Marion Davies
Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Marion Davies is perhaps best known
as the not-so-secret mistress of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, but she was also an extremely talented
actress and comedienne.
Davies started her career as a model and dancer in New York, making her
stage debut in a Broadway chorus line at the age of 16. She was a dancer on Broadway
in the Ziegfeld Follies in 1916, and caught the attention of Hearst, who took a personal
and professional interest in her. At the time, Davies was 20, and Hearst was 54.
With his considerable fortune and the power of his newspaper chain, Hearst
was determined to make Davies into a movie star. Hearst even purchased a film production
company, Cosmopolitan Pictures, to promote Davies' career.
Davies made her screen debut in "Runaway, Romney" (1917), which she also wrote.
She starred in several dramas, but she was at her best in comedies, beginning with "Getting
Mary Married" (1919). Hearst, however, preferred to see his young protegee and paramour in
elaborate and expensive costume dramas and period romances, including "Cecilia of the Pink
In 1925, Davies and Cosmopolitan moved to MGM studios, where she performed
in some of her best and most successful films -- mostly comedies -- including "Tillie the
Toiler" (1927); "The Patsy" (1928); "Show People" (1928); "Marianne" (1929); "Not So Dumb"
(1930); "The Bachelor Father" (1931); "Peg o' My Heart" (1933); "Going Hollywood" (1933),
co-starring Bing Crosby; "Page Miss Glory" (1935); and "Cain and Mabel" (1936), co-starring
Clark Gable. But the advent of sound films had a severe impact on Davies' career. She
spoke with a slight stutter and, although she was able to overcome this impediment in her
films, she retired after appearing in "Ever Since Eve" (1937).
In Orson Welles' fictionalized version of
Hearst's life, "Citizen Kane" (1941),
the publisher promotes the career of his girlfriend, an untalented opera singer, which has
resulted in many people thinking that Davies was untalented and would not have succeeded
without Hearst. In fact, Davies was a talented actress, and probably would have been
successful without Hearst's intervention in her career. And if she would have
focused on comedies from the start, she might have been even more successful.
Even Welles attempted to correct that erroneous assumption when he said,
"Marion Davies was one of the most delightfully accomplished comediennes in the whole history
of the screen."
Davies and Hearst remained a couple after her retirement from films, and were
well-known in social circles for throwing elaborate parties at the several homes they shared
in California, including Hearst's San Simeon estate, his mansion in Beverly Hills, and his
Santa Monica beach house. They were often described as, "the most famous unmarried couple
in America." Hearst and Davies certainly would have married, but Hearst's wife would not
grant him a divorce. Hearst died in Davies' Beverly Hills home in August 1951. Two
months later, the 54-year-old Davies married for the first time, eloping to Las Vegas, NV,
with long-time friend Horace G. Brown Jr., a former actor and retired military sea captain
who bore an amazing resemblance to Hearst.
After her retirement from films, Davies was a successful businesswoman and
philanthropist. She founded the Marion Davies Children's Clinic, and donated $2 million for
the construction of the children's clinic wing at the UCLA Medical Center.
Davies was born Marion Cecilia Douras on Jan. 3, 1897, in Brooklyn, NY.
She died Sept. 22, 1961, Los Angeles, CA.
1897 - 1961
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