Dorothy Dandridge
Encyclopedia
Dorothy Jean Dandridge was an American actress and popular singer, and was the first African-American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress
. She performed as a vocalist in venues such as the Nathan Featherston and the Apollo Theater
.
After several minor bit part
s in films, Dandridge landed her first noted film role in Tarzan's Peril
(starring Lex Barker
), in 1951. Dandridge won her first starring role in 1953, playing a teacher in a low-budget film with a nearly all-black cast, Bright Road
, released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
.
In 1954, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Carmen Jones
, and in 1959 she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Porgy and Bess. In 1999, she was the subject of the HBO biopic Introducing Dorothy Dandridge
, starring Halle Berry
as Dandridge. She has been recognized on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
.
Dandridge was married and divorced twice, first to dancer and entertainer Harold Nicholas
(the father of her daughter, Harolyn Suzanne) and then to Jack Denison. Dandridge died of an accidental drug overdose
at age 42.
, to Cyril Dandridge (October 25, 1895 – July 9, 1989), a cabinetmaker
and minister, and to Ruby Dandridge
(née Butler), an aspiring entertainer. Dandridge's parents separated shortly before her birth. Ruby Dandridge soon created an act for her two young daughters, Vivian and Dorothy, under the name of "The Wonder Children." The daughters toured the Southern United States
for five years while Ruby worked and performed in Cleveland. During this time, they toured almost non-stop and rarely attended school.
At the onset of the Great Depression
, work virtually dried up for the Dandridges, as it did for many of the Chitlin' circuit
performers. Ruby Dandridge moved to Hollywood, California, where she found steady work on radio and film in small parts as a domestic servant. "The Wonder Kids" were renamed "The Dandridge Sisters" and booked into such venues as the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theater
in Harlem
, New York City
.
comedy, Teacher's Beau
(1935
). In 1937, she appeared as one of the many singers in the Marx Brothers
' feature film
A Day at the Races
. The following year Dandridge, her sister Vivian, and Etta Jones would make a brief appearance in Going Places. In 1940, Dandridge played a murderer in the race film
Four Shall Die — her first credited film role. Though the part was a supporting role and the film was somewhat of a success, Dandridge struggled to find good film roles.
The following year, Dandridge was cast opposite John Wayne
in Lady From Louisiana
(1941), playing the small part of Felice. That same year she teamed with her future husband Harold Nicholas
to film a brief role in Sun Valley Serenade
. Dandridge, Nicholas, and Nicholas's brother Fayard Nicholas
, appeared in a part described as "speciality act". In 1942, Dandridge won another supporting role as Princess Malimi in Drums of the Congo. In her next few films she would play mainly in bit parts, but she managed to get a small and yet good role in Hit Parade of 1943
(1943). In 1944, Dandridge would play two uncredited roles in Since You Went Away
and Atlantic City. In the following year of 1945, she would play again a small role in the musical Pillow to Post. Two years later she appeared in a tiny role in Ebony Parade (1947). By the later months 1947, Dandridge's luck for winning small roles in films had disappeared. She would only rarely appear in nightclubs and wouldn't make any films.
In 1951, Dandridge was cast as Melmendi, Queen of the Ashuba, in her comeback film, Tarzan's Peril
, starring Lex Barker
as Tarzan and Virginia Huston
as Jane. Dandridge's role was somewhat minor, but she would be noticed by many. One night while at a party, she was introduced to music manager Earl Mills. Mills had agreed to get Dandridge a career started as a singer, but Dandridge preferred to focus on the motion picture industry. Despite this disagreement, Dandridge signed Mills as her agent. She would next appear as Ann Carpenter in The Harlem Globetrotters
(1951). In this film Dandridge really only makes a co-starring appearance, but receives second billing.
After the release of The Harlem Globetrotters, Dandridge's film career stalled again. Mills then arranged for Dandridge to make her first appearance at the Mocambo
. She continued to perform in nightclubs around the country through most of 1952.
studio agent noticed Dandridge performing in the Mocambo, and cast her in her first starring role: as Jane Richards in Bright Road
, co-starring Philip Hepburn and Harry Belafonte
.
The film tells the story of a teacher who reaches out to a troubled student during his time of need. The film contains nearly an all-black cast: a few minor white characters are seen. Bright Road became a box-office flop, but Dandridge was at the top of her game as a nightclub performer.
Bright Road was to showcase Dandridge as a serious leading actress, but the film's terrible reception didn't help matters of her being taken seriously; it hurt them more than she knew. The feature was named "the lowest box-office gross of the South".
After Bright Road, Dandridge would start performing again in nightclubs; and, eventually she won a supporting role as herself in the musical-drama film Remains to Be Seen.
. Soon after director and writer Otto Preminger
cast Dandridge along with Harry Belafonte
, Pearl Bailey
, Brock Peters
, Diahann Carroll, Madame Sul-Te-Wan
(uncredited), Olga James, and Joe Adams, in his all-black production of Carmen Jones
. However, Dandridge's singing voice was dubbed by opera singer Marilyn Horne
.
Upon release in 1954, Carmen Jones
grossed $60,000 during its first week and $47,000 in its second week. The film received favorable reviews, and Dandridge was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress
, becoming only the third African American to receive a nomination in any Academy Award category (after Hattie McDaniel
and Ethel Waters
) but the first African-American to be nominated for best actress. Grace Kelly
won the award for her performance in The Country Girl
. At the awards ceremony, Dandridge presented the Academy Award for Film Editing
to Gene Milford for On the Waterfront
.
In 1955, 20th Century Fox selected Dandridge to play the supporting role of Tuptim in the film version of the Broadway
hit, The King and I
, starring Deborah Kerr
and Yul Brynner
. The character was a slave, which made Dorothy decline the offer. After some convincing from Fox chief, Darryl F. Zanuck
, that the role was a good one, Dandridge agreed to take the part. Otto Preminger, however, told her the role was too small, and that she would be better off to wait for a leading role in a big-budget motion picture: Dandridge would again decline the role of Tuptim.
A few months before the offer of The King and I, Dandridge was asked to play Sandra Roberts in The Lieutenant Wore Skirts
, a romantic-comedy
film starring Tom Ewell
and Sheree North
. She turned this role down for the same reasons that she would turn down The King and I, in future months—it was too small. Had Dandridge agreed to make The Lieutenant Wore Skirts, her character would have been a parody
of Marilyn Monroe
's character in Fox's The Seven Year Itch
(1955). Dorothy was not a fan of parodies, which was another reason she turned the part down. Not making these two films started the slow decline of Dandridge's film career.
in his controversial film version of Island in the Sun
, co-starring James Mason
, Harry Belafonte
, Joan Fontaine
, Joan Collins
, Michael Rennie
, John Justin
, John Williams
, and Stephen Boyd
. This film was a success, which brought Dandridge back to the public eye.
Though Island in the Sun was a major success, Dandridge didn't get another film until she was cast in the low-budget foreign Italian
production Tamango
, which teamed her with Curd Jürgens
. The film received fair reviews, but failed to succeed at the box-office. Dandridge believed that the film failed because she played a slave, a part she had vowed she'd never play. Tamango was filmed in Europe in the late months of 1957 and was legally released on January 24, 1958 in France. Tamango wouldn't be released in the United States until September 16, 1959.
In 1958, soon after the French
release of Tamango, Dandridge lined up a co-starring role in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
's off-beat thriller The Decks Ran Red
. The film starred James Mason
, Dandridge's co-star in Island in the Sun (1957). The Decks Ran Red was released with high hopes, but drew minor box-office success; today the film is considered a "cult classic" Dorothy Dandridge film.
cast Dandridge in the lead role of Bess in Porgy and Bess; Dandridge was again nominated for an award, this time for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
, for her performance in Porgy and Bess. Dandridge lost, this time to Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot
Despite positive reviews, Porgy and Bess was a box-office failure. The film's characters were described by several African-Americans as "stereotypical": Bess was a drug addict, Porgy a crippled drunk, Sportin' Life another drug addict, and Crown a rapist. These characters pandered to the stereotypes many believed about African-Americans, making the story controversial for many African-Americans.
The actor who got the most blame for the failure of Porgy and Bess was Dandridge. Before the film, many other African-American actresses and actors looked up to Dandridge as someone who had proved that an African-American woman could achieve what a white woman or man could. But many thought Dandridge was "selling out" when she accepted the role of Bess. Furthermore, she received a number of negative reviews for her performance, being called "uncreditable".
