalton also performed with Rudolph Valentino
in Moran of the Lady Letty
(1922), and with H.B. Warner in The Flame of the Yukon (1917) and The Vagabond Prince (1916).
Dalton's stage career included performances as Chrysis in Aphrodite by Morris Gest
in 1920 and on Broadway
in The Country Wife
.
. The couple divorced in 1915. She then married theatrical producer Arthur Hammerstein
in 1924. He was the uncle of Oscar Hammerstein II
, the lyricist and the son of Oscar Hammerstein I
. After her second marriage, Dalton acted infrequently. Arthur Hammerstein died in 1955.
Dorothy Dalton died in 1972, age 78, at her home in Scarsdale. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Dorothy Dalton has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
at 1560 Vine Street
.
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
actress and stage personality who worked her way from a stock company to a movie career. Beginning in 1910, Dalton was a player in stock companies in Chicago and Holyoke, Massachusetts
Holyoke, Massachusetts
Holyoke is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, between the western bank of the Connecticut River and the Mount Tom Range of mountains. As of the 2010 Census, the city had a population of 39,880...
. She joined the Keith-Albee-Orpheum
Keith-Albee-Orpheum
The Keith-Albee-Orpheum Corporation was the owner of a chain of vaudeville and motion picture theatres. It was formed by the merger of the holdings of Benjamin Franklin Keith and Edward Franklin Albee II and Martin Beck's Orpheum Circuit, Inc..-History:...
Corporation vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
circuits. By 1914 she was in Hollywood.
Career
Born in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, Dalton made her movie debut in 1914 in Pierre of the Plains, co-starring Edgar Selwyn
Edgar Selwyn
Edgar Selwyn was a prominent figure in American theater and film in the first half of the 20th Century.Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Selwyn flourished in the Broadway theater as an actor, playwright, director, and producer from 1899 to 1942...
, followed by the lead role in Across the Pacific that same year. In 1915, she appeared with William S. Hart
William S. Hart
William Surrey Hart was an American silent film actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He is remembered for having "imbued all of his characters with honor and integrity."-Biography:...
in The Disciple. This production came before she left Triangle Film Corporation
Triangle Film Corporation
Triangle Film Corporation was a major American motion-picture studio, founded in the summer of 1915 in Culver City, California, and envisioned as a prestige studio based on the producing abilities of filmmakers D. W. Griffith, Thomas Ince and Mack Sennett...
and was signed to Thomas Harper Ince Studios. Ince's company was operative from 1919 until his death in 1924. With Ince, she played in The Price Mark and Love Letters, both co-starring William Conklin
William Conklin
William Conklin , was an American actor. He appeared in 85 silent era motion pictures between 1913 and 1929.He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and died in Hollywood, California.-Selected filmography:...
. Dalton also performed with Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino was an Italian actor, and early pop icon. A sex symbol of the 1920s, Valentino was known as the "Latin Lover". He starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and Son of the Sheik...
in Moran of the Lady Letty
Moran of the Lady Letty
Moran of the Lady Letty is a 1922 silent film adventure produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed through Paramount Pictures. The picture reunited director George Melford and star Rudolph Valentino after their monumental success with The Sheik in 1921...
(1922), and with H.B. Warner in The Flame of the Yukon (1917) and The Vagabond Prince (1916).
Dalton's stage career included performances as Chrysis in Aphrodite by Morris Gest
Morris Gest
Morris Gest was a Jewish-American theatrical producer of the early 20th century.-Early life:Born in Vilna, now Lithuania, the son of Leon and Elizabeth Gershonovitz...
in 1920 and on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in The Country Wife
The Country Wife
The Country Wife is a Restoration comedy written in 1675 by William Wycherley. A product of the tolerant early Restoration period, the play reflects an aristocratic and anti-Puritan ideology, and was controversial for its sexual explicitness even in its own time. The title itself contains a lewd pun...
.
Personal life and death
Dalton was first married to actor Lew CodyLew Cody
Lew Cody, birth name Louis Joseph Côté was an American actor whose career spanned the silent film and early sound film age....
. The couple divorced in 1915. She then married theatrical producer Arthur Hammerstein
Arthur Hammerstein
Arthur Hammerstein , was the son of Oscar Hammerstein I and uncle of Oscar Hammerstein II, was an opera producer and one of the writers of the song "Because of You," a major hit for Tony Bennett in 1951. Hammerstein wrote the song in 1940. It was used in the film I Was an American Spy...
in 1924. He was the uncle of Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...
