bibliography
NNDB
This is a beta version of NNDB
Search: for

Dorothy Malone

Dorothy MaloneAKA Dorothy Eloise Maloney

Born: 30-Jan-1925
Birthplace: Chicago, IL
Died: 19-Jan-2018
Location of death: Dallas, TX
Cause of death: unspecified
Remains: Interred, Calvary Hill Cemetery and Mausoleum, Dallas, TX

Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Written on the Wind

She was Dorothy Maloney, 17-year-old college girl with a supporting role in a school play, when she was spotted by an RKO talent scout. Invited to a screen test in Los Angeles, she came to California for what she told herself was "a vacation with pay" in 1942, and made her film debut with an uncredited, non-speaking role in the low-budget The Man Who Wouldn't Die.

She had unnoticed roles in a dozen films before she played the lusty, bespectacled shopkeeper in The Big Sleep, who closed the bookstore early in hopes of a tryst with Humphrey Bogart. She later played the good girl in Roger Corman's early hit The Fast and the Furious. A natural brunette, she died her hair blonde for Young at Heart, and as a blonde she got so many good reviews she dyed her hair for the rest of her career, and began getting better parts in bigger pictures.

Known as something of a Hollywood lush, she was reportedly drunk the day she filmed her famous drunk scene for Written on the Wind in 1956. She won the Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for that film, as the spoiled oil heiress and nymphomaniac lusting after Rock Hudson, but settling for local town boys. Her other great films include Man of a Thousand Faces and The Tarnished Angels. In Tarnished, she memorably descended from the sky in a parachute, with the camera below and the wind blowing her skirt up.

On the mid-1960s prime time soap Peyton Place, Malone starred as the tight-sweatered big-bosomed Constance Carson, the role Lana Turner created in the 1957 film. Malone was fired after the program's fourth season, and sued the producers for breach of contract. The lawsuit was settled out of court under terms of secrecy, and in her absence Peyton Place came to a quick end.

In her more elderly roles, she played a loony lady who killed her dog in the bizarre conspiracy thriller Winter Kills, and she was married to Van Johnson in the epic miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man. In her last role, she played a retired axe murderer in the 1992 erotic thriller Basic Instinct.

Father: Robert Ignatius Maloney (b. 1895, d. 1985)
Boyfriend: Esther Emma Smith (b. 1902, d. 1983)
Boyfriend: Scott Brady (actor, b. 1924, dated 1951, d. 1985, emphysema)
Boyfriend: Liberace (pianist, dated 1955)
Boyfriend: Rock Hudson (actor, dated in 1950s)
Boyfriend: Robert Evans (producer, dated mid-1950s)
Boyfriend: Frank Sinatra (singer, dated in late 1950s)
Boyfriend: Adlai Stevenson (politician, dated in late 1950s)
Husband: Jacques Bergerac (French actor, m. 28-Jun-1959, div. 8-Dec-1964, two daughters)
Daughter: Mimi Bergerac (resort owner, b. 3-Apr-1960)
Daughter: Diane Bergerac (b. 20-Feb-1962)
Husband: Robert Tomarkin (business executive, m. Apr-1969, annulled after four weeks)
Husband: Charles Huston Bell (hotel executive, m. 2-Oct-1971, div. 1974)

    University: Southern Methodist University (dropped out)

    Oscar for Best Supporting Actress 1957 for Written on the Wind
    Hollywood Walk of Fame 1718 Vine St.

    TELEVISION
    Peyton Place Constance MacKenzie Carson (1964-68)

    FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
    Basic Instinct (20-Mar-1992) · Hazel Dobkins
    The Being (18-Nov-1983)
    The Day Time Ended (Nov-1980)
    Winter Kills (11-May-1979)
    Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff (1979)
    Katie: Portrait of a Centerfold (23-Oct-1978)
    Golden Rendezvous (25-Dec-1977)
    Rich Man, Poor Man (1-Feb-1976)
    Abduction (24-Oct-1975)
    Beach Party (14-Jul-1963) · Marianne
    The Last Sunset (7-Jun-1961) · Belle Breckenridge
    The Last Voyage (19-Feb-1960) · Laurie Henderson
    Warlock (1-Apr-1959)
    Too Much, Too Soon (17-Apr-1958) · Diana Barrymore
    The Tarnished Angels (6-Jan-1958)
    Tip on a Dead Jockey (6-Sep-1957)
    Man of a Thousand Faces (13-Aug-1957) · Cleva Creighton Chaney
    Quantez (7-Jun-1957) · Chaney
    Written on the Wind (Dec-1956) · Marylee Hadley
    Pillars of the Sky (5-Oct-1956) · Calla Gaxton
    Tension at Table Rock (3-Oct-1956) · Lorna Miller
    At Gunpoint (25-Dec-1955)
    Artists and Models (7-Nov-1955)
    Sincerely Yours (1-Nov-1955) · Linda Curtis
    Tall Man Riding (18-Jun-1955) · Corinna Ordway
    Five Guns West (18-Apr-1955)
    The Fast and the Furious (15-Feb-1955) · Connie Adair
    Battle Cry (2-Feb-1955) · Mrs. Elaine Yarborough
    Young at Heart (Dec-1954)
    Private Hell 36 (3-Sep-1954)
    Pushover (30-Jul-1954)
    The Lone Gun (25-Apr-1954) · Charlotte Downing
    Loophole (28-Mar-1954)
    Jack Slade (8-Nov-1953)
    Law and Order (May-1953)
    Scared Stiff (27-Apr-1953)
    Torpedo Alley (25-Jan-1953)
    The Bushwhackers (8-Jan-1952) · Cathy Sharpe
    Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone (8-Dec-1950)
    The Killer That Stalked New York (1-Dec-1950) · Alice Lorie
    Convicted (Aug-1950)
    The Nevadan (11-Jan-1950) · Karen Galt
    Colorado Territory (11-Jun-1949) · Julie Ann Winslow
    South of St. Louis (6-Mar-1949)
    Flaxy Martin (15-Feb-1949) · Nora Carson
    One Sunday Afternoon (25-Dec-1948) · Amy Lind
    Two Guys from Texas (27-Aug-1948)
    To the Victor (5-Apr-1948)
    The Big Sleep (23-Aug-1946) · Bookstore Owner
    Night and Day (2-Jul-1946) · Nancy
    Janie Gets Married (14-Jun-1946) · Sgt. Spud Lee


New!
NNDB MAPPER
Create a map starting with Dorothy Malone
Requires Flash 7+ and Javascript.

Do you know something we don't?
Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile



Copyright ©2019 Soylent Communications