A few weeks after the box-office disappoinment of Porgy and Bess, Dandridge was released from her 20th Century Fox contract. Though she had been with Fox for about five-and-a-half years, she had only made two films that were released by them: Carmen Jones (1954) and Island in the Sun (1957). (Her contract committed her to making three, but Fox failed to find enough viable opportunities for Dandridge.)
, another low-budget, forgettable movie that was filmed in Europe and came and vanished quickly. Malaga proved to be Dandridge's final theatrical film. The feature was filmed in late 1959, under the original title Moment of Danger, but not legally released in U.S. theaters until 1962.
She made her last acting appearance the next year as the lead in the television movie
The Murder Men
. A reporter called Dorothy's performance "Her most interesting 'later' film role." The film was later shown in an episode of Cain's Hundred
, entitled Blues for a Junkman; all the actors receiving "archive footage" crediting.
By the end of 1961, job offers (of any kind) had disappeared, a disappointment from which Dandrige would never recover.
on piano. As well-known as she became from renditions of songs such as "Blow Out the Candle", "You Do Something To Me", and "Talk Sweet Talk To Me", she recorded very little on vinyl. Whether it was because of personal choice or lack of opportunity is unknown.
In 1940, as part of the Dandridge Sisters
singing group, Dandridge recorded four songs with the Jimmy Lunceford band:
In 1944, she recorded a duet with Louis Armstrong
from the film Pillow to Post:
In 1951, she recorded a single for Columbia Records
:
In 1953, she recorded a song for the film Remains to Be Seen:
In 1958, she recorded a full length album for Verve Records
featuring Oscar Peterson
with Herb Ellis
, Ray Brown
, and Alvin Stoller
(Catalogue #314 547-514 2) that remained unreleased in the vaults until a cd release in 1999. This cd also included 4 tracks from 1961 (with an unknown orchestra) that included one 45 rpm record single and another aborted single:
(above two tracks released on Verve Records single #Verve V 10231)
(above two tracks were aborted for release as a single and remained unreleased until the Smooth Operator CD release in 1999).
These are the only known songs Dandridge recorded on vinyl. Several songs she sang were recorded on Soundies
. These songs, which include her version of "Cow Cow Boogie", are not included on this list.
on September 6, 1942, and gave birth to her only child, Harolyn Suzanne Nicholas, on September 2, 1943. Harolyn was born brain-damaged, and the couple divorced in October 1951.
Dandridge married Jack Denison on June 22, 1959, although the pair divorced amid allegations of domestic violence
and financial setbacks. At this time, Dandridge discovered that the people who were handling her finances had swindled her out of $150,000, and that she was $139,000 in debt for back taxes. Forced to sell her Hollywood home and to place her daughter in a state mental institution in Camarillo, California
, Dandridge moved into a small apartment at 8495 Fountain Avenue in West Hollywood, California
. Alone and without any acting roles or singing engagements on the horizon, Dandridge suffered a nervous breakdown
. Shortly thereafter, Earl Mills started arranging her comeback. The comeback never came to fruition because she died in the early planning stages.
the next day to prepare for her nightclub engagement at Basin Street East. Several hours after her conversation with Branton ended, Dandridge was found dead by her manager, Earl Mills. Two months later, a Los Angeles pathology institute determined the cause to be an accidental overdose of Imipramine
, a tricyclic antidepressant
. An alternative source reported, however, that the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office came to a different conclusion: that “Miss Dandridge died of a rare embolism—blockage of the blood passages at the lungs and brain by tiny pieces of fat flaking off from bone marrow in a fractured right foot she sustained in a Hollywood film five days before she died.” She was 42 years old.
On September 12, 1965, a private funeral service was held for Dandridge at the Little Chapel of the Flowers; she was then cremated and her ashes interred in the Freedom Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California
.
, Jada Pinkett Smith
, Halle Berry
, Janet Jackson
, Whitney Houston
and Angela Bassett
acknowledged Dandridge's contributions to the role of African-Americans in film.
In 1999, Halle Berry
took the lead role of Dandridge in the HBO Movie Introducing Dorothy Dandridge
, which she also produced and for which she won an Emmy Award
and a Golden Globe Award
. and a Screen Actors Guild Award. When Berry won the Academy Award for Best Actress
for her role in Monster's Ball
, she dedicated the "moment [to] Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne
, Diahann Carroll."
For her contributions to the motion picture industry, she was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
, at 671 Hollywood Boulevard
.
As herself
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
. She performed as a vocalist in venues such as the Nathan Featherston and the Apollo Theater
Apollo Theater
The Apollo Theater in New York City is one of the most famous, and older, music halls in the United States, and the most famous club associated almost exclusively with Black performers...
.
After several minor bit part
Bit part
A bit part is a supporting acting role with at least one line of dialogue . In British television, bit parts are referred to as under sixes...
s in films, Dandridge landed her first noted film role in Tarzan's Peril
Tarzan's Peril
Tarzan's Peril is a 1951 film starring Lex Barker as Tarzan and Virginia Huston as Jane, and featuring Dorothy Dandridge as "Melmendi, Queen of the Ashuba." Some of it was shot in Kenya, making it the first Tarzan movie to be filmed in Africa, though the majority of its location shooting was done...
(starring Lex Barker
Lex Barker
Lex Barker was an American actor best known for playing Tarzan of the Apes and leading characters from Karl May's novels.-Early life:...
), in 1951. Dandridge won her first starring role in 1953, playing a teacher in a low-budget film with a nearly all-black cast, Bright Road
Bright Road
Bright Road is a 1953 low-budget film adapted from the Christopher Award-winning short story "See How They Run" by Mary Elizabeth Vroman. Directed by Gerald Mayer and featuring a nearly all-black cast, the film stars Dorothy Dandridge as an idealistic first-year elementary school teacher trying to...
, released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
.
In 1954, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Carmen Jones
Carmen Jones (film)
Carmen Jones is a 1954 American musical film produced and directed by Otto Preminger. The screenplay by Harry Kleiner is based on the libretto for the 1943 stage production of the same name by Oscar Hammerstein II, which was inspired by an adaptation of the 1845 Prosper Mérimée novella Carmen by...
, and in 1959 she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Porgy and Bess. In 1999, she was the subject of the HBO biopic Introducing Dorothy Dandridge
Introducing Dorothy Dandridge
Introducing Dorothy Dandridge is a television film directed by Martha Coolidge. Filmed over a span of a few weeks in early 1998, the film was aired in the United States on August 21, 1999. The original music score was composed by Elmer Bernstein. The film is marketed with the tagline: "Right woman....
, starring Halle Berry
Halle Berry
Halle Berry is an American actress and a former fashion model. Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image Award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and won an Academy Award for Best Actress and was nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming...
as Dandridge. She has been recognized 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...
.
Dandridge was married and divorced twice, first to dancer and entertainer Harold Nicholas
Harold Nicholas
Harold Lloyd Nicholas was an American dancer specializing in tap. He was the younger half of the world famous tap dancing pair the Nicholas Brothers, known as two of the world's greatest dancers. His older brother was Fayard Nicholas...
(the father of her daughter, Harolyn Suzanne) and then to Jack Denison. Dandridge died of an accidental drug overdose
Drug overdose
The term drug overdose describes the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities greater than are recommended or generally practiced...
at age 42.
Early life
Dorothy Dandridge was born on November 9, 1922 in Cleveland, OhioOhio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, to Cyril Dandridge (October 25, 1895 – July 9, 1989), a cabinetmaker
Cabinet making
Cabinet making is the practice of using various woodworking skills to create cabinets, shelving and furniture.Cabinet making involves techniques such as creating appropriate joints, dados, bevels, chamfers and shelving systems, the use of finishing tools such as routers to create decorative...
and minister, and to Ruby Dandridge
Ruby Dandridge
Ruby Dandridge was an American actress from the early 1900s to the 1950s. She is best known for her radio work in her early days of acting....
(née Butler), an aspiring entertainer. Dandridge's parents separated shortly before her birth. Ruby Dandridge soon created an act for her two young daughters, Vivian and Dorothy, under the name of "The Wonder Children." The daughters toured the Southern United States
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
for five years while Ruby worked and performed in Cleveland. During this time, they toured almost non-stop and rarely attended school.
