Dorothy Mackaill

Dorothy Mackaill (March 4, 1903[1][2] – August 12, 1990) was a British-American actress, most notably of the silent-film era and into the early 1930s.

Dorothy Mackaill
Publicity photo of Mackaill from Stars of the Photoplay, 1924
Born	(1903-03-04)March 4, 1903 Sculcoates, Hull, Yorkshire, England, UK
Died	August 12, 1990(1990-08-12) (aged 87) Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.
Citizenship	British American
Education	Thoresby Primary School
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1920–1937; 1976–1980
Spouse(s)	Lothar Mendes (m. 1926-div.1928) Neil Miller (m. 1931-div.1934) Harold Patterson (m. 1947-div.1948)

Early life

Born in Sculcoates, Kingston upon Hull in 1903 (although she later would claim 1904 or 1905 as her year of birth, including on her petition for naturalization as a United States citizen, giving 1904 as the year), Mackaill lived with her father after her parents separated when she was around eleven years old. She attended Thoresby Primary School. As a teenager, Mackaill ran away to London to pursue a stage career as an actress.[3]

After temporarily relocating to Paris, she met a Broadway stage choreographer who persuaded her to move to New York City where she became involved in the Ziegfeld Follies and befriended future motion picture actresses Marion Davies and Nita Naldi.

Career

By 1920, Mackaill had begun making the transition from "Follies Girl" to film actress. That same year she appeared in her first film, a Wilfred Noy-directed mystery, The Face at the Window.[3] Mackaill also appeared in several comedies of 1920 opposite actor Johnny Hines. In 1921 she appeared opposite Anna May Wong, Noah Beery and Lon Chaney in the Marshall Neilan-directed drama Bits of Life. In the following years, Mackaill would appear opposite such popular actors as Richard Barthelmess, Rod La Rocque, Colleen Moore, John Barrymore, George O'Brien, Bebe Daniels, Milton Sills and Anna Q. Nilsson.[4]

Dorothy Mackaill (1923)

In 1924, Mackaill rose to leading-lady status in the drama The Man Who Came Back, opposite rugged matinee idol George O'Brien. Her role of the nightclub chanteuse Marcelle catapulted Mackaill into a genuine Hollywood star, and her career continued to flourish throughout the remainder of the 1920s. In early 1924 she starred in the western film The Mine with the Iron Door, shot on location outside of Tucson, Arizona. That same year the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers in the United States presented Mackaill one of its WAMPAS Baby Stars awards, which each year honored thirteen young women who the association believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom. Other notable recipients of the award in 1924 were Clara Bow, Julanne Johnston and Lucille Ricksen.[5]

Later career and retirement

Mackaill made a smooth transition to sound with the part-talkie The Barker (1928) and had success in talkies for the next couple of years. In September 1928, First National Pictures was acquired by Warner Bros., and her contract with First National was not renewed upon its expiration in 1931. Perhaps her most memorable role of this era was the 1932 Columbia Pictures B film release Love Affair with a young Humphrey Bogart as her leading man. She made several films for MGM, Paramount and Columbia before retiring in 1937 to care for her aging mother.

In 1955, Mackaill moved to Honolulu, Hawaii.[6] She had fallen in love with the islands while filming His Captive Woman in 1929.[7] Mackaill lived at the luxurious Royal Hawaiian Hotel on the beach at Waikiki as a sort of celebrity-in-residence and enjoyed swimming in the ocean nearly every day.[8]

She occasionally came out of retirement to appear in roles for television, notably in two episodes of Hawaii Five-O in 1976 and 1980, which was filmed on location in Hawaii.[9]

Personal life

Mackaill was married three times. Her first marriage was to German film director Lothar Mendes, on November 17, 1926.[10] They divorced in August 1928.[11] On November 4, 1931, she married radio singer Neil Albert Miller.[12] They divorced in February 1934.[13] Her third and final marriage was to horticulturist Harold Patterson in June 1947.[14][15] She filed for divorce in December 1948.[16]

Mackaill had no children.

Naturalization as United States citizen

Mackaill became a naturalized United States citizen in 1926, giving 1904 as her year of birth, and her age as 22.[17][18]

Death

Mackaill resided in Honolulu, Hawaii, during the last 35 years of her life.[19] She died there of liver failure in her room at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel on August 12, 1990.[19] She was cremated and her ashes were scattered at sea off Waikiki Beach.[20]

Filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1920	The Face at the Window
	Torchy		Short film
	Torchy's Millions		Short film
1921	Torchy's Promotion		Short film
	Bits of Life		Lost film
	The Lotus Eater		Uncredited Lost film
1922	Isle of Doubt	Eleanor Warburton
	A Woman's Woman	Sally Plummer
	The Streets of New York	Sally Ann
	The Inner Man	Sally
1923	Mighty Lak' a Rose	Rose Duncan	Lost film
	The Broken Violin	Constance Morley
	The Fighting Blade	Thomsine Musgrove
	The Fair Cheat	Camilla
	His Children's Children	Sheila
	Twenty-One	Lynnie Willis
1924	The Next Corner	Elsie Maury	Lost film
	What Shall I Do?	Jeanie Andrews
	The Man Who Came Back	Marcelle
	The Painted Lady	Violet
	The Mine with the Iron Door	Marta Hillgrove
1925	The Bridge of Sighs	Linda Harper	Lost film
	One Year to Live	Marthe	Lost film
	Chickie	Chickie	Lost film
	The Making of O'Malley	Lucille Thayer	Lost film
	Shore Leave	Connie Martin
	Joanna	Joanna Manners	Lost film
	The Dancer of Paris	Consuelo Cox	Lost film
1926	Ranson's Folly	Mary Cahill
	Subway Sadie	Sadie Hermann	Lost film
	Just Another Blonde	Jeanne Cavanaugh	Alternative title: The Girl from Coney Island
1927	The Lunatic at Large	Beatrix Staynes	Lost film
	Convoy	Sylvia Dodge	Lost film
	Smile, Brother, Smile	Mildred Marvin	Lost film
	The Crystal Cup	Gita Carteret	Lost film
	Man Crazy	Clarissa Janeway	Lost film
1928	Ladies' Night in a Turkish Bath	Helen Slocum
	Lady Be Good	Mary	Lost film
	The Whip	Lady Diana
	Waterfront	Peggy Ann Andrews
	The Barker	Lou
1929	His Captive Woman	Anna Janssen
	Children of the Ritz	Angela Pennington	Lost film
	Two Weeks Off	Kitty Weaver	Lost film
	Hard to Get	Bobby Martin	Lost film Alternative title: Classified
	The Great Divide	Ruth Jordan
	The Love Racket	Betty Brown	Lost film
1930	Strictly Modern	Kate	Lost film
	The Flirting Widow	Celia
	The Office Wife	Anne Murdock
	Man Trouble	Joan
	Bright Lights	Louanne	Alternative title: Adventures in Africa
1931	Once a Sinner	Diana Barry
	Kept Husbands	Dorothea "Dot" Parker Brunton
	Party Husband	Laura
	Their Mad Moment	Emily Stanley	Alternative title: Basquerie
	The Reckless Hour	Margaret "Margie" Nichols
	Safe in Hell	Gilda Carlson - aka Gilda Erickson
1932	Love Affair	Carol Owen
	No Man of Her Own	Kay Everly
1933	Neighbors' Wives	Helen McGrath
	Curtain at Eight	Lola Cresmer	Alternative title: Backstage Mystery
	The Chief	Dixie Dean
1934	Picture Brides	Mame Smith
	Cheaters	Mabel
1937	Bulldog Drummond at Bay	Doris Thompson
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1953	Studio One in Hollywood		Episode: "The Magic Lantern"
1976-1980	Hawaii Five-O	Various roles	2 episodes

References

1. Dorothy Mackaill birth registration (2nd Quarter (April-May-June), 1903, England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915; accessed May 19, 2018.
2. Dorothy Mackaill entry, 1911 England Census, search.ancestrylibrary.com; accessed May 19, 2018.
3. Slide, Anthony (2010). Silent Players: A Biographical and Autobiographical Study of 100 Silent Film Actors and Actresses. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813137454. Retrieved May 10, 2017.
4. Shackleton, Kay. "Dorothy Mackaill". silenthollywood.com.
5. Anderson, Chuck. "WAMPAS Baby Stars". www.b-westerns.com.
6. "Deaths". USA Today. August 14, 1990. p. 2A.
7. Los Angeles Times, August 15, 1990
8. Honolulu Advertiser, May 11, 2008.
9. "Dorothy Mackaill". IMDb. Retrieved September 12, 2016.
10. "Star Takes Time Off To Be Married". The Border Cities Star. November 18, 1926. p. 1. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
11. "Divorce For Movie Actress". Reading Eagle. August 3, 1928. p. 4. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
12. "Dorothy Mackaill Wed; Screen Star and Radio Singer Married in Arizona". The New York Times. November 4, 1931.
13. "Nagging Charge Wins Divorce". The Southeast Missourian. February 17, 1934. p. 1. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
14. "Orchid Beau Wins Dorothy Mackaill". Milwaukee Sentinel. March 3, 1947. p. 1. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
15. "Miss Mackaill Marries Was Former Actress". The Hartford Courant. June 14, 1947. p. 3.
16. "Fight to Unseat Taft Planned". Los Angeles Times. December 31, 1948. p. 4.
17. "Ancestry Library Edition". ancestrylibrary.com. Retrieved May 15, 2018.
18. "Ancestry Library Edition". ancestrylibrary.com. Retrieved May 15, 2018.
19. Obituary, The New York Times, August 16, 1990; retrieved January 22, 2018.
20. https://articles.latimes.com/1990-08-15/news/mn-694_1_dorothy-mackaill

External links

• Dorothy Mackaill on IMDb
• Dorothy Mackaill at the Internet Broadway Database
• Photographs of Dorothy Mackaill
• Dorothy Mackaill at Find a Grave