Winston and Weston Doty

Winston and Weston Doty (February 18, 1914 – January 1, 1934)[1] were twin child actors active for several years during the silent film era.

Winston and Weston Doty
Winston and Weston Doty in One Terrible Day (1922)
Born
Winston and Weston Doty

(1914-02-18)February 18, 1914
Malta, Ohio U.S.
DiedJanuary 1, 1934(1934-01-01) (aged 19)
Montrose, California, U.S.
OccupationFilm actors
Years active1922–1924

The Doty twins were among the casualties of the New Year Flood of 1934.

Biography

Winston and Weston – originally Winston and Wilson, though the latter was later changed after the two began appearing in silent films – were born in Malta, Ohio, sons of Lawrence "Jack" and Olive Doty. Their father was a stage and radio actor who had separated from his wife when the boys were fairly young.[2][3]

The brothers lived with their mother in Chicago, Los Angeles, and later in Venice, California. Between 1922 and 1924 Winston and Weston Doty appeared in a handful of silent film shorts, among them "Our Gang," 1922 with Anna Mae Bilson and Jackie Condon, One Terrible Day, and one full-length feature, Peter Pan (1924). In 1930 Olive Doty was employed in Los Angeles as an investment manager while her boys clerked at a local grocery store after school hours.[2] Later the twins enrolled together at the University of Southern California where they became popular members of the USC cheerleading squad.

On the night of December 31, 1933, the brothers attended a party at a friend's house in Montrose, California, with their dates, Mary Janet Cox of Venice and Gladys Isabel Fisher of Santa Monica. At midnight they called their mother to wish her a Happy New Year, and, upon beginning to drive home, not long afterwards perished when a deluge of water caused by heavy rains swept through the neighborhood, killing some forty people. Of the four, the only one to survive was Weston's date, Mary Janet Cox.[4][5] Winston and Weston were interred together at the Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery in Santa Monica, California.[1] In April of the following year, Jack Doty died alone in his hotel room in Chicago at the age of forty-two.[3]

Sources
  1. Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery, Santa Monica - records
  2. US Census Records 1920–1930
  3. "Stage Radio Actor Found Dead in Bed" – The Oakland Tribune, April 14, 1935 pg.46
  4. "Trojan's Famous Twin Cheer Leaders Drown" - San Antonio Light (San Antonio, Texas) January 3, 1934 pg. 8
  5. San Antonio Light (San Antonio, Texas) January 20, 1934 pg. 3
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