At the onset of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, work virtually dried up for the Dandridges, as it did for many of the Chitlin' circuit
Chitlin' circuit
The "Chitlin' Circuit" was the collective name given to the string of performance venues throughout the eastern and southern United States that were safe and acceptable for African-American musicians, comedians, and other entertainers to perform during the age of racial segregation in the United...
performers. Ruby Dandridge moved to Hollywood, California, where she found steady work on radio and film in small parts as a domestic servant. "The Wonder Kids" were renamed "The Dandridge Sisters" and booked into such venues as the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theater
Apollo Theater
The Apollo Theater in New York City is one of the most famous, and older, music halls in the United States, and the most famous club associated almost exclusively with Black performers...
in Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Early career
Dandridge's first screen appearance was a bit part in an Our GangOur Gang
Our Gang, also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals, was a series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and the adventures they had together. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, the series is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively...
comedy, Teacher's Beau
Teacher's Beau
Teacher's Beau is a 1935 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gus Meins. It was the 136th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
(1935
1935 in film
-Events:*Judy Garland signs a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .*Seven year old Shirley Temple wins a special Academy Award.*The Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment started in order to educate the Bantu peoples.-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:...
). In 1937, she appeared as one of the many singers in the Marx Brothers
Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in Vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...
' feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
A Day at the Races
A Day at the Races (film)
Further reading* Elisabeth Buxbaum: Veronika, der Lenz ist da. Walter Jurmann – Ein Musiker zwischen den Welten und Zeiten. Mit einem Werkverzeichnis von Alexander Sieghardt. Edition Steinbauer, Wien 2006, ISBN 3-902494-18-2-External links:*...
. The following year Dandridge, her sister Vivian, and Etta Jones would make a brief appearance in Going Places. In 1940, Dandridge played a murderer in the race film
Race movie
The race movie or race film was a film genre which existed in the United States between about 1915 and 1950. It consisted of films produced for an all-black audience, featuring black casts....
Four Shall Die — her first credited film role. Though the part was a supporting role and the film was somewhat of a success, Dandridge struggled to find good film roles.
The following year, Dandridge was cast opposite John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
in Lady From Louisiana
Lady from Louisiana
Lady from Louisiana is a 1941 disaster film starring John Wayne. It was produced and directed by Bernard Vorhaus for Republic Pictures.-Plot:...
(1941), playing the small part of Felice. That same year she teamed with her future husband Harold Nicholas
Harold Nicholas
Harold Lloyd Nicholas was an American dancer specializing in tap. He was the younger half of the world famous tap dancing pair the Nicholas Brothers, known as two of the world's greatest dancers. His older brother was Fayard Nicholas...
to film a brief role in Sun Valley Serenade
Sun Valley Serenade
Sun Valley Serenade is a 1941 musical film starring Sonja Henie, John Payne, Glenn Miller, Milton Berle, and Lynn Bari. It features The Glenn Miller Orchestra as well as dancing by The Nicholas Brothers and Dorothy Dandridge, performing "Chattanooga Choo Choo", which was nominated for an Academy...
. Dandridge, Nicholas, and Nicholas's brother Fayard Nicholas
Fayard Nicholas
Fayard Antonio Nicholas...
, appeared in a part described as "speciality act". In 1942, Dandridge won another supporting role as Princess Malimi in Drums of the Congo. In her next few films she would play mainly in bit parts, but she managed to get a small and yet good role in Hit Parade of 1943
Hit Parade of 1943
Hit Parade of 1943 also known as Change of Heart is a 1943 musical film made by Republic Pictures. It was directed by Albert S. Rogell and produced by Albert J. Cohen from a screenplay by Frank Gill Jr. and Frances Hyland....
(1943). In 1944, Dandridge would play two uncredited roles in Since You Went Away
Since You Went Away
Since You Went Away is a 1944 film distributed by United Artists, a big-budget epic about the American home front during World War II. It was directed by John Cromwell and adapted and produced by David O. Selznick from the novel Since You Went Away: Letters to a Soldier from His Wife by Margaret...
and Atlantic City. In the following year of 1945, she would play again a small role in the musical Pillow to Post. Two years later she appeared in a tiny role in Ebony Parade (1947). By the later months 1947, Dandridge's luck for winning small roles in films had disappeared. She would only rarely appear in nightclubs and wouldn't make any films.
In 1951, Dandridge was cast as Melmendi, Queen of the Ashuba, in her comeback film, Tarzan's Peril
Tarzan's Peril
Tarzan's Peril is a 1951 film starring Lex Barker as Tarzan and Virginia Huston as Jane, and featuring Dorothy Dandridge as "Melmendi, Queen of the Ashuba." Some of it was shot in Kenya, making it the first Tarzan movie to be filmed in Africa, though the majority of its location shooting was done...
, starring Lex Barker
Lex Barker
Lex Barker was an American actor best known for playing Tarzan of the Apes and leading characters from Karl May's novels.-Early life:...
as Tarzan and Virginia Huston
Virginia Huston
Virginia Huston was a film actress.Born Virginia Houston in Wisner, Nebraska, Huston appeared in many 1940s and 1950s films noir and adventure films. Signing with RKO in 1945, her first film was opposite George Raft in Nocturne. Her singing voice in the nightclub was redubbed by a singer...
as Jane. Dandridge's role was somewhat minor, but she would be noticed by many. One night while at a party, she was introduced to music manager Earl Mills. Mills had agreed to get Dandridge a career started as a singer, but Dandridge preferred to focus on the motion picture industry. Despite this disagreement, Dandridge signed Mills as her agent. She would next appear as Ann Carpenter in The Harlem Globetrotters
The Harlem Globetrotters (film)
The Harlem Globetrotters is a 1951 low-budgeted film about the famous all-Negro basketball-team, named, "The Harlem Globetrotters." The feature starred, Thomas Gomez and Bill Waker, and, co-starred, Dorothy Dandridge, Angela Clarke, and Peter M. Thompson....
(1951). In this film Dandridge really only makes a co-starring appearance, but receives second billing.
After the release of The Harlem Globetrotters, Dandridge's film career stalled again. Mills then arranged for Dandridge to make her first appearance at the Mocambo
Mocambo
The Mocambo was a nightclub in West Hollywood, California, at 8588 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip. It was owned by Charlie Morrison and Felix Young.-History:...
. She continued to perform in nightclubs around the country through most of 1952.
Bright Road
In December 1952, a Metro-Goldwyn-MayerMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
studio agent noticed Dandridge performing in the Mocambo, and cast her in her first starring role: as Jane Richards in Bright Road
Bright Road
Bright Road is a 1953 low-budget film adapted from the Christopher Award-winning short story "See How They Run" by Mary Elizabeth Vroman. Directed by Gerald Mayer and featuring a nearly all-black cast, the film stars Dorothy Dandridge as an idealistic first-year elementary school teacher trying to...
, co-starring Philip Hepburn and Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte
Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...
.
The film tells the story of a teacher who reaches out to a troubled student during his time of need. The film contains nearly an all-black cast: a few minor white characters are seen. Bright Road became a box-office flop, but Dandridge was at the top of her game as a nightclub performer.
Bright Road was to showcase Dandridge as a serious leading actress, but the film's terrible reception didn't help matters of her being taken seriously; it hurt them more than she knew. The feature was named "the lowest box-office gross of the South".
After Bright Road, Dandridge would start performing again in nightclubs; and, eventually she won a supporting role as herself in the musical-drama film Remains to Be Seen.
Carmen Jones
In 1954, Dandridge signed a three movie deal with 20th Century Fox20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
. Soon after director and writer Otto Preminger
Otto Preminger
Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel...
cast Dandridge along with Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte
Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...
, Pearl Bailey
Pearl Bailey
Pearl Mae Bailey was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968...
, Brock Peters
Brock Peters
Brock Peters was an American actor, best known for playing the role of Tom Robinson in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird...
, Diahann Carroll, Madame Sul-Te-Wan
Madame Sul-Te-Wan
Madame Sul-Te-Wan was an American actress. The daughter of freed slaves, she began her career in entertainment touring the east coast with various theatrical companies and moved to California to become a member of the fledgling film community...
(uncredited), Olga James, and Joe Adams, in his all-black production of Carmen Jones
Carmen Jones
Carmen Jones is a 1943 Broadway musical starring Muriel Smith in the title role, later made into a 1954 musical film; the play also ran for a season in 1991 at London's Old Vic and most recently in London's Royal Festival Hall in the Southbank Centre in 2007. It is an updating of the Georges Bizet...
. However, Dandridge's singing voice was dubbed by opera singer Marilyn Horne
Marilyn Horne
Marilyn Horne is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. She specialized in roles requiring a large sound, beauty of tone, excellent breath support, and the ability to execute difficult coloratura passages....
.
Upon release in 1954, Carmen Jones
Carmen Jones (film)
Carmen Jones is a 1954 American musical film produced and directed by Otto Preminger. The screenplay by Harry Kleiner is based on the libretto for the 1943 stage production of the same name by Oscar Hammerstein II, which was inspired by an adaptation of the 1845 Prosper Mérimée novella Carmen by...
grossed $60,000 during its first week and $47,000 in its second week. The film received favorable reviews, and Dandridge was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
, becoming only the third African American to receive a nomination in any Academy Award category (after Hattie McDaniel
Hattie McDaniel
Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American actress to win an Academy Award. She won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind ....
and Ethel Waters
Ethel Waters
Ethel Waters was an American blues, jazz and gospel vocalist and actress. She frequently performed jazz, big band, and pop music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts, although she began her career in the 1920s singing blues.Her best-known recordings includes, "Dinah", "Birmingham Bertha",...
) but the first African-American to be nominated for best actress. Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly
Grace Patricia Kelly was an American actress who, in April 1956, married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, to become Princess consort of Monaco, styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and commonly referred to as Princess Grace.After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of...
won the award for her performance in The Country Girl
The Country Girl (1954 film)
The Country Girl is a 1954 drama film adapted by George Seaton from a Clifford Odets play of the same name, which tells the story of an alcoholic has-been actor struggling with the one last chance he's been given to resurrect his career. It stars Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and William Holden. Seaton,...
. At the awards ceremony, Dandridge presented the Academy Award for Film Editing
Academy Award for Film Editing
The Academy Award for Film Editing is one of the annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Nominations for this award are closely correlated with the Academy Award for Best Picture. Since 1981, every film selected as Best Picture has also been nominated for the Film Editing...
to Gene Milford for On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront is a 1954 American drama film about union violence and corruption among longshoremen. The film was directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger, Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb and Karl Malden. The soundtrack score was composed by Leonard...
.
In 1955, 20th Century Fox selected Dandridge to play the supporting role of Tuptim in the film version of the 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...
hit, The King and I
The King and I (1956 film)
The King and I is a 1956 musical film made by 20th Century Fox, directed by Walter Lang and produced by Charles Brackett and Darryl F. Zanuck. The screenplay by Ernest Lehman is based on the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II musical The King and I, based in turn on the book Anna and the King...
, starring Deborah Kerr
Deborah Kerr
Deborah Kerr, CBE was a Scottish film and television actress from Glasgow. She won the Sarah Siddons Award for her Chicago performance as Laura Reynolds in Tea and Sympathy, a role which she originated on Broadway, a Golden Globe Award for the motion picture The King and I, and was a three-time...
and Yul Brynner
Yul Brynner
Yul Brynner was a Russian-born actor of stage and film. He was best known for his portrayal of Mongkut, king of Siam, in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor for the film version; he also played the role more than 4,500 times on...
. The character was a slave, which made Dorothy decline the offer. After some convincing from Fox chief, Darryl F. Zanuck
Darryl F. Zanuck
Darryl Francis Zanuck was an American producer, writer, actor, director and studio executive who played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors...
, that the role was a good one, Dandridge agreed to take the part. Otto Preminger, however, told her the role was too small, and that she would be better off to wait for a leading role in a big-budget motion picture: Dandridge would again decline the role of Tuptim.
A few months before the offer of The King and I, Dandridge was asked to play Sandra Roberts in The Lieutenant Wore Skirts
The Lieutenant Wore Skirts
The Lieutenant Wore Skirts is a 1956 film directed by Frank Tashlin. The feature starred Tom Ewell, Sheree North, and Rita Moreno. It is a comedy about a man whose marriage begins to fail when his wife gets drafted.-Cast:*Tom Ewell as Gregory Whitcomb...
, a romantic-comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
film starring Tom Ewell
Tom Ewell
Tom Ewell was an American actor.-Early life and career:Born Samuel Yewell Tompkins in Owensboro, Kentucky, where his family expected him to follow in their footsteps as lawyers or whiskey and tobacco dealers....
and Sheree North
Sheree North
Sheree North was an American actress, singer, and dancer. She was known for being 20th Century Fox's answer to Marilyn Monroe from 1954 to 1956...
. She turned this role down for the same reasons that she would turn down The King and I, in future months—it was too small. Had Dandridge agreed to make The Lieutenant Wore Skirts, her character would have been a parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
's character in Fox's The Seven Year Itch
The Seven Year Itch
The Seven Year Itch is a 1955 American film based on a three-act play with the same name by George Axelrod. The film was co-written and directed by Billy Wilder, and starred Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell, reprising his Broadway role...
(1955). Dorothy was not a fan of parodies, which was another reason she turned the part down. Not making these two films started the slow decline of Dandridge's film career.
Career falter
By 1956, still under contract to Fox, Dandridge hadn't made any films since Carmen Jones. Fox still believed that Dandridge was a star, but just didn't know how to promote her. One of the head chiefs at Fox once said "She's a star, but we don't have any films to put her in or leading men to cast her opposite." In 1957, Dandridge's luck came back when Darryl F. Zanuck cast Dandridge as Margot, a restless young West Indian woman,in his controversial film version of Island in the Sun
Island in the Sun (film)
Island in the Sun is a 1957 film that stars an ensemble cast including James Mason, Joan Fontaine, Dorothy Dandridge, Joan Collins, Michael Rennie and Harry Belafonte. The cast includes also Diana Wynyard, Patricia Owens and Stephen Boyd. The film is about race relations and interracial romance...
, co-starring James Mason
James Mason
James Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...
, Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte
Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...
, Joan Fontaine
Joan Fontaine
Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland , known professionally as Joan Fontaine, is a British American actress. She and her elder sister Olivia de Havilland are two of the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s....
, Joan Collins
Joan Collins
Joan Henrietta Collins, OBE , is an English actress, author, and columnist. Born in Paddington and raised in Maida Vale, Collins grew up during the Second World War. At the age of nine, she made her stage debut in A Doll's House and after attending school, she was classically trained as an actress...
, Michael Rennie
Michael Rennie
Michael Rennie was an English film, television, and stage actor, perhaps best known for his starring role as the space visitor Klaatu in the 1951 classic science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still. However, he appeared in over 50 other films since 1936, many with Jean Simmons and other...
, John Justin
John Justin
John Justin was a British stage and film actor.John Justinian de Ledesma was born in London, England, the son of a well-off Argentine rancher. Though he grew up on his father's ranch, he was educated at Bryanston School, Dorset...
, John Williams
John Williams (actor)
John Williams was an English stage, film and television actor. He is remembered for his role as chief inspector Hubbard in Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M For Murder, and as portraying the second "Mr...
, and Stephen Boyd
Stephen Boyd
Stephen Boyd was an Irish actor, from Glengormley, Northern Ireland, who appeared in around 60 films, most notably in the role of Messala in Ben-Hur.-Biography:...
. This film was a success, which brought Dandridge back to the public eye.
Though Island in the Sun was a major success, Dandridge didn't get another film until she was cast in the low-budget foreign Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
production Tamango
Tamango
Tamango is a 1958 film directed by John Berry, a black-listed American director who exiled himself to Europe. Dorothy Dandridge and Curd Jürgens star in the film with co-stars Alex Cressan and Jean Servais....
, which teamed her with Curd Jürgens
Curd Jürgens
Curd Gustav Andreas Gottlieb Franz Jürgens was a German-Austrian stage and film actor. He was usually billed in English-speaking films as Curt Jurgens.-Early life:...
. The film received fair reviews, but failed to succeed at the box-office. Dandridge believed that the film failed because she played a slave, a part she had vowed she'd never play. Tamango was filmed in Europe in the late months of 1957 and was legally released on January 24, 1958 in France. Tamango wouldn't be released in the United States until September 16, 1959.
