Dorothy Sebastian

Sebastian was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, the daughter of Lycurgus (Lawrence) Robert and Stella Armstrong Sabiston.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Dorothy Sebastian |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Alabama |publisher=Alabama Humanities Alliance |location=Auburn, Alabama |url=http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-3694 |last=Fair |first=John D. |date=2021-03-22 |language=en}} In her early years she aspired to be a missionary, as her grandparents were missionaries. She would be taken to a theater during this time and would change her aspirations to be an actress.{{Cite web |title=Sebastian, Dorothy |url=https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/dorothy-sebastian/ |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=Encyclopedia of Alabama |language=en-US}} She would attend the University of Alabama but only for a short while. She then would marry her "High school Sweetheart" some time in 1920. She would live with Allen Stafford in Birmingham and would help operate the Stafford's laundry store. Her marriage would come to an end in 1924 and she would leave for New York sometime after.

After leaving Alabama and starting a career on the stage, she changed the spelling of her name to Sebastian.{{cite web|last1=Gwaltney|first1=Caroline|title=You Ought to Be in Pictures|url=https://alumni.ua.edu/blog/magazine_stories/you-ought-to-be-in-pictures/|website=National Alumni Association|publisher=The University of Alabama|accessdate=16 June 2021}} Upon her arrival in New York City, Sebastian's southern drawl was thick enough to "cut with a knife".{{cite news|title=Dorothy Is Gate Crasher|date=1926-10-04|work=Los Angeles Times|page=C20}} She followed around theatrical agents before returning at night to a $12-a-month room, after being consistently rejected.{{Cite web |title=Dorothy Sebastian Goes to Hollywood |url=https://www.dorothysebastian.com/newyorkcity.html |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=www.dorothysebastian.com}}

Her first break would be securing a role in George White's Scandals.{{cite news|title=A Rising Star of Films|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14067400/dorothy_sebastian/|work=Morning Register|date=September 6, 1925|location=Oregon, Eugene|page=10|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = September 28, 2017}} {{Open access}} as a chorus girl. She would then meet Max Aitken, otherwise known as Lord Beaverbrook. Through this connection she would score a screen test with Henry King. She would successfully acquire a lead role in the movie Sackloth and Scarlet, making this the first film she would star in. This role would get her a five year contract with MGM where she co-starred with Joan Crawford and Anita Page in a popular series of MGM romantic dramas, including Our Dancing Daughters (1928) and Our Blushing Brides (1930). Sebastian appeared in 1929's Spite Marriage, where she was cast opposite the then-married Buster Keaton, with whom she began an affair.

MGM released Sebastian in 1930; her last film for the studio was a short subject starring the young Jack Benny. Harry Cohn of then-low-budgeted Columbia Pictures seized on Sebastian's availability by signing her to a Columbia contract; Cohn welcomed any former MGM players for their name value. Columbia released Sebastian after one year and she began freelancing, mostly at low-budget independent studios. Her most familiar appearance in sound films is probably in Allez Oop (1934), a short comedy produced by Educational Pictures that reunited her with Buster Keaton.{{Citation needed |date=September 2023}}

In 1930 Sebastian married outdoor-adventure star William Boyd (the future Hopalong Cassidy). After their 1936 divorce, she returned to acting, appearing in mostly bit parts. Her last onscreen appearance was in the 1948 film The Miracle of the Bells.{{Citation needed |date=September 2023}}

Sebastian co-wrote the ballad "The Leaves Mustn't Fall" with Jack Kenney.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oFghAQAAIAAJ&q=Sebastian%2520%2522The%2520Leaves%2520Mustn%27t%2520Fall%2522&pg=PA525 |title=Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third series |date=1951 |publisher=The Library of Congress |pages=525 |language=en}}

File:William Boyd and Dorothy Sebastian.jpg

While still in Birmingham, Sebastian married her high-school sweetheart, Allen Stafford, on November 9, 1920. The marriage ended four years later just before she moved to New York.{{Citation needed |date=September 2023}}

Sebastian married actor William Boyd in December 1930 in Las Vegas, Nevada. They began a relationship after meeting on the set of His First Command in 1929.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=C5RQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=tSEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6261,826834&dq=dorothy+sebastian+william+boyd+vegas&hl=en|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130124142019/http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=C5RQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=tSEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6261,826834&dq=dorothy+sebastian+william+boyd+vegas&hl=en|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 24, 2013|title=Hollywood In Person|last=Merrick|first=Molly|date=1930-12-30|work=The Milwaukee Journal|accessdate=19 November 2012}} They divorced in 1936.{{cite news |agency=Associated Press |title=Divorces William Boyd |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B05E7D8103FEE3BBC4850DFB366838D629EDE&legacy=true |newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 30, 1936 }}

In 1947, Sebastian married Miami Beach businessman Harold Shapiro, to whom she remained married until her death.{{cite book|last=Brettell|first=Andrew|author2=King, Noel |author3=Kennedy, Damien |author4= Imwold, Denise |others=Leonard, Warren Hsu; von Rohr, Heather|title=Cut!: Hollywood Murders, Accidents, and Other Tragedies|publisher=Barrons Educational Series|year=2005|pages=179|isbn=0-7641-5858-9}}

On November 7, 1938, Sebastian was found guilty of drunk driving in a Beverly Hills, California Justice Court. The night she was arrested, she had been dining at Buster Keaton's home with her nephew. She was given a 30-day suspended jail sentence and paid a fine of $75.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=fqxfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=wDIMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1394,2835959&dq=dorothy+sebastian+drunk+driving&hl=en|title=Actress Found Guilty Of Driving While Intoxicated|date=1968-11-08|work=Lewiston Morning Tribune|page=3|accessdate=19 November 2012}}

In 1940, Sebastian was denied an award of $10,000 from a San Diego court. She had appeared at a Red Cross benefit in San Francisco in 1937, and failed to pay her hotel bill. She contended the promoter for the event should have paid the bill. An employee of the Plaza Hotel took out the suit, charging "defrauding an innkeeper." The State Supreme Court of California reversed the lower court's decision, which had awarded her the money on grounds of malicious prosecution.{{cite news|title=High Court Rules Against Actress|date=1940-05-28|work=Los Angeles Times|page=9}}

On April 8, 1957, Sebastian died of cancer at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. She was several weeks shy of her 54th birthday. She is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California.{{Citation needed |date=September 2023}}

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Sebastian has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6655 Hollywood Boulevard. It was dedicated on February 8, 1960.{{cite web|title=Dorothy Sebastian|url=http://www.walkoffame.com/dorothy-sebastian|website=Hollywood Walk of Fame|accessdate=September 29, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170929005808/http://www.walkoffame.com/dorothy-sebastian|archive-date=September 29, 2017}}

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• Los Angeles Times, "Alabama Steps To Top", August 10, 1930, Page B16.
• Oakland Tribune, "Kin of Actress Burns To Death", May 14, 1938, Page 1.

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• {{IBDB name}}
• {{IMDb name|0780941}}
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• [http://dorothysebastian.com/ DorothySebastian.com]
• [http://www.virtual-history.com/movie/person/911/dorothy-sebastian Dorothy Sebastian] at Virtual History

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Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:American film actresses

Category:American silent film actresses

Category:American stage actresses

Category:Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City

Category:Deaths from cancer in California

Category:Actresses from Birmingham, Alabama

Category:1903 births

Category:1957 deaths