1909-2004
Born Frances Marion Dee, in Los Angeles, she was literally named after her father who was stationed in LA in the military; her nickname was "Frankie Dee." She may have been born in the city where the motion picture industry was migrating from New Jersey to, but she actually grew up in Chicago. After her sophomore year of college, she, her mother, and her older sister took a summer vacation back out to Los Angeles. There, just a lark, she started working in movies as an extra, with no serious plans to become a real actress. Her only credit in the 1920's came in 1929, in Words and Music, it was a musical with two versions, one fully in mono and another that was entirely silent (not sure how you pull off a silent musical--I'd love to see it, but unfortunately, I can't, because it is yet another lost film!). She caught the bug and acted in films up to the year 1954, the year she quit acting to raise a family (she had three sons). She passed away in Norwalk Connecticut on 6 March 2004 at the age of 94. She was cremated and her ashes were scattered at sea.
No comments:
Post a Comment