Frances Dade, also known early in her career as Lorelei Lee, (February 14, 1910 —January 21, 1968) was an American film actress of the late 1920s and 1930s.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

, Dade moved to Hollywood, California in the late 1920s to pursue an acting career. She first caught the attention of Samuel Goldwyn

Samuel Goldwyn

Samuel Goldwyn was an American film producer, and founding contributor executive of several motion picture studios.-Biography:...

 as a member of the touring company of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (musical)

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a musical with a book by Joseph Fields and Anita Loos, lyrics by Leo Robin, and music by Jule Styne, based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Loos...

. He gave her a contract though she later went free lance. Her first film role was in 1928, when she had an uncredited role alongside stars Dorothy Boyd

Dorothy Boyd

Dorothy Boyd was an English film actress. She appeared in 38 films between 1926 and 1940. She was born in Sanderstead, Surrey and died in England.-Career:...

 and Mabel Poulton

Mabel Poulton

Mabel Poulton was an English film actress, popular in Britain during the era of silent films.Born in London, England, Poulton was working as a stenographer and entered films by chance. Her first role in George Pearson's Nothing Else Matters was opposite Betty Balfour, who was also making her...

 in The Constant Nymph. In 1930 she appeared in four films, including Grumpy

Grumpy (film)

Grumpy is an American drama film directed by George Cukor and Cyril Gardner, and released by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay by Doris Anderson is based on a play by Horace Hodges and Thomas Wigney. A Spanish-language version entitled Cascarrabias, written by Catalan writer Josep Carner Ribalta ...

.

In 1931 Dade was cast in the biggest role of her career, Lucy Weston

Lucy Westenra

Lucy Westenra is a fictional character in the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. She is the 19-year-old daughter of a wealthy family. Her father is not mentioned in the novel and her elderly mother is simply stated as being Mrs. Westenra. Lucy is introduced as Mina Murray's best friend. In the 1931...

 in Dracula

Dracula (1931 film)

Dracula is a 1931 vampire-horror film directed by Tod Browning and starring Bela Lugosi as the title character. The film was produced by Universal and is based on the stage play of the same name by Hamilton Deane and John L...

, which starred Bela Lugosi

Béla Lugosi

Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó , commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his...

 and Helen Chandler

Helen Chandler

Helen Chandler was an American film and theater actress.-Career:Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Chandler began her acting career in New York at the age of nine and was on Broadway two years later in 1917...

. The scene with Bela Lugosi hovering over her prostrate body remains an indelible part of pop culture. That role would catapult her to brief notoriety, and would result in her being selected one of thirteen WAMPAS Baby Stars

WAMPAS Baby Stars

The WAMPAS Baby Stars was a promotional campaign sponsored by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers in the United States which honored thirteen young women each year whom they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom. They were selected from 1922 to 1934, and annual...

, including Marian Marsh

Marian Marsh

Marian Marsh was an American film actress, and later, environmentalist.-Early life:Violet Ethelred Krauth was born on October 17, 1913 in Trinidad, British West Indies , the youngest of four children of a German chocolate manufacturer and his French-English wife.Due to World War I, Violet's...

, Karen Morley

Karen Morley

-Life and career:Born Mildred Linton in Ottumwa, Iowa, Morley lived there until she was thirteen years old. When she came to Hollywood, she attended Hollywood High School, and she later graduated from UCLA....

, and Marion Shilling

Marion Shilling

Marion Shilling was an American film actress of the 1930s.Shilling was born as Marion Schilling in Denver, Colorado in 1910 as per , although some biographers had formerly cited 1911 or 1914. She started her acting career as a stage actress, starring in stage plays such as Miss Lulu Betts and Mrs....

, that same year.

Despite her performance in Dracula, Dade's film role offers dwindled. She starred in six films in 1931, three of which were horror film

Horror film

Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

s. In 1932, she was featured in only one film, Big Town, and she appeared on Broadway in the play Collision. Shortly thereafter, she retired from acting and married wealthy socialite Brock Van Avery. She eventually moved back home to Philadelphia, and went into nursing. She died there in 1968 at the age of 57.

She was grandniece to Confederate General John Clifford Pemberton and first cousin to athlete Hobey Baker

Hobey Baker

Hobart Amory Hare "Hobey" Baker was an American amateur athlete of the early twentieth century. Regarded as the first American star in ice hockey, he was also an accomplished football player. Born into a prominent family from Philadelphia, he enrolled at Princeton University in 1910...

.