In 1958, soon after the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
release of Tamango, Dandridge lined up a co-starring role in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
's off-beat thriller The Decks Ran Red
The Decks Ran Red
The Decks Ran Red is a 1958 M-G-M sea-going suspense drama based on the book Infamy at Sea, and directed by Andrew L. Stone. The feature starred, James Mason, Dorothy Dandridge, Broderick Crawford, and Stuart Whitman....
. The film starred James Mason
James Mason
James Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...
, Dandridge's co-star in Island in the Sun (1957). The Decks Ran Red was released with high hopes, but drew minor box-office success; today the film is considered a "cult classic" Dorothy Dandridge film.
Porgy and Bess
Determined to reinvent her career, Dorothy decided to wait on a good film role. In 1959, Columbia PicturesColumbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
cast Dandridge in the lead role of Bess in Porgy and Bess; Dandridge was again nominated for an award, this time for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
The Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy was first awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association as a separate category in 1950...
, for her performance in Porgy and Bess. Dandridge lost, this time to Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot
Some Like It Hot
Some Like It Hot is an American comedy film, made in 1958 and released in 1959, which was directed by Billy Wilder and starred Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and George Raft. The supporting cast includes Joe E. Brown, Pat O'Brien and Nehemiah Persoff. The film is a remake by Wilder and I....
Despite positive reviews, Porgy and Bess was a box-office failure. The film's characters were described by several African-Americans as "stereotypical": Bess was a drug addict, Porgy a crippled drunk, Sportin' Life another drug addict, and Crown a rapist. These characters pandered to the stereotypes many believed about African-Americans, making the story controversial for many African-Americans.
The actor who got the most blame for the failure of Porgy and Bess was Dandridge. Before the film, many other African-American actresses and actors looked up to Dandridge as someone who had proved that an African-American woman could achieve what a white woman or man could. But many thought Dandridge was "selling out" when she accepted the role of Bess. Furthermore, she received a number of negative reviews for her performance, being called "uncreditable".
A few weeks after the box-office disappoinment of Porgy and Bess, Dandridge was released from her 20th Century Fox contract. Though she had been with Fox for about five-and-a-half years, she had only made two films that were released by them: Carmen Jones (1954) and Island in the Sun (1957). (Her contract committed her to making three, but Fox failed to find enough viable opportunities for Dandridge.)
Final performances
In 1959, after the disappointment of Porgy and Bess, Dandridge managed to get the lead role as a European girl with an Italian name (Gianna) in MalagaMalaga (1960 film)
Malaga is a 1960 crime drama film starring Trevor Howard, Dorothy Dandridge, and Edmund Purdom. It was filmed in Europe in the late months of 1959 under the original title, Moment of Danger, but when filming was completed the title was changed to Malaga, for reasons unknown...
, another low-budget, forgettable movie that was filmed in Europe and came and vanished quickly. Malaga proved to be Dandridge's final theatrical film. The feature was filmed in late 1959, under the original title Moment of Danger, but not legally released in U.S. theaters until 1962.
She made her last acting appearance the next year as the lead in the television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
The Murder Men
The Murder Men (film)
The Murder Men is a 1961 television film starring Peter Mark Richman, James Coburn, and Dorothy Dandridge.-Plot:...
. A reporter called Dorothy's performance "Her most interesting 'later' film role." The film was later shown in an episode of Cain's Hundred
Cain's Hundred
Cain's Hundred is an American crime drama series that aired on NBC from 1961 to 1962. The series was produced by Vanadas Productions, Inc. in association with MGM Television.-Synopsis:...
, entitled Blues for a Junkman; all the actors receiving "archive footage" crediting.
By the end of 1961, job offers (of any kind) had disappeared, a disappointment from which Dandrige would never recover.
Recordings
Dandridge first gained fame as a solo artist from her performances in nightclubs, usually accompanied by Phil MoorePhil Moore (jazz musician)
Phil Moore was an African American jazz pianist, orchestral arranger, band leader, and recording artist.-Biography:...
on piano. As well-known as she became from renditions of songs such as "Blow Out the Candle", "You Do Something To Me", and "Talk Sweet Talk To Me", she recorded very little on vinyl. Whether it was because of personal choice or lack of opportunity is unknown.
In 1940, as part of the Dandridge Sisters
Dandridge Sisters
The Dandridge Sisters were a trio containing actress Dorothy Dandridge, Vivian Dandridge and Etta Jones. The Dandridge Sisters disbanded in 1940.- The starting of the Dandridge Sisters :...
singing group, Dandridge recorded four songs with the Jimmy Lunceford band:
- "You Ain't Nowhere" (Columbia #28007)
- "That's Your Red Wagon" (Columbia #28006)
- "Ain't Going To Go To Study War No More" (Columbia #26938)
- "Minnie The Moocher is Dead" (Columbia #26937A)
In 1944, she recorded a duet with Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
from the film Pillow to Post:
- "Watcha Say" (Decca L-3502)
In 1951, she recorded a single for Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
:
- "Blow Out the Candle/Talk Sweet Talk To Me" (catalogue # unknown)
In 1953, she recorded a song for the film Remains to Be Seen:
- "Taking a Chance On LoveTaking a Chance on Love"Taking a Chance on Love" is a popular song by Vernon Duke with lyrics by John Latouche and Ted Fetter, published in 1940 , which has become a standard recorded by many artists. It was introduced in the 1940 show Cabin in the Sky, a ground-breaking Broadway musical with an all black cast, where it...
" (MGM Records, catalogue # unknown)
In 1958, she recorded a full length album for Verve Records
Verve Records
Verve Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels, Clef Records and Norgran Records , and material which had been licensed to Mercury previously.-Jazz and folk origins:The Verve...
featuring Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...
with Herb Ellis
Herb Ellis
Mitchell Herbert "Herb" Ellis was an American jazz guitarist. Perhaps best known for his 1950s membership in the trio of pianist Oscar Peterson, Ellis was also a staple of west-coast studio recording sessions, and was described by critic Scott Yanow as "an excellent bop-based guitarist with a...
, Ray Brown
Ray Brown (musician)
Raymond Matthews Brown was an American jazz double bassist.-Biography:Ray Brown was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and had piano lessons from the age of eight. After noticing how many pianists attended his high school, he thought of taking up the trombone, but was unable to afford one...
, and Alvin Stoller
Alvin Stoller
Alvin Stoller was an American jazz drummer. Though he seems to have been largely forgotten, he was held in high regard in the 1940s and 1950s...
(Catalogue #314 547-514 2) that remained unreleased in the vaults until a cd release in 1999. This cd also included 4 tracks from 1961 (with an unknown orchestra) that included one 45 rpm record single and another aborted single:
- "It's Easy To Remember" (21942-3)
- "What Is There To Say" (21943-6)
- "That Old Feeling" (21944-4)
- "The Touch Of Your Lips" (21945-12)
- "When Your Lover Has Gone" (21946-1)
- "The Nearness Of You" (21947-7)
- "(In This World) I'm Glad There Is YouI'm Glad There Is YouI'm Glad There Is You is a song written by Jimmy Dorsey and Paul Madeira first published in 1941...
" (21948-10) - "I've Grown Accustomed To Your Face" (21949-4)
- "Body And Soul" (21950-2)
- "How Long Has This Been Going On?" (21951-6)
- "I've Got A Crush On You" (21952-3)
- "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" (21953-3)
- "Somebody" (recorded in 1961) (23459-2)
- "Stay with It" (recorded in 1961) (23460-4)
(above two tracks released on Verve Records single #Verve V 10231)
- "It's a Beautiful Evening" (recorded in 1961) (23461-5)
- "Smooth Operator" (recorded in 1961) (23462-2)
(above two tracks were aborted for release as a single and remained unreleased until the Smooth Operator CD release in 1999).
These are the only known songs Dandridge recorded on vinyl. Several songs she sang were recorded on Soundies
Soundies
Soundies were an early version of the music video: three-minute musical films, produced in New York City, Chicago, and Hollywood between 1940 and 1946, often including short dance sequences. The completed Soundies were generally released within a few months of their filming; the last group was...
. These songs, which include her version of "Cow Cow Boogie", are not included on this list.
Personal life
Dandridge married dancer and entertainer Harold NicholasHarold Nicholas
Harold Lloyd Nicholas was an American dancer specializing in tap. He was the younger half of the world famous tap dancing pair the Nicholas Brothers, known as two of the world's greatest dancers. His older brother was Fayard Nicholas...
on September 6, 1942, and gave birth to her only child, Harolyn Suzanne Nicholas, on September 2, 1943. Harolyn was born brain-damaged, and the couple divorced in October 1951.
Dandridge married Jack Denison on June 22, 1959, although the pair divorced amid allegations of domestic violence
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
and financial setbacks. At this time, Dandridge discovered that the people who were handling her finances had swindled her out of $150,000, and that she was $139,000 in debt for back taxes. Forced to sell her Hollywood home and to place her daughter in a state mental institution in Camarillo, California
Camarillo, California
Camarillo is a city in Ventura County, California, United States. The population was 65,201 at the 2010 census, up from 57,084 at the 2000 census. The Ventura Freeway Camarillo is a city in Ventura County, California, United States. The population was 65,201 at the 2010 census, up from 57,084 at...
, Dandridge moved into a small apartment at 8495 Fountain Avenue in West Hollywood, California
West Hollywood, California
West Hollywood, a city of Los Angeles County, California, was incorporated on November 29, 1984, with a population of 34,399 at the 2010 census. 41% of the city's population is made up of gay men according to a 2002 demographic analysis by Sara Kocher Consulting for the City of West Hollywood...
. Alone and without any acting roles or singing engagements on the horizon, Dandridge suffered a nervous breakdown
Nervous breakdown
Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...
. Shortly thereafter, Earl Mills started arranging her comeback. The comeback never came to fruition because she died in the early planning stages.
Death
On September 8, 1965, Dandridge spoke by telephone with friend and former sister-in-law Geraldine "Geri" Branton. Dandridge was scheduled to fly to New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
the next day to prepare for her nightclub engagement at Basin Street East. Several hours after her conversation with Branton ended, Dandridge was found dead by her manager, Earl Mills. Two months later, a Los Angeles pathology institute determined the cause to be an accidental overdose of Imipramine
Imipramine
Imipramine , also known as melipramine, is an antidepressant medication, a tricyclic antidepressant of the dibenzazepine group...
, a tricyclic antidepressant
Tricyclic antidepressant
Tricyclic antidepressants are heterocyclic chemical compounds used primarily as antidepressants. The TCAs were first discovered in the early 1950s and were subsequently introduced later in the decade; they are named after their chemical structure, which contains three rings of atoms...
. An alternative source reported, however, that the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office came to a different conclusion: that “Miss Dandridge died of a rare embolism—blockage of the blood passages at the lungs and brain by tiny pieces of fat flaking off from bone marrow in a fractured right foot she sustained in a Hollywood film five days before she died.” She was 42 years old.
On September 12, 1965, a private funeral service was held for Dandridge at the Little Chapel of the Flowers; she was then cremated and her ashes interred in the Freedom Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California
Glendale, California
Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...
.
Legacy
Many years passed before the entertainment industry acknowledged Dandridge's legacy. Starting in the 1980s, stars such as Cicely TysonCicely Tyson
Cicely Tyson is an American actress. A successful stage actress, Tyson is also known for her Oscar-nominated role in the film Sounder and the television movies The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and Roots....
, Jada Pinkett Smith
Jada Pinkett Smith
Jada Koren Pinkett Smith is an American actress, producer, director, author, singer-songwriter, and businesswoman. She began her career in 1990, when she made a guest appearance in the short-lived sitcom True Colors. She starred in A Different World, produced by Bill Cosby, and she featured...
, Halle Berry
Halle Berry
Halle Berry is an American actress and a former fashion model. Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image Award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and won an Academy Award for Best Actress and was nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming...
, Janet Jackson
Janet Jackson
Janet Damita Jo Jackson is an American recording artist and actress. Known for a series of sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows, television and film roles, she has been a prominent figure in popular culture for over 25 years...
, Whitney Houston
Whitney Houston
Whitney Elizabeth Houston is an American singer, actress, producer and a former model. Houston is the most awarded female act of all time, according to Guinness World Records, and her list of awards include 1 Emmy Award, 6 Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards, among...
and Angela Bassett
Angela Bassett
Angela Evelyn Bassett is an American actress. She has become well known for her biographical film roles portraying real life women in African American culture, including singer Tina Turner in the motion picture What's Love Got to Do with It, as well as Betty Shabazz in the films Malcolm X and...
acknowledged Dandridge's contributions to the role of African-Americans in film.
In 1999, Halle Berry
Halle Berry
Halle Berry is an American actress and a former fashion model. Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image Award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and won an Academy Award for Best Actress and was nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming...
took the lead role of Dandridge in the HBO Movie Introducing Dorothy Dandridge
Introducing Dorothy Dandridge
Introducing Dorothy Dandridge is a television film directed by Martha Coolidge. Filmed over a span of a few weeks in early 1998, the film was aired in the United States on August 21, 1999. The original music score was composed by Elmer Bernstein. The film is marketed with the tagline: "Right woman....
, which she also produced and for which she won an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
and a Golden Globe Award
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
. and a Screen Actors Guild Award. When Berry won the Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
for her role in Monster's Ball
Monster's Ball
Monster's Ball is a 2001 romantic drama film directed by Marc Forster, starring Billy Bob Thornton, Halle Berry, and Heath Ledger, and written by Milo Addica and Will Rokos. It was produced by Lionsgate and Lee Daniels Entertainment....
, she dedicated the "moment [to] Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...
, Diahann Carroll."
For her contributions to the motion picture industry, she was given 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 671 Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood Boulevard
-Revitalization:In recent years successful efforts have been made at cleaning up Hollywood Blvd., as the street had gained a reputation for crime and seediness. Central to these efforts was the construction of the Hollywood and Highland shopping center and adjacent Kodak Theatre in 2001...
.
Filmography
| Year | Film title | Role | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1935 1935 in film -Events:*Judy Garland signs a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .*Seven year old Shirley Temple wins a special Academy Award.*The Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment started in order to educate the Bantu peoples.-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:... |
Teacher's Beau Teacher's Beau Teacher's Beau is a 1935 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gus Meins. It was the 136th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:... |
Dorothy | Gus Meins Gus Meins Gus Meins was a German-American film director. He was born in Frankfurt, Germany.-Career:... |
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| 1936 1936 in film The year 1936 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 29 - Fritz Lang's first Hollywood film Fury, starring Spencer Tracy and Bruce Cabot, is released.*November 6 - first Porky Pig animated cartoon... |
The Big Broadcast of 1936 The Big Broadcast of 1936 The Big Broadcast of 1936 is a Paramount Pictures production, directed by Norman Taurog, and is the second in the series of Big Broadcast movies... |
Member of the Dandridge Sisters | Norman Taurog Norman Taurog Norman Rae Taurog was an American film director, and screenwriter.Between 1920 and 1968, Taurog directed over 140 films, and directed Elvis Presley in more movies than any other director... |
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| 1937 1937 in film The year 1937 in film involved some significant events, including the Walt Disney production of the first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.- Events :*April 16 - Way Out West premieres in the US.... |
Easy to Take | Member of the Dandridge Sisters | Glenn Tyron | Uncredited |
| 1937 | It Can't Last Forever | Dandridge Sisters Act | Hamilton MacFadden | Uncredited |
| 1937 | A Day at the Races A Day at the Races (film) Further reading* Elisabeth Buxbaum: Veronika, der Lenz ist da. Walter Jurmann – Ein Musiker zwischen den Welten und Zeiten. Mit einem Werkverzeichnis von Alexander Sieghardt. Edition Steinbauer, Wien 2006, ISBN 3-902494-18-2-External links:*... |
Black Singer | Sam Wood Sam Wood Samuel Grosvenor "Sam" Wood was an American film director, and producer, who was best known for directing such Hollywood hits as A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, and The Pride of the Yankees... |
Uncredited |
| 1938 1938 in film The year 1938 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*January — MGM announces that Judy Garland would be cast in the role of "Dorothy" in the upcoming Wizard of Oz motion picture. Ray Bolger is cast as the "Tinman" and Buddy Ebsen is cast as the "Scarecrow". At Bolger's insistence,... |
Going Places | Member of the Dandridge Sisters | Ray Enright Ray Enright Ray Enright was an American film director. He directed 73 films between 1927 and 1953.He was born in Anderson, Indiana and died in Hollywood, California from a heart attack.-Selected filmography:... |
Uncredited |
| 1938 | Snow Gets in Your Eyes | One of the Dandridge Sisters | Will Jason | |
| 1940 1940 in film The year 1940 in film involved some significant events, including the premieres of the Walt Disney classics Pinocchio and Fantasia.-Events:*February 7 - Walt Disney's animated film Pinocchio is released.... |
Irene | The Dandridge Sisters | Herbert Wilcox Herbert Wilcox Herbert Sydney Wilcox was a British film producer and director.-Early life:Wilcox's mother was from County Cork, Ireland, but he was born in Norwood and attended school in Brighton... |
Uncredited |
| 1940 | Four Shall Die | Helen Fielding | William Beaudine William Beaudine William Beaudine was an American film actor and director. He was one of Hollywood's most prolific directors, turning out films in remarkable numbers and in a wide variety of genres.-Early life and career:... |
Aka: Condemned Men |
| 1941 1941 in film The year 1941 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Citizen Kane, consistently rated as one of the greatest films of all time, was released in 1941.-Top grossing films :-Academy Awards:... |
Bahama Passage | Thalia | Edward H. Griffith Edward H. Griffith Edward H. Griffith was an American motion picture director, screenwriter and producer. He directed 61 films from 1917 to 1946. He was born in Lynchburg, Virginia and began his career in motion pictures as a screenwriter in 1916, and advanced to the position of a director of two-reelers... |
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| 1941 | Sundown Sundown (film) Sundown is a 1941 war film directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Bruce Cabot and Gene Tierney. The film's adventure story, set against a war backdrop was well received by critics, earning three Academy Award nominations and was a box office success.... |
Kipsang's Bride | Henry Hathaway Henry Hathaway Henry Hathaway was an American film director and producer. He is best known as a director of Westerns, especially starring John Wayne.-Background:... |
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| 1941 | Sun Valley Serenade Sun Valley Serenade Sun Valley Serenade is a 1941 musical film starring Sonja Henie, John Payne, Glenn Miller, Milton Berle, and Lynn Bari. It features The Glenn Miller Orchestra as well as dancing by The Nicholas Brothers and Dorothy Dandridge, performing "Chattanooga Choo Choo", which was nominated for an Academy... |
Specialty Act | H. Bruce Humberstone H. Bruce Humberstone H. Bruce 'Lucky' Humberstone was a movie actor , a script clerk, an assistant director, working with directors such as King Vidor, Edmund Goulding and Allan Dwan and, ultimately, a director.One of twenty-eight founders of the Directors Guild of America, Humberstone worked on several... |
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| 1941 | Lady from Louisiana Lady from Louisiana Lady from Louisiana is a 1941 disaster film starring John Wayne. It was produced and directed by Bernard Vorhaus for Republic Pictures.-Plot:... |
Felice | Bernard Vorhaus Bernard Vorhaus Bernard Vorhaus was an American film director born in New York City.The Harvard University graduate, in addition to directing thirty-two films, was also the mentor to future film director David Lean, some of whose work as a film editor early in his career was on Vorhaus pictures... |
Aka: Lady from New Orleans |
| 1942 1942 in film The year 1942 in film involved some significant events, in particular the release of a film consistently rated as one of the greatest of all time, Casablanca.-Events:... |
Lucky Jordan | Hollyhock School Maid | Frank Tuttle Frank Tuttle Frank Tuttle was a Hollywood film director and writer who directed films from 1922 to 1959 .... |
Uncredited |
| 1942 | Night in New Orleans | Sal, Shadrach's Girl | William Clemens | Uncredited |
| 1942 | The Night Before the Divorce | Maid | Robert Siodmak Robert Siodmak Robert Siodmak was a German born American film director. He is best remembered as a thriller specialist and for the series of Hollywood film noirs he made in the 1940s.-Early life:... |
Uncredited |
| 1942 | Ride 'Em Cowboy Ride 'Em Cowboy Ride 'Em Cowboy is a 1942 film starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello.-Plot:The author of best-selling western novels, Bronco Bob Mitchell , has never set foot in the west. A newspaper article has exposed this fact to his fans, and his image is suffering because of it. He decides to make... |
Dancer | Arthur Lubin Arthur Lubin Arthur Lubin was an American film director and producer who directed several Abbott & Costello films and created the TV series Mr. Ed.Arthur Lubin was born Arthur William Lubovsky in Los Angeles, California in 1898... |
Uncredited |
| 1942 | Drums of the Congo | Princess Malimi | Christy Cabanne Christy Cabanne Christy Cabanne , born William Christy Cabanne, was an American film director, screenwriter and silent film actor. Christy Cabanne was, along with Sam Newfield and William Beaudine, one of the most prolific directors in the history of American film.-Biography:Cabanne graduated from the U.S... |
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| 1942 | Orchestra Wives Orchestra Wives Orchestra Wives is a 1942 American musical film by 20th Century Fox starring Ann Rutherford, George Montgomery, and Glenn Miller. The film was the second and last film to feature The Glenn Miller Orchestra, and is notable among the many swing era musicals because its plot is more serious and... |
Unknown | Archie Mayo Archie Mayo Archie Mayo was a movie director and stage actor who moved to Hollywood in 1915 and began working as a director in 1917.... |
Uncredited |
| 1943 1943 in film The year 1943 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 3 - 1st missing persons telecast * February 20 - American film studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor films.... |
Hit Parade of 1943 Hit Parade of 1943 Hit Parade of 1943 also known as Change of Heart is a 1943 musical film made by Republic Pictures. It was directed by Albert S. Rogell and produced by Albert J. Cohen from a screenplay by Frank Gill Jr. and Frances Hyland.... |
Count Basie Band Singer | Albert S. Rogell Albert S. Rogell Albert S. Rogell was an American film director of more than a hundred movies between 1921 and 1958.-Selected filmography:* Mamba * Air Hostess * No More Women * The Hell Cat... |
Aka: Change of Heart |
| 1943 | Happy Go Lucky | Showgirl | Curtis Bernhardt Curtis Bernhardt Curtis Bernhardt was a German film director born in Worms, Germany, under the name Kurt Bernhardt. Some of his American films were called "woman's films" including the Joan Crawford film Possessed . Bernhardt trained as an actor in Germany, and performed on the stage, before starting as a film... |
Uncredited |
| 1944 1944 in film The year 1944 in film involved some significant events, including the wholesome, award-winning Going My Way plus popular murder mysteries such as Double Indemnity, Gaslight and Laura.-Events:*July 20 - Since You Went Away is released.... |
Since You Went Away Since You Went Away Since You Went Away is a 1944 film distributed by United Artists, a big-budget epic about the American home front during World War II. It was directed by John Cromwell and adapted and produced by David O. Selznick from the novel Since You Went Away: Letters to a Soldier from His Wife by Margaret... |
Black Officer's Wife in Train Station | John Cromwell John Cromwell John Cromwell may refer to:*John Cromwell , American film director*John P. Cromwell , American naval officer... |
Uncredited |
| 1944 | Atlantic City | Singer | Ray McCarey Ray McCarey Raymond Benedict "Ray" McCarey was an American film director. He began working at Hal Roach Studios, where he did work on short films with Our Gang and Laurel and Hardy. Most of his feature film work consisted of "B" pictures and low-budget films... |
Uncredited. Aka: Atlantic City Honeymoon |
| 1945 1945 in film The year 1945 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Paramount Studios releases theatrical short cartoon titled The Friendly Ghost, featuring a ghost named Casper.* With Rossellini's Roma Città aperta, Italian neorealist cinema begins.... |
Pillow to Post | Herself-Vocalist | Vincent Sherman Vincent Sherman Vincent Sherman was an American director, and actor, who worked in Hollywood. His movies include Mr. Skeffington , Nora Prentiss , and The Young Philadelphians .... |
Uncredited |
| 1947 1947 in film The year 1947 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 22 - Great Expectations is premiered in New York.*November 24 : The United States House of Representatives of the 80th Congress voted 346 to 17 to approve citations for contempt of Congress against the "Hollywood Ten".*November 25... |
