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Dorothy Dunbar

{{short description|American actress}}

{{Use American English|date=July 2020}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}}

{{More citations needed |date=October 2021}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Dorothy Dunbar

| image = Dunbar Hartsook.jpg

| caption =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1902|05|28}}

| birth_place = Colorado Springs, Colorado, US

| death_date = {{death date and age|1992|10|23|1902|05|28}}

| death_place = Seattle, Washington, US

| occupation = Actress

| children = 2

| yearsactive = 1904–1927

| birthname = Dorothy Dunbar Lawson

}}

Dorothy Dunbar Lawson (May 28, 1902 – October 23, 1992) was an American actress and socialite, who appeared in silent movies in the 1920s.

Early years

Born in Colorado Springs, Colorado,{{cite book |last1=Katchmer |first1=George A. |title=A Biographical Dictionary of Silent Film Western Actors and Actresses |date=20 May 2015 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-0905-8 |page=101 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VnGeCQAAQBAJ&dq=%22Dorothy+Dunbar%22+actress&pg=PA101 |access-date=October 25, 2021 |language=en}} Dunbar became an actress despite her father's opposition.{{cite news |last1=Duncan |first1=Don |title=Jane Remembers Tarzan, Movie Fans Recall Jane |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/87820208/dorothy-dunbar/ |access-date=October 26, 2021 |work=Spokane Chronicle |agency=Associated Press |date=July 5, 1979 |page=43|via = Newspapers.com}} She appeared on the Broadway stage as a child in The School Girl (1904).{{cite web |title=Dorothy Dunbar |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/dorothy-dunbar-38670 |website=Internet Broadway Database |publisher=The Broadway League |access-date=October 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201115100135/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/dorothy-dunbar-38670 |archive-date=November 15, 2020}}

Career

File:Amateur Gentleman lobby card.jpg (1926)]]

In 1924, Dunbar went to Hollywood, where she made her film debut in the Western The Flaming Crisis (1924). She starred in several motion pictures, including her role as the heroine in The Amateur Gentleman (1926) opposite Richard Barthelmess, which attracted considerable attention for her.

While Dunbar was under contract to Film Booking Offices of America for $150 per week, she was the fourth actress who played Jane, starring in the 1927 version of the Tarzan story, Tarzan and the Golden Lion, opposite James Pierce, who played the title role.

Dunbar rejected a contract offer from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that would have had her in the lead female role opposite John Gilbert, opting to seek a long-term contract with a new British film company. However, that company's studio burned down and was not re-opened.

Dunbar retired before sound films came into being after working in Westerns for poverty row studios.{{cite web |title=Dorothy Dunbar |url=https://www.allmovie.com/artist/dorothy-dunbar-p20521 |website=AllMovie |access-date=October 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211027002515/https://www.allmovie.com/artist/dorothy-dunbar-p20521 |archive-date=October 27, 2021}}

Personal life and death

Dunbar left the movies upon marrying her second husband, wealthy Minneapolis society man Thomas Bucklin Wells, II, who apparently acted in one movie himself, Ain't Love Funny? released in 1927 by Film Booking Offices of America (FBO).

Dunbar's husbands included theatrical producer Maurice (divorced){{Citation needed |date=October 2021}}; Thomas Wells (married October 1926-his death); French Embassy attache Jaime De Garson (divorced 1931); boxer and actor Max Baer{{cite journal |title=Max Goes Hollywood |journal=Hollywood |date=January 1934 |volume=23 |issue=1 |page=50 |url=https://archive.org/details/hollywood23holl/page/n55/mode/1up?view=theater |access-date=October 25, 2021}} (married July 8, 1931{{cite news |title=Max Baer weds in Reno |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1931/07/09/archives/max-baer-weds-in-reno-former-dorothy-dunbar-is-bride-of-young.html |access-date=October 25, 2021 |work=The New York Times |agency=Associated Press |date=July 9, 1931 |page=6|url-access=subscription}}-divorced 1933); portrait painter Tino Costa (married 1936 -annulled 1937); and Russell Lawson.

She and Lawson had two sons, Richard and Russell.

When Dunbar was preparing to divorce Tommy Wells, she received a cable from him to come to Paris, where he was dying. She rushed to his bedside in the French capital and forgave him. He died in her arms, having succumbed to drug addiction. She received a $2,500 monthly income from his estate. She divorced De Garson, whom she married in London, to marry Baer.

She later styled herself as Dorothy Dunbar Wells. In 1936, she completed a book of poetry, but had not found enough nerve to send it to a publisher. She had long decided movies were behind her.

Dunbar asked that her marriage to French husband Costa be annulled because he was "temperamental and cold." In December 1937, she sued family members of her former husband, Wells, seeking $270,000 in trusts from his estate, because she said they had misrepresented certain papers they gave her to sign after his death. They told her, she said, the documents were to make certain the trusts were held for her, but she learned later the papers were actually waivers of her interest in the trusts.

After marrying Lawson, her seventh husband, Dunbar went by the name Dorothy Wells Lawson. She played bridge and golf, and won some trophies.

On October 23, 1992, Dunbar died at age 90 in Seattle, Washington. Her memorial service was private by family.

Filmography

References

{{reflist}}

External links

{{commons category|Dorothy Dunbar}}

  • {{IMDb name|0241833}}
  • [http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/SearchResult.aspx?s=1&Type=PN&Tbl=&CatID=DATABIN_CAST&ID=40895&searchedFor=Dorothy_Dunbar_&SortType=ASC&SortCol=RELEASE_YEAR AFI Catalog Silent Films entry for Dorothy Dunbar]
  • {{IBDB name}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunbar, Dorothy}}

Category:American film actresses

Category:American stage actresses

Category:American silent film actresses

Category:1902 births

Category:1992 deaths

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:People from Cripple Creek, Colorado