, the lyricist and the son of Oscar Hammerstein I
Oscar Hammerstein I
Oscar Hammerstein I was a businessman, theater impresario and composer in New York City. His passion for opera led him to open several opera houses, and he rekindled opera's popularity in America...
. After her second marriage, Dalton acted infrequently. Arthur Hammerstein died in 1955.
Dorothy Dalton died in 1972, age 78, at her home in Scarsdale. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Dorothy Dalton has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
at 1560 Vine Street
Vine Street
Vine is a street in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California that runs north-south from Melrose Avenue up past Hollywood Boulevard. The intersection of Hollywood and Vine was once a symbol of Hollywood itself...
.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1914 | Pierre of the Plains | Jen Galbraith | |
| Across the Pacific | Elsie Escott | ||
| 1915 | The Disciple | Mary Houston | |
| 1916 | The Three Musketeers | Queen Anne | Alternative title: D'Artagnan |
| The Raiders | Dorothy Haldeman | ||
| Civilization's Child | Ellen McManus | ||
| The Captive God | Tecolote | ||
| The Jungle Child | Ollante | Alternative title: The Barbarian | |
| The Vagabond Prince | Lola "Fluffy" | ||
| A Gamble in Souls | Freda Maxey | ||
| The Female of the Species | Gloria Marley | Alternative title: The Vampire | |
| 1917 | The Weaker Sex | Ruth Tilden | |
| Chicken Casey | Chicken Casey/Mavis Marberry | Alternative title: Waifs | |
| Back of the Man | Ellen Horton | ||
| The Dark Road | Cleo Morrison | Alternative title: The Road to Honour | |
| Wild Winship's Widow | Catherine Winship | ||
| The Flame of the Yukon | Ethel Evans/The Flame | ||
| Ten of Diamonds | Neva Blaine | ||
| The Price Mark | Paula Lee | ||
| Love Letters | Eileen Rodney | ||
| 1918 | Flare-Up Sal | Flare-Up Sal | |
| Love Me | Maida Madison | ||
| Unfaithful | Helen Karge | ||
| Tyrant Fear | Allaine Grandet | ||
| The Mating of Marcella | Marcella Duranzo | ||
| The Kaiser's Shadow | Paula Harris | Alternative title: The Triple Cross | |
| Green Eyes | Shirley Hunter | ||
| Vive la France! | Genevieve Bouchette | ||
| Dorothy Dalton in a Liberty Loan Appeal | Red Cross nurse | ||
| Quicksand | Mary Bowen | Alternative title: Quicksands | |
| 1919 | The Market of Souls | Helen Armes | |
| Hard Boiled | Corinne Melrose | ||
| Extravagance | Helen Douglas | ||
| The Homebreaker | Mary Marbury | ||
| The Lady of Red Butte | Faro Fan | Alternative title: The Lady of Red Brute | |
| Other Men's Wives | Cynthia Brock | ||
| Apache | Natalie "La Bourget" Bourget/Helen Armstrong | Alternative title: L'Apache | |
| His Wife's Friend | Lady Miriam Grimwood | ||
| 1920 | Black Is White | Margaret Brood/Yvonne Strakosch | |
| The Dark Mirror | Priscilla Maine/Nora O'Moore | ||
| Guilty of Love | Thelma Miller | ||
| Half an Hour | Lady Lillian Garson | ||
| A Romantic Adventuress | Alice Vanni | ||
| 1921 | The Idol of the North | Colette Brissac | |
| Behind Masks | Jeanne Mesurier | Alternative titles: In Men's Eyes Jeanne of the Marshes |
|
| Fool's Paradise | Poll Patchouli | ||
| 1922 | Moran of the Lady Letty Moran of the Lady Letty Moran of the Lady Letty is a 1922 silent film adventure produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed through Paramount Pictures. The picture reunited director George Melford and star Rudolph Valentino after their monumental success with The Sheik in 1921... |
Moran Letty Sternersen | |
| The Crimson Challenge | Tharon Last | ||
| The Woman Who Walked Alone | The Honorable Iris Champneys | ||
| The Siren Call | Charlotte Woods, a dancer | ||
| On the High Seas | Leone Deveraux | ||
| 1923 | Dark Secrets | Ruth Rutherford | |
| Fog Bound | Gale Brenon | ||
| Law of the Lawless | Sahande | ||
| 1924 | The Moral Sinner | Leah Kleschna | |
| The Lone Wolf | Lucy Shannon | ||