Ebony Parade | Herself-Vocalist | Count Basie Count Basie William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years... |
Uncredited |
| 1951 1951 in film The year 1951 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Sweden - May Britt is scouted by Italian film-makers Carlo Ponti and Mario Soldati-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:... |
Tarzan's Peril Tarzan's Peril Tarzan's Peril is a 1951 film starring Lex Barker as Tarzan and Virginia Huston as Jane, and featuring Dorothy Dandridge as "Melmendi, Queen of the Ashuba." Some of it was shot in Kenya, making it the first Tarzan movie to be filmed in Africa, though the majority of its location shooting was done... |
Melmendi, Queen of the Ashuba | Byron Haskin Byron Haskin Byron Conrad Haskin was an American film and television director. He was born in Portland, Oregon.He is remembered today for directing 1953's The War of the Worlds, one of many films where he teamed with producer George Pal. In his early career, he was a special effects artist, with a number of... |
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| 1951 | The Harlem Globetrotters The Harlem Globetrotters (film) The Harlem Globetrotters is a 1951 low-budgeted film about the famous all-Negro basketball-team, named, "The Harlem Globetrotters." The feature starred, Thomas Gomez and Bill Waker, and, co-starred, Dorothy Dandridge, Angela Clarke, and Peter M. Thompson.... |
Ann Carpenter | Phil Brown | |
| 1953 1953 in film The year 1953 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*September 16 — The Robe debuts as the first anamorphic, widescreen CinemaScope film.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:A... |
Bright Road Bright Road Bright Road is a 1953 low-budget film adapted from the Christopher Award-winning short story "See How They Run" by Mary Elizabeth Vroman. Directed by Gerald Mayer and featuring a nearly all-black cast, the film stars Dorothy Dandridge as an idealistic first-year elementary school teacher trying to... |
Jane Richards | Gerald Mayer | First starring role |
| 1953 | Remains to Be Seen | Herself-Vocalist | Don Weis | |
| 1954 1954 in film The year 1954 in film involved some significant events and memorable ones.-Events:*May 12 - The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces wife Marion Benda... |
Carmen Jones Carmen Jones (film) Carmen Jones is a 1954 American musical film produced and directed by Otto Preminger. The screenplay by Harry Kleiner is based on the libretto for the 1943 stage production of the same name by Oscar Hammerstein II, which was inspired by an adaptation of the 1845 Prosper Mérimée novella Carmen by... |
Carmen Jones | Otto Preminger Otto Preminger Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel... |
Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Best Actress in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognise an actress who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.- Winners and nominees :... |
| 1957 1957 in film The year 1957 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 21 - The movie Jailhouse Rock, starring Elvis Presley, opens.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue-Awards:... |
Island in the Sun Island in the Sun (film) Island in the Sun is a 1957 film that stars an ensemble cast including James Mason, Joan Fontaine, Dorothy Dandridge, Joan Collins, Michael Rennie and Harry Belafonte. The cast includes also Diana Wynyard, Patricia Owens and Stephen Boyd. The film is about race relations and interracial romance... |
Margot Seaton | Robert Rossen Robert Rossen Robert Rossen was an American screenwriter, film director, and producer whose film career spanned almost three decades. His 1949 film All the King's Men won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, while Rossen was nominated for an Oscar as Best Director... |
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| 1958 1958 in film The year 1958 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 16- "In the Money" by William Beaudine is released on this date. It would be the last installment of The Bowery Boys series which began back in 1946.... |
Tamango Tamango Tamango is a 1958 film directed by John Berry, a black-listed American director who exiled himself to Europe. Dorothy Dandridge and Curd Jürgens star in the film with co-stars Alex Cressan and Jean Servais.... |
Aiché, Reiker's mistress | John Berry John Berry (film director) John Berry was an American film director, who went into self-exile in France when his career was interrupted by the Hollywood blacklist.-Early Life:... |
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| 1958 | The Decks Ran Red The Decks Ran Red The Decks Ran Red is a 1958 M-G-M sea-going suspense drama based on the book Infamy at Sea, and directed by Andrew L. Stone. The feature starred, James Mason, Dorothy Dandridge, Broderick Crawford, and Stuart Whitman.... |
Mahia | Andrew L. Stone Andrew L. Stone Andrew L. Stone was an American screenwriter, director, and producer. Best known for his hard hitting, realistic films, Stone frequently collaborated with his wife, editor and producer Virginia Lively Stone Andrew L. Stone (July 16, 1902, Oakland, California – June 9, 1999, Los Angeles,... |
Aka: Infamy (filming title) & La Rivolta dell'esperanza (foreign releases) |
| 1959 1959 in film The year 1959 in film involved some significant events, with Ben-Hur winning a record 11 Academy Awards.-Events:* The Three Stooges make their 190th and last short film, Sappy Bull Fighters.... |
Porgy and Bess | Bess | Otto Preminger Otto Preminger Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel... |
Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy The Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy was first awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association as a separate category in 1950... |
| 1960 1960 in film The year 1960 in film involved some significant events, with Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho the top-grossing release in the U.S.-Events:* April 20 - for the first time since coming home from military service in Germany, Elvis Presley returns to Hollywood, California to film G.I... |
Malaga Malaga (1960 film) Malaga is a 1960 crime drama film starring Trevor Howard, Dorothy Dandridge, and Edmund Purdom. It was filmed in Europe in the late months of 1959 under the original title, Moment of Danger, but when filming was completed the title was changed to Malaga, for reasons unknown... |
Gianna | Laslo Benedek | Aka: Moment of Dandger. Final theatrical film appearance |
Television appearances
As an Actress| Year | Television program | Role | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | The Murder Men The Murder Men (film) The Murder Men is a 1961 television film starring Peter Mark Richman, James Coburn, and Dorothy Dandridge.-Plot:... |
Norma Sherman | John Peyser | Television movie Television movie A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to... |
| 1962 | Cain's Hundred Cain's Hundred Cain's Hundred is an American crime drama series that aired on NBC from 1961 to 1962. The series was produced by Vanadas Productions, Inc. in association with MGM Television.-Synopsis:... |
Norma Sherman | Robert Gist Robert Gist Robert Gist was an American actor and film director. He was married to actress Agnes Moorehead from 1954 to 1958, although they separated in 1955. They met during the filming of The Stratton Story .- Biography :... |
1 episode: Blues for a Junkman |
As herself
- Cavalcade of Stars (1952 - 1 episode)
- Songs for Sale (1952 - 1 episode)
- The Colgate Comedy HourThe Colgate Comedy HourThe Colgate Comedy Hour is an American comedy-musical variety series that aired live on the NBC network from 1950 to 1955. The show stars many notable comedians and entertainers of the era, including Eddie Cantor, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Fred Allen, Donald O'Connor, Bud Abbott and Lou...
(1951-1953 - 2 episodes) - The George Jessel Show (1954 - 1 episode)
- Light's Diamond Jubilee (1954 - TV documenatary)
- The 27th Annual Academy Awards (1955 - TV special; Nominee & Presenter)
- Val Parnell's Sunday Night at the London Palladium (1956 - 1 episode)
- Ford Star JubileeFord Star JubileeFord Star Jubilee was a usually live, ninety minute, color anthology series that aired once a month on Saturday nights on CBS at 9:00 P.M., E.S.T. from the fall of 1955 to the fall of 1956...
(1956 - 1 episode) - The 29th Annual Academy Awards (1957 - TV special; Performer & Presenter)
- The Ed Sullivan ShowThe Ed Sullivan ShowThe Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan....
(1952-1961 - 7 episodes) - Juxe Box Jury (1964 - 1 episode)
Stage work
- Swingin' the Dream (November 29–December 9, 1939, Broadway)
- Meet the PeopleMeet the PeopleMeet the People was a 1944 MGM patriotic film made during World War II with Lucille Ball and Dick Powell that took its title from a successful Los Angeles stage revue...
(1941, replacement for Virginia O'BrienVirginia O'BrienVirginia Lee O'Brien was a popular American actress, singer, and radio personality known for her comedic roles in MGM musicals of the 1940s.-Life and career:...
- Los AngelesLos ÁngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
) - Jump for Joy (1941–1942, Los Angeles)
- Sweet 'n' Hot (1944, Los Angeles)
- Crazy Girls (1952, Off-Broadway)
- West Side Story (1962)
- Show BoatShow BoatShow Boat is a musical in two acts with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It was originally produced in New York in 1927 and in London in 1928, and was based on the 1926 novel of the same name by Edna Ferber. The plot chronicles the lives of those living and working...
(1965)