Dorothy Burgess

Dorothy Burgess (March 4, 1907 – August 20, 1961) was an American stage and motion-picture actress.
Family, education
Born in Los Angeles in 1907, Burgess was a niece of Fay Bainter. On her father's side, she was related to David C. Montgomery of Montgomery and Stone. Her grandfather was Henry A. Burgess, Sr. He came to Los Angeles in 1893, establishing a business at Terminal Island. His home was at 637 West 41st Place. He was born in England. Her dad was H.A. (Burgie) Burgess, a pioneer air-transport executive. For a decade, he was an assistant to Harris M. (Pop) Hanshue, who founded Western Air Express (Western Airlines), and was its first president. Burgess studied drawing, painting, and sculpture at Mrs. Dow's School in Briarcliff Manor, New York. Her talent in the three artistic disciplines was evident in the creative objects that decorated her Hollywood apartment. Burgess and her mother, Grace, resided in a home in Malibu, California, in 1932.
Stage actress
Burgess made her stage debut in a walk-on role in support of her mother's sister, Bainter. She first came to light as a specialty dancer in The Music Box Revue. Burgess played a 17-year-old in the comedy, The Adorable Liar, which was staged at the 49th Street Theater in August 1926. It was her first appearance in New York City.
Her knowledge of the stage was proficient and she combined this with ample charm and attractiveness. Burgess was co-featured in a stock company managed by George Cukor and George H. Kondolf at the Lyceum Theatre in Rochester, New York, during the summer of 1928. Her co-star was Henry Hull. The actors opened on Broadway on April 30. She learned about being a character actor in stock, along with adapting her voice and mannerisms to each new role.
Burgess was on Broadway in The Squall and played the title role in Lulu Belle;.she was given star billing by David Belasco. The play was performed at the Belasco Theater in Los Angeles in October 1929. Burgess depicted a Mexican girl in The Broken Wing, a Paul Dickerson romantic comedy, staged at El Capitan Theater in Los Angeles, in July 1931. She was typecast as a Spanish woman so much that one reviewer commented that perhaps a Spanish onion or a Mexican chili pepper was in her family tree, but offstage, she was much more a typical American co-ed than the Carmenesque young ladies she often played. She made Hollywood her permanent home, living at 210 South Fuller Avenue.
Movie career
Fox Film acquired her services and she debuted in In Old Arizona (1928), the first of the outdoor talking films. Burgess portrayed the Mexican minx, who was desired by both Edmund Lowe and Warner Baxter. A reviewer noted that her voice was good. The first film made with the Movietone sound system, it was a romance of the old Southwest.
In May 1929, two large lamps mounted on a tripod toppled over on a sound stage where Burgess was working at the Fox Movietone Studio. She was cut severely over her left eye by one of the incandescent lamps. Burgess was rushed to a studio hospital, where several stitches were taken in her wound.
Burgess won the feminine lead in Beyond Victory (1931) after Ann Harding decided not to make the movie. The Pathé Pictures release featured William Boyd as the leading man. In December 1931 Burgess signed with First National Pictures for a significant role in Play Girl (1932), which had a screen story by Maude Fulton. The movie was produced by Warner Bros. and First National.
Burgess had a featured role as a romantic rival of Jean Harlow in Hold Your Man (1932), also starring Clark Gable. Burgess also appeared in Swing High (1930), Taxi! (1932), Ladies They Talk About (1933), Strictly Personal (1933), Headline Shooter (1933), Night Flight (1933), Black Moon (1934), and Miss Fane's Baby Is Stolen (1934). Burgess acted with Lowe and Nancy Carroll in the Paramount Pictures release, I Love That Man (1933), directed by Harry Joