Mary Dees: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 14:48, 3 March 2011
Mary Dees | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 3, 1911 Syracuse, New York, U.S. |
| Died | August 4, 2004 (aged 93) Lake Worth, Florida, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1929–1985 |
 | This article contains close paraphrasing of a non-free copyrighted source, http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2005/sep/22/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries (Copyvios report). |
 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (February 2011) |
Mary Ella Dees (June 3, 1911 — August 4, 2004) was an American stage and screen actress who once served as a primary stand-in double for late-1930s actress Jean Harlow. Dees, often cast as the ingénue, worked in a number of big-budget MGM-produced pictures mostly during the 1930s, including The Last Gangster (1937), The Women (1939), as well as a number of Three Stooges shorts, which included Hoi Polloi (1935), and numerous Marx Brothers comedies. A favorite of noted director Irving Thalberg, he requested her to call him "Pappa". "If one played with Pappa", Dees had recalled almost 70 years later, "then Pappa gave one parts in pictures". [citation needed]
Biography and career
Born in Syracuse, New York on June 3, 1911[1], the daughter of a successful lawyer, she was for a time raised in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.[2] She had embarked on her career in summer stock theatre while still a teen in 1929, followed by the back row of a New York chorus line. But by 1933, Dees had installed herself at the Garden of Allah hotel complex in Hollywood, owned by the silent film actress Alla Nazimova.
In 1937, upon the sudden death of starlet actress Jean Harlow, Dees was cast by MGM bosses Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg as a four-minute stand-in for Harlow, who was acting on the film Saratoga with Clark Gable, which was still in production at the time; in desperation the producers Mayer and Thalberg had scrambled to find a replacement double to shoot the remaining 4 minutes that were needed to complete the project, which had been in danger of being shelved. Dees filled in admirably the star, albeit briefly, with her back to the camera or wearing a floppy hat most of the time, as the film went on to become one of 1937's biggest critical and box-office hits, as well as probably one of Harlow's most noted works. [citation needed]
Later career
Dees appeared in her last film role in 1946, in the Marx Brothers film A Night in Casablanca. She continued on act on stage in repretoiry theatre, first in New York State, then in South Florida, from 1960. She retired from acting altogether in 1985. She apparently never married or had children. [citation needed]
Personal
Dees, who also was a long-term date of boxer Jack Dempsey, also had briefly at one time dated reputed mobster Johnny Roselli. "I didn't pick boyfriends very well," she said. "My choice of dates did frustrate MGM bosses and horrified my mother." In 1937, on the set of the film Bad Guy, she met King Kong star Bruce Cabot; their relationship ended in the early 1940s. [citation needed]
Death
Dees died on August 4, 2004 in Lake Worth, Florida, aged 93, after a long illness.[3]
References
- ^ Born on June 3, 1911, not in September 1911 as per the Social Security Death Index, under name DEES, MARY E (SS# 569-18-8259)
- ^ Guide to actress Mary Dees' scrapbooks MSS.2562-001, University of Alabama, accessed 2011-01-02.
- ^ South Florida Sun-Sentinel article with photo, August 10, 2004