Marion Davies |
Marion Cecilia Davies (born Marion Cecilia Elizabeth Brooklyn Douras;[1] January 3, 1897 – September 22, 1961) was an American film actress, producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist. Davies appeared in several Broadway musicals and one film, Runaway Romany (1917), and then became the mistress of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. He then took over management of her career. Hearst financed Davies' pictures and promoted her heavily through his newspapers and Hearst Newsreels. He founded Cosmopolitan Pictures to produce her films. Hearst preferred to see her in historical dramas, but her real talent was in comedy. Today Davies is remembered mainly as Hearst's mistress until his death, and as the hostess of many lavish events for the Hollywood elite. In particular, her name is linked with the 1924 scandal aboard Hearst's yacht when one of his guests, film producer Thomas Ince, died. In the film Citizen Kane (1941), the title character's second wife—an untalented singer whom he tries to promote—was widely assumed to be based on Davies. But many commentators, including Citizen Kane writer/director Orson Welles himself, have defended Davies' record as a gifted actress, to whom Hearst's patronage did more harm than good. She retired from the screen in 1937, choosing to devote herself to Hearst and charitable work. In Hearst's declining years, Davies provided financial as well as emotional support until his death in 1951. She married for the first time eleven weeks after his death, a marriage which lasted until Davies died from complications due to malignant osteomyelitis (cancer of the jaw) [2] in 1961 at the age of 64. Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Early career 2.2 Hearst and Cosmopolitan Pictures 2.3 Sound films 3 Critical reassessment 4 Personal life 4.1 Relationship with William Randolph Hearst 4.2 Patricia Lake 4.3 Ince scandal 4.4 Marriage 5 Later years 6 Death 7 Cultural references 7.1 Portrayals of Davies 8 Filmography 9 See also 10 References 11 External links Early life Marion Cecilia Elizabeth Brooklyn Douras was born on January 3, 1897, in Brooklyn, the youngest of five children born to Bernard J. Douras (1857–1935), a lawyer and judge in New York City; and Rose Reilly (1867–1928).[3] Her father performed the civil marriage of Gloria Gould Bishop.[4] She had three older sisters, Ethel, Rose, and Reine.[5] An older brother, Charles, drowned at the age of 15 in 1906. His name was subsequently given to Davies' favorite nephew, screenwriter Charles Lederer, the son of Davies' sister Reine Davies.
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