Kay Francis
Encyclopedia
Kay Francis was an American stage and film
actress. After a brief period on Broadway
in the late 1920s, she moved to film and achieved her greatest success between 1930 and 1936, when she was the number one female star at the Warner Brothers
studio, and the highest paid American film actress. Some of her film related material and personal papers are available to scholars and researchers in the Wesleyan University
Cinema Archives.
, Oklahoma
in 1905. Her parents, Joseph Sprague Gibbs and his actress wife Katharine Clinton Francis, were married on December 3, 1903 in New York City
at the Church of the Transfiguration, and they moved to Oklahoma City the following year. But, by the time Katharine was four, her father had left. Joseph Gibbs, who stood 6’4”, gave his daughter the gift of height — she was Hollywood's tallest leading lady (5 ft 9 in) in the 1930s. (Ingrid Bergman
and Alexis Smith
matched her in height, but did not become stars in Hollywood until the 1940s.)
While she never discouraged rumors that her mother, Katharine ("Kay") Gibbs, was a pioneering businesswoman who established the "Katharine Gibbs" chain of vocational school
s, Francis was actually raised in the hardscrabble theatrical circuit of the period. Her mother was actually a moderately successful actress and singer, who used the stage name "Katharine Clinton". In Nova Scotia where she was born to Capt. George Francis and Jennette Burgess Francis, she was known as Katie Francis. She performed at least one concert at Windsor, Hants County, Nova Scotia and was possibly part of a tour of her home province. Katie moved to the United States in 1897 with her parents. Katie Francis married Joseph Gibbs and became an American citizen. Her father Capt. George Francis returned to Nova Scotia before 1911 and died in the Freemasons Home in Windsor, NS in 1922.
Young Kay was out on the road with her mother, and attended Catholic schools when it was affordable, such as when she was a student at the Institute of the Holy Angels at age five. After attending Miss Fuller’s School for Young Ladies in Ossining, New York
(1919) and the Cathedral School (1920), she enrolled at the Katharine Gibbs Secretarial School in New York City. At age 17, Kay became engaged to a well-to-do Pittsfield, Massachusetts
man, James Dwight Francis. Their December 1922 marriage at New York's St. Thomas Church ended in divorce.
, Bill Gaston. Kay and Bill saw each other only on occasion; he was in Boston and Kay had decided to follow her mother’s footsteps and go on the stage in New York. She made her Broadway
debut as the Player Queen
in a modern-dress version of Shakespeare's Hamlet
in November 1925. Francis claimed she got the part by “lying a lot, to the right people”. One of the “right” people was producer Stuart Walker
, who hired Kay to join his Portmanteau Theatre Company, and she soon found herself commuting between Dayton
, Indianapolis
, and Cincinnati, playing wise-cracking secretaries, saucy French floozies, walk-ons, bit parts, and heavies.
By February 1927, Francis returned to Broadway in the play Crime. Sylvia Sidney
, although a teenager at the time, had the lead in Crime but would later say that Kay stole the show.
After Kay's divorce from Gaston, she became engaged to a society playboy, Alan Ryan Jr. She promised Alan's family that she would not return to the stage—a promise that lasted only a few months before she was back on Broadway as an aviatrix in a Rachel Crothers
play, Venus.
Francis was to appear in only one other Broadway production, a play called Elmer the Great in 1928. Written by Ring Lardner
and produced by George M. Cohan
, Walter Huston
was the star. He was so impressed by Francis that he encouraged her to take a screen test for the Paramount Pictures
film Gentlemen of the Press (1929). Francis made this film and the Marx Brothers
film The Cocoanuts
(1929) at Paramount's Astoria Studios
in New York.
actors had been enticed to travel west to Hollywood to make films, including Ann Harding
, Aline MacMahon
, Helen Twelvetrees
, Barbara Stanwyck
, Humphrey Bogart
and Leslie Howard
. Francis, signed to a Paramount contract, also made the move, and created an immediate impression. She frequently costarred with William Powell
, and appeared in as many as six to eight movies a year, making a total of 21 films between 1929 and 1931.
A combination of striking dark beauty, stature, and a deep, supple voice ideally suited to early sound-reproduction technology made Francis one of the top film stars of the early 1930s. So striking were her looks and screen presence that Francis was widely publicized as the epitome of the "American glamour girl" throughout the 1930s. Her success came in spite of a minor, but distinct speech impediment (she pronounced the letters "r" and "l" as "w") that gave rise to the nickname "Wavishing Kay Fwancis."
Francis' career at Paramount changed gears when Warner Brothers promised her star status at a better salary. She appeared in George Cukor
's Girls About Town
(1931) and Twenty-Four Hours (1931). After Kay's career skyrocketed at Warners, she would return to Paramount for Ernst Lubitsch
's Trouble in Paradise (1932).
In 1932, Warner Brothers persuaded both Francis and Powell to join the ranks of Warners stars, along with Ruth Chatterton
. In exchange, Francis was given roles that allowed her a more sympathetic screen persona than had hitherto been the case—in her first three featured roles she had played a villainess. For example, in The False Madonna (1932), she played a jaded society woman nursing a terminally ill child who learns to appreciate the importance of hearth and home.
She had married writer-director John Meehan
in New York, but soon after her arrival in Hollywood, she consummated an affair with actor and producer Kenneth MacKenna
, whom she married in January 1931. When MacKenna's Hollywood career foundered, he found himself spending more time in New York, and they divorced in 1934.
She frequently played long-suffering heroines, in films such as I Found Stella Parrish, Secrets of an Actress, and Comet over Broadway, displaying to good advantage lavish wardrobes that, in some cases, were more memorable than the characters she played—a fact often emphasized by contemporary film reviewers. Too frequently, however, Francis' clotheshorse
reputation led Warners to concentrate resources on lavish sets and costumes, designed to appeal to Depression
-era female audiences and capitalize on her reputation as the epitome of chic, rather than on scripts.
Eventually, Francis herself became dissatisfied with these vehicles and began openly to feud with her employers, even threatening a lawsuit against them for inferior treatment. This in turn led to her demotion to programmers such as 1939's Women in the Wind and, in the same year, to the termination of her contract.
, one of the most popular stars of the late 30s and early 1940s (and who had previously been a supporting player in Francis' 1931 film, Ladies' Man) tried to bolster Francis' career by insisting Francis be cast in In Name Only
(1939). In this film, Francis had a supporting role to Lombard and Cary Grant
, but wisely recognized that the film offered her an opportunity to engage in some serious acting. After this, she moved to character
and supporting parts, playing catty professional women—holding her own against Rosalind Russell
in The Feminine Touch, for example—and mothers opposite rising young stars such as Deanna Durbin
. Francis did have a lead role in the Bogart gangster film King of the Underworld, released in 1939.
With the start of World War II
, Francis did volunteer work, including extensive war-zone touring, which was first chronicled in a book attributed to fellow volunteer Carole Landis
, Four Jills in a Jeep
, which became a popular 1943 film of the same name, with a cavalcade of stars and Martha Raye
and Mitzi Mayfair joining Landis and Francis to fill out the complement of Jills.
Despite the success of Four Jills, the end of the war found Francis virtually unemployable in Hollywood. She signed a three-film contract with Poverty Row
studio Monogram Pictures
that gave her production credit as well as star billing. The results—the films Divorce, Wife Wanted, and Allotment Wives—had limited releases in 1945 and 1946. Francis spent the balance of the 1940s on the stage, appearing with some success in State of the Union
and touring in various productions of plays old and new, including one, Windy Hill, backed by former Warners colleague Ruth Chatterton
. Declining health, aggravated by an accident in 1948 in which she was badly burned by a radiator, hastened her retirement from show business.
, paint a picture of a woman whose personal life was often in disarray.
In 1966, Francis was diagnosed with breast cancer
and underwent a mastectomy
, but the cancer had spread and proved fatal. Having no living immediate family members, Francis left over $1,000,000 to a company, Seeing Eye, Inc., which trained guide dog
s for the blind. She died in the summer of 1968 and her body was immediately cremated after death; her ashes were scattered.
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
actress. After a brief period on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in the late 1920s, she moved to film and achieved her greatest success between 1930 and 1936, when she was the number one female star at the Warner Brothers
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
studio, and the highest paid American film actress. Some of her film related material and personal papers are available to scholars and researchers in the Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
Cinema Archives.
Early life
Francis was born Katharine Edwina Gibbs in Oklahoma CityOklahoma city
Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...
, Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
in 1905. Her parents, Joseph Sprague Gibbs and his actress wife Katharine Clinton Francis, were married on December 3, 1903 in 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...
at the Church of the Transfiguration, and they moved to Oklahoma City the following year. But, by the time Katharine was four, her father had left. Joseph Gibbs, who stood 6’4”, gave his daughter the gift of height — she was Hollywood's tallest leading lady (5 ft 9 in) in the 1930s. (Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute...
and Alexis Smith
Alexis Smith
Alexis Smith was a Canadian-born stage, film, and television actress. She appeared in several major Hollywood movies in the 1940s and had a notable career on Broadway in the 1970s, winning a Tony Award in 1972.-Life and career:...
matched her in height, but did not become stars in Hollywood until the 1940s.)
While she never discouraged rumors that her mother, Katharine ("Kay") Gibbs, was a pioneering businesswoman who established the "Katharine Gibbs" chain of vocational school
Vocational school
A vocational school , providing vocational education, is a school in which students are taught the skills needed to perform a particular job...
s, Francis was actually raised in the hardscrabble theatrical circuit of the period. Her mother was actually a moderately successful actress and singer, who used the stage name "Katharine Clinton". In Nova Scotia where she was born to Capt. George Francis and Jennette Burgess Francis, she was known as Katie Francis. She performed at least one concert at Windsor, Hants County, Nova Scotia and was possibly part of a tour of her home province. Katie moved to the United States in 1897 with her parents. Katie Francis married Joseph Gibbs and became an American citizen. Her father Capt. George Francis returned to Nova Scotia before 1911 and died in the Freemasons Home in Windsor, NS in 1922.
Young Kay was out on the road with her mother, and attended Catholic schools when it was affordable, such as when she was a student at the Institute of the Holy Angels at age five. After attending Miss Fuller’s School for Young Ladies in Ossining, New York
Ossining (village), New York
Ossining is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 25,060 at the 2010 census. As a village, it is located in the Town of Ossining.-Geography:Ossining borders the eastern shores of the widest part of the Hudson River....
(1919) and the Cathedral School (1920), she enrolled at the Katharine Gibbs Secretarial School in New York City. At age 17, Kay became engaged to a well-to-do Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Pittsfield is the largest city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Its area code is 413. Its ZIP code is 01201...
man, James Dwight Francis. Their December 1922 marriage at New York's St. Thomas Church ended in divorce.
Stage career
In the spring of 1925, Francis went to Paris to get a divorce. While there, she was courted by a former Harvard athlete and member of the Boston Bar AssociationBoston Bar Association
The Boston Bar Association, which also goes by the acronym BBA, is a volunteer non-governmental organization in Boston, Massachusetts, United States...
, Bill Gaston. Kay and Bill saw each other only on occasion; he was in Boston and Kay had decided to follow her mother’s footsteps and go on the stage in New York. She made her 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...
debut as the Player Queen
Characters in Hamlet
What follows is an overview of the main characters in William Shakespeare's Hamlet, followed by a list and summary of the minor characters from the play...
in a modern-dress version of Shakespeare's Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
in November 1925. Francis claimed she got the part by “lying a lot, to the right people”. One of the “right” people was producer Stuart Walker
Stuart Walker (film-maker)
Stuart Walker was an American film producer and director. He was born Stuart Armstrong Walker in Augusta, Kentucky, and died in Beverly Hills, California.-As Producer:*Opened by Mistake...
, who hired Kay to join his Portmanteau Theatre Company, and she soon found herself commuting between Dayton
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...
, Indianapolis
Indianapolis
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
, and Cincinnati, playing wise-cracking secretaries, saucy French floozies, walk-ons, bit parts, and heavies.
By February 1927, Francis returned to Broadway in the play Crime. Sylvia Sidney
Sylvia Sidney
Sylvia Sidney was an American actress who rose to prominence in the 1930s appearing in numerous crime dramas.-Early life:...
, although a teenager at the time, had the lead in Crime but would later say that Kay stole the show.
After Kay's divorce from Gaston, she became engaged to a society playboy, Alan Ryan Jr. She promised Alan's family that she would not return to the stage—a promise that lasted only a few months before she was back on Broadway as an aviatrix in a Rachel Crothers
Rachel Crothers
Rachel Crothers was a prolific and successful American playwright and theater director, known for her well-crafted plays. One of the most famous was Susan and God , which was made into a film by MGM in 1940 starring Joan Crawford and Frederic March.Crothers was born in Bloomington, Illinois, USA...
play, Venus.
Francis was to appear in only one other Broadway production, a play called Elmer the Great in 1928. Written by Ring Lardner
Ring Lardner
Ringgold Wilmer Lardner was an American sports columnist and short story writer best known for his satirical takes on the sports world, marriage, and the theatre.-Personal life:...
and produced by George M. Cohan
George M. Cohan
George Michael Cohan , known professionally as George M. Cohan, was a major American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer, and producer....
, Walter Huston
Walter Huston
Walter Thomas Huston was a Canadian-born American actor. He was the father of actor and director John Huston and the grandfather of actress Anjelica Huston and actor Danny Huston.-Life and career:...
was the star. He was so impressed by Francis that he encouraged her to take a screen test for the Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
film Gentlemen of the Press (1929). Francis made this film and 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...
film The Cocoanuts
The Cocoanuts
The Cocoanuts is the first feature-length Marx Brothers film, produced by Paramount Pictures. The musical comedy stars the four Marx Brothers, Oscar Shaw, Mary Eaton, and Margaret Dumont. Produced by Walter Wanger and the first sound movie to credit more than one director , and was adapted to the...
(1929) at Paramount's Astoria Studios
Kaufman Astoria Studios
The Kaufman Astoria Studios is an historic movie studio located in the Astoria section of the New York City borough of Queens.-History:It was originally built by Famous Players-Lasky in 1920 to provide the company with a facility close to the Broadway theater district. Many features and short...
in New York.
Film career
By that time, film studios had started their exodus from New York to California, and many BroadwayBroadway 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...
actors had been enticed to travel west to Hollywood to make films, including Ann Harding
Ann Harding
Ann Harding was an American theatre, motion picture, radio, and television actress.-Early years:Born Dorothy Walton Gatley at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, to George G. Gatley and Elizabeth "Bessie" Crabb. The daughter of a career army officer, she traveled often during her early life...
, Aline MacMahon
Aline MacMahon
Aline MacMahon was an American actress. Her career began on stage in 1921. She worked extensively in film and television until her retirement in 1975. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Dragon Seed .-Early life:Aline Laveen MacMahon was born...
, Helen Twelvetrees
Helen Twelvetrees
Helen Twelvetrees was an American stage and screen performer, considered a top female star in the early days of sound films.- Early life and career :...
, Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...
, Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
and Leslie Howard
Leslie Howard (actor)
Leslie Howard was an English stage and film actor, director, and producer. Among his best-known roles was Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind and roles in Berkeley Square , Of Human Bondage , The Scarlet Pimpernel , The Petrified Forest , Pygmalion , Intermezzo , Pimpernel Smith...
. Francis, signed to a Paramount contract, also made the move, and created an immediate impression. She frequently costarred with William Powell
William Powell
William Horatio Powell was an American actor.A major star at MGM, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the popular Thin Man series in which Powell and Loy played Nick and Nora Charles...
, and appeared in as many as six to eight movies a year, making a total of 21 films between 1929 and 1931.
A combination of striking dark beauty, stature, and a deep, supple voice ideally suited to early sound-reproduction technology made Francis one of the top film stars of the early 1930s. So striking were her looks and screen presence that Francis was widely publicized as the epitome of the "American glamour girl" throughout the 1930s. Her success came in spite of a minor, but distinct speech impediment (she pronounced the letters "r" and "l" as "w") that gave rise to the nickname "Wavishing Kay Fwancis."
Francis' career at Paramount changed gears when Warner Brothers promised her star status at a better salary. She appeared in George Cukor
George Cukor
George Dewey Cukor was an American film director. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO and later MGM, where he directed What Price Hollywood? , A Bill of Divorcement , Dinner at Eight , Little Women , David Copperfield , Romeo and Juliet and...
's Girls About Town
Girls About Town (film)
Girls About Town is a 1931 comedy film directed by George Cukor and starring Kay Francis.-Cast:*Kay Francis as Wanda Howard*Joel McCrea as Jim Baker*Lilyan Tashman as Marie Bailey*Eugene Pallette as Benjamin Thomas*Alan Dinehart as Jerry Chase...
(1931) and Twenty-Four Hours (1931). After Kay's career skyrocketed at Warners, she would return to Paramount for Ernst Lubitsch
Ernst Lubitsch
Ernst Lubitsch was a German-born film director. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as his prestige grew, his films were promoted as having "the Lubitsch touch."In 1947 he received an Honorary Academy Award for his...
's Trouble in Paradise (1932).
In 1932, Warner Brothers persuaded both Francis and Powell to join the ranks of Warners stars, along with Ruth Chatterton
Ruth Chatterton
Ruth Chatterton was an American actress, novelist, and early aviatrix.- Early life :Chatterton was born in New York City, on Christmas Eve 1892, to Walter Smith and Lillian Reed Chatterton...
. In exchange, Francis was given roles that allowed her a more sympathetic screen persona than had hitherto been the case—in her first three featured roles she had played a villainess. For example, in The False Madonna (1932), she played a jaded society woman nursing a terminally ill child who learns to appreciate the importance of hearth and home.
At the top
From 1932 through 1936, Francis was the queen of the Warners lot and increasingly her films were developed as star vehicles. By the mid-thirties, Francis was one of the highest-paid people in the United States.She had married writer-director John Meehan
John Meehan
John Meehan was an American art director and production designer.He was born in Tehachapi, California and attended the University of Southern California...
in New York, but soon after her arrival in Hollywood, she consummated an affair with actor and producer Kenneth MacKenna
Kenneth MacKenna
Kenneth MacKenna was an American actor and film director, born Leo Mielziner, Jr. in Canterbury, New Hampshire.-Family:Parents were portrait artist Leo Mielziner, Sr.,...
, whom she married in January 1931. When MacKenna's Hollywood career foundered, he found himself spending more time in New York, and they divorced in 1934.
She frequently played long-suffering heroines, in films such as I Found Stella Parrish, Secrets of an Actress, and Comet over Broadway, displaying to good advantage lavish wardrobes that, in some cases, were more memorable than the characters she played—a fact often emphasized by contemporary film reviewers. Too frequently, however, Francis' clotheshorse
Clotheshorse
A clotheshorse or clothes horse, sometimes called a clothes rack, drying horse, winterdyke, clothes maiden, drying rack, Frostick, or airer, refers to a frame upon which clothes are hung after washing to enable them to dry...
reputation led Warners to concentrate resources on lavish sets and costumes, designed to appeal to 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...
-era female audiences and capitalize on her reputation as the epitome of chic, rather than on scripts.
Eventually, Francis herself became dissatisfied with these vehicles and began openly to feud with her employers, even threatening a lawsuit against them for inferior treatment. This in turn led to her demotion to programmers such as 1939's Women in the Wind and, in the same year, to the termination of her contract.
Decline
After her release from Warners, Francis was unable to secure another studio contract. Carole LombardCarole Lombard
Carole Lombard was an American actress. She was particularly noted for her comedic roles in the screwball comedies of the 1930s...
, one of the most popular stars of the late 30s and early 1940s (and who had previously been a supporting player in Francis' 1931 film, Ladies' Man) tried to bolster Francis' career by insisting Francis be cast in In Name Only
In Name Only
In Name Only is a 1939 romantic film starring Cary Grant, Carole Lombard and Kay Francis. It was based on the 1935 novel Memory of Love by Bessie Breuer.-Plot:...
(1939). In this film, Francis had a supporting role to Lombard and Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
, but wisely recognized that the film offered her an opportunity to engage in some serious acting. After this, she moved to character
Character actor
A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...
and supporting parts, playing catty professional women—holding her own against Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame...
in The Feminine Touch, for example—and mothers opposite rising young stars such as Deanna Durbin
Deanna Durbin
Deanna Durbin is a Canadian-born, Southern California-raised retired singer and actress, who appeared in a number of musical films in the 1930s and 1940s singing standards as well as operatic arias....
. Francis did have a lead role in the Bogart gangster film King of the Underworld, released in 1939.
World War II era
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Francis did volunteer work, including extensive war-zone touring, which was first chronicled in a book attributed to fellow volunteer Carole Landis
Carole Landis
Carole Landis was an American film and stage actress whose break-through role was as the female lead in the 1940 film One Million B.C.. Landis has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 1765 Vine Street....
, Four Jills in a Jeep
Four Jills in a Jeep
Four Jills in a Jeep is a 1944 film starring Kay Francis, Carole Landis, Martha Raye, and Mitzi Mayfair as themselves, re-enacting their USO tour of Europe and North Africa during World War II.-Cast:*Kay Francis as Herself*Carole Landis as Herself...
, which became a popular 1943 film of the same name, with a cavalcade of stars and Martha Raye
Martha Raye
Martha Raye was an American comic actress and standards singer who performed in movies, and later on television....
and Mitzi Mayfair joining Landis and Francis to fill out the complement of Jills.
Despite the success of Four Jills, the end of the war found Francis virtually unemployable in Hollywood. She signed a three-film contract with Poverty Row
Poverty Row
Poverty Row is a slang term used in Hollywood from the late silent period through the mid-fifties to refer to a variety of small and mostly short-lived B movie studios...
studio Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures Corporation is a Hollywood studio that produced and released films, most on low budgets, between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram is considered a leader among the smaller studios sometimes referred to...
that gave her production credit as well as star billing. The results—the films Divorce, Wife Wanted, and Allotment Wives—had limited releases in 1945 and 1946. Francis spent the balance of the 1940s on the stage, appearing with some success in State of the Union
State of the Union (play)
State of the Union is a play by American playwrights Russel Crouse and Howard Lindsay about a fictional Republican presidential candidate. The play premiered on November 14, 1945 at the Hudson Theatre on Broadway, ran for 765 performances, and closed on September 13, 1947...
and touring in various productions of plays old and new, including one, Windy Hill, backed by former Warners colleague Ruth Chatterton
Ruth Chatterton
Ruth Chatterton was an American actress, novelist, and early aviatrix.- Early life :Chatterton was born in New York City, on Christmas Eve 1892, to Walter Smith and Lillian Reed Chatterton...
. Declining health, aggravated by an accident in 1948 in which she was badly burned by a radiator, hastened her retirement from show business.
Personal life
Francis married five times. Her diaries, preserved in an academic collection at Wesleyan UniversityWesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
, paint a picture of a woman whose personal life was often in disarray.
In 1966, Francis was diagnosed with breast cancer
Breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
and underwent a mastectomy
Mastectomy
Mastectomy is the medical term for the surgical removal of one or both breasts, partially or completely. Mastectomy is usually done to treat breast cancer; in some cases, women and some men believed to be at high risk of breast cancer have the operation prophylactically, that is, to prevent cancer...
, but the cancer had spread and proved fatal. Having no living immediate family members, Francis left over $1,000,000 to a company, Seeing Eye, Inc., which trained guide dog
Guide dog
Guide dogs are assistance dogs trained to lead blind and visually impaired people around obstacles.Although the dogs can be trained to navigate various obstacles, they are partially color blind and are not capable of interpreting street signs...
s for the blind. She died in the summer of 1968 and her body was immediately cremated after death; her ashes were scattered.
Features
- The CocoanutsThe CocoanutsThe Cocoanuts is the first feature-length Marx Brothers film, produced by Paramount Pictures. The musical comedy stars the four Marx Brothers, Oscar Shaw, Mary Eaton, and Margaret Dumont. Produced by Walter Wanger and the first sound movie to credit more than one director , and was adapted to the...
(19291929 in film-Events:The days of the silent film are numbered. A mad scramble to provide synchronized sound is on.*January 20 - The movie In Old Arizona is released. The film is the first full-length talking film to be filmed outdoors....
) - Gentlemen of the Press (1929)
- Dangerous CurvesDangerous Curves (1929 film)Dangerous Curves is an American motion picture starring Clara Bow and Richard Arlen. It was released by Paramount Pictures and was the first Hollywood film for Kay Francis.-Plot:...
(1929) - Illusion (1929)
- The Marriage Playground (1929)
- Behind the Make-UpBehind the Make-UpBehind the Make-Up is a 1930 drama film starring Hal Skelly, William Powell, and Fay Wray. It is based on the short story "The Feeder" by Mildred Cram. A vaudeville performer takes advantage of his partner, even to stealing his girlfriend.-Cast:...
(19301930 in film-Events:* November 1: The Big Trail featuring a young John Wayne in his first starring role is released in both 35mm, and a very early form of 70mm film and was the first large scale big-budget film of the sound era costing over $2 million. The film was praised for its aesthetic quality and realism...
) - Street of ChanceStreet of Chance (1930 film)Street of Chance is a 1930 film directed by John Cromwell and starring William Powell, Jean Arthur, Kay Francis and Regis Toomey.- Plot :...
(1930) - Paramount on ParadeParamount on ParadeParamount on Parade is a all-star revue released by Paramount Pictures, directed by several directors including Edmund Goulding, Dorothy Arzner, Ernst Lubitsch, Rowland V. Lee, A. Edward Sutherland, Victor Heerman, Lothar Mendes, Otto Brower, Edwin H...
(1930) - A Notorious Affair (1930)
- For the Defense (1930)
- RafflesRaffles (1930 film)Raffles is a film starring Ronald Colman as the popular title character, a gentleman who is also secretly a notorious jewel thief. Kay Francis plays the woman who Raffles falls in love with. It is based on the 1906 play Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman by E. W...
(1930) - Let's Go NativeLet's Go NativeLet's Go Native, is a 1930 American black-and-white musical comedy film, directed by Leo McCarey and released by Paramount Pictures.A very memorable, witty quote is when Jerry comments on being the only man on an island populated by women...
(1930) - The Virtuous SinThe Virtuous SinThe Virtuous Sin is a 1930 American comedy-drama film directed by George Cukor and Louis J. Gasnier. The screenplay by Martin Brown and Louise Long is based on the play The General by Lajos Zilahy.-Plot:...
(1930) - Passion Flower (1930)
- Scandal Sheet (19311931 in film-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:*Best Picture: Cimarron - MGM*Best Actor: Lionel Barrymore - A Free Soul*Best Actor: Wallace Beery - The Champ*Best Actor: Fredric March - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde...
) - Ladies' ManLadies' Man (1931 film)Ladies' Man is a 1931 American drama film directed by Lothar Mendes, starring William Powell and Kay Francis. It was released on May 9, 1931 by Paramount.-Cast:*William Powell as Jamie Darricott*Kay Francis as Norma Page*Carole Lombard as Rachel Fendley...
(1931) - The Vice Squad (1931)
- Transgression (1931)
- Guilty Hands (1931)
- 24 Hours (1931)
- Girls About TownGirls About Town (film)Girls About Town is a 1931 comedy film directed by George Cukor and starring Kay Francis.-Cast:*Kay Francis as Wanda Howard*Joel McCrea as Jim Baker*Lilyan Tashman as Marie Bailey*Eugene Pallette as Benjamin Thomas*Alan Dinehart as Jerry Chase...
(1931) - The False Madonna (1931)
- Strangers in Love (19321932 in film-Events:*Cary Grant's film career begins*Katharine Hepburn's film career begins*Shirley Temple's film career begins*Disney released Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon in three-strip Technicolor film.*Santa, first sound film made in Mexico released....
) - Man WantedMan WantedMan Wanted is a 1932 romance film starring Kay Francis as a married magazine editor who hires a handsome secretary .-Cast:*Kay Francis as Lois Ames*David Manners as Thomas Sherman*Una Merkel as Ruth Holman*Andy Devine as Andy Doyle...
(1932) - Street of Women (1932)
- Jewel RobberyJewel RobberyJewel Robbery is a 1932 comedy film directed by William Dieterle and starring William Powell and Kay Francis. It was based on the play Ekszerrablás a Váci-uccában by Ladislas Fodor and the English adaptation, Jewel Robbery, by Bertram Bloch.-Plot:...
(1932) - One Way PassageOne Way PassageOne Way Passage is a romantic film starring William Powell and Kay Francis as star-crossed lovers, directed by Tay Garnett and released by Warner Bros.It was remade in 1940 as Til We Meet Again, featuring Merle Oberon and George Brent.-Plot:...
(1932) - Trouble in Paradise (1932)
- CynaraCynaraCynara is a genus of about 10 species of thistle-like perennial plants in the family Asteraceae, originally from the Mediterranean region, northwestern Africa, and the Canary Islands....
(1932) - The KeyholeThe Keyhole-Cast:* Kay Francis as Ann Brooks* George Brent as Mr. Neil Davis* Glenda Farrell as Dot* Monroe Owsley as Maurice Le Brun* Allen Jenkins as Hank Wales* Helen Ware as Portia Brooks* Henry Kolker as Schuyler Brooks* Ferdinand Gottschalk as Brooks' Lawyer...
(19331933 in film-Events:* March 2 - King Kong premieres in New York City.* June 6 - The first drive-in theater opens, in Camden, New Jersey.* British Film Institute founded....
) - Storm at Daybreak (1933)
- Mary Stevens, M.D. (1933)
- I Loved a Woman (1933)
- The House on 56th StreetThe House on 56th StreetThe House on 56th Street is a 1933 drama film starring Kay Francis as a woman sent to prison for twenty years for a murder she did not commit...
(1933) - MandalayMandalay (film)Mandalay is a 1934 American drama film directed by Michael Curtiz. The screenplay by Austin Parker and Charles Kenyon was based on a story by Paul Hervey Fox. The film stars Kay Francis, Ricardo Cortez, Warner Oland, and Lyle Talbot...
(19341934 in film-Events:*January 26 - Samuel Goldwyn purchases the film rights to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the L. Frank Baum estate for $40,000.*February 19 - Bob Hope marries Dolores Reade...
) - Wonder BarWonder BarWonder Bar is a 1934 pre-code movie adaptation of a Broadway musical of the same name directed by Lloyd Bacon with musical numbers created by Busby Berkeley...
(1934) - British AgentBritish AgentBritish Agent is a 1934 espionage film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Leslie Howard and Kay Francis. It is based on Memoirs of a British Agent, the 1932 autobiography of R. H. Bruce Lockhart, who had spent a number of years working for the British Secret Service...
(1934) - Living on VelvetLiving on VelvetLiving on Velvet is a 1935 American film directed by Frank Borzage starring Kay Francis, Warren William and George Brent.-Cast:*Kay Francis ... Amy Prentiss Parker*Warren William ... Walter 'Gibraltar' Pritcham...
(19351935 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:...
) - Stranded (1935)
- The Goose and the Gander (1935)
- I Found Stella ParishI Found Stella ParishI Found Stella Parish is a 1935 melodrama starring Kay Francis as a beloved actress whose dark secret is revealed to the world.-Plot:In London, Stella Parish has her greatest stage triumph in a play produced and directed by Stephen Norman . However, her happiness is short-lived. She finds a man...
(1935) - The White AngelThe White Angel (1936 film)The White Angel is a 1936 American historical drama film directed by William Dieterle and starring Kay Francis, Ian Hunter, Donald Woods and Nigel Bruce...
(19361936 in filmThe 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...
) - Give Me Your Heart (1936)
- Stolen HolidayStolen HolidayStolen Holiday is a 1937 film loosely based on the Stavisky Affair, a French political scandal. A Russian con artist worms his way into the upper reaches of French society, but is finally exposed, with tragic consequences.-Plot:...
(19371937 in filmThe 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....
) - Another DawnAnother DawnAnother Dawn is a 2010 album by the American band Tempest.-Track listing:...
(1937) - ConfessionConfession (film)Confession is a 1937 drama film starring Kay Francis, Ian Hunter, Basil Rathbone and Jane Bryan. It was directed by Joe May and is a remake of the German film Mazurka starring Pola Negri....
(1937) - First LadyFirst Lady (film)First Lady is a 1937 film about behind-the-scenes political maneuverings in Washington, D.C.. It stars Kay Francis and Verree Teasdale as bitter rivals in their pursuit of the title of First Lady. It is based on the play of the same name by George S...
(1937) - Women Are Like That (19381938 in filmThe 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,...
) - My BillMy BillMy Bill is a 1938 drama film starring Kay Francis as a poor widow raising four children. It was based on the play Courage by Tom Barry.-Cast:*Kay Francis as Mary Colbrook*Bonita Granville as Gwendolyn Colbrook*John Litel as John C...
(1938) - Secrets of an ActressSecrets of an ActressSecrets of an Actress is a 1938 romantic drama film about a love triangle between a stage actress, her financial backer, and his friend.-Cast:*Kay Francis as Fay Carter*George Brent as Dick Orr*Ian Hunter as Peter Snowden*Gloria Dickson as Carla Orr...
(1938) - Comet Over Broadway (1938)
- King of the Underworld (19391939 in filmThe year 1939 in motion pictures can be justified as being called the most outstanding one ever, when it comes to the high quality and high attendance at the large set of the best films that premiered in the year .- Events :Motion picture historians and film often rate...
) - Women in the Wind (1939)
- In Name OnlyIn Name OnlyIn Name Only is a 1939 romantic film starring Cary Grant, Carole Lombard and Kay Francis. It was based on the 1935 novel Memory of Love by Bessie Breuer.-Plot:...
(1939) - It's a DateIt's a DateIt's a Date is a 1940 Universal musical film directed by William A. Seiter. The film was remade in 1950 as Nancy Goes to Rio.-Plot:The movie begins with Georgia Drake performing on the stage singing, "Gypsy Lullaby" while her daughter, Pamela , watches with her boyfriend Freddie Miller...
(19401940 in filmThe 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....
) - When the Daltons RodeWhen the Daltons RodeWhen the Daltons Rode is a 1940 western film starring Randolph Scott as a family friend who tries to dissuade the Daltons from turning outlaw...
(1940) - Little Men (1940)
- Play GirlPlay GirlPlay Girl is a 1941 film of the romantic comedy genre, starring Kay Francis as an aging gold digger who decides to pass on her skills to a young protegée.-Cast:*Kay Francis as Grace Herbert*James Ellison as Thomas Elwood Dice...
(19411941 in filmThe 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:...
) - The Man Who Lost Himself (1941)
- Charley's AuntCharley's AuntCharley's Aunt is a farce in three acts written by Brandon Thomas. It broke all historic records for plays of any kind, with an original London run of 1,466 performances....
(1941) - The Feminine TouchThe Feminine TouchThe Feminine Touch is a 1941 film directed by W. S. Van Dyke. It stars Rosalind Russell and Don Ameche.-Cast:*Rosalind Russell as Julie Hathaaway*Don Ameche as Prof. John Hathaway*Kay Francis as Nellie Woods*Van Heflin as Elliott Morgan...
(1941) - Always in My Heart (19421942 in filmThe 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:...
) - Between Us GirlsBetween Us GirlsBetween Us Girls is a 1942 drama film directed by Henry Koster and starring Diana Barrymore, Kay Francis, Robert Cummings, John Boles, Andy Devine, and Scotty Beckett....
(1942) - Four Jills in a JeepFour Jills in a JeepFour Jills in a Jeep is a 1944 film starring Kay Francis, Carole Landis, Martha Raye, and Mitzi Mayfair as themselves, re-enacting their USO tour of Europe and North Africa during World War II.-Cast:*Kay Francis as Herself*Carole Landis as Herself...
(19441944 in filmThe 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....
) - DivorceDivorce (film)Divorce is a 1945 drama film about a much-divorced woman who sets her sights on her married childhood friend. It stars Kay Francis, Bruce Cabot, and Helen Mack.-Cast:*Kay Francis as Diane Carter*Bruce Cabot as Bob Phillips*Helen Mack as Martha Phillips...
(19451945 in filmThe 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....
) - Allotment WivesAllotment WivesAllotment Wives is a film noir starring Kay Francis in her final screen appearance. An army investigator tries to shut down a scam that preys on soldiers and unknowingly falls in love with the woman behind it.-Cast:*Kay Francis as Sheila Seymour...
(1945) - Wife WantedWife Wanted (1946 film)Wife Wanted is an American crime film noir directed by Phil Karlson. The drama features Kay Francis, Paul Cavanagh and Robert Shayne...
(19461946 in filmThe year 1946 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*November 21 - William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives premieres in New York featuring an ensemble cast including Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, and Harold Russell.*December 20 - Frank Capra's It's a...
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Short subjects
- Screen Snapshots Series 16, No. 3 (19361936 in filmThe 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...
) - Show Business at WarShow Business at WarShow Business at War is a short film made in 1943 to tout the United States film industry's contribution to the war effort. Several studios collaborated on the production and approximately 70 stars, producers, directors and studio executives appeared in it....
(19431943 in filmThe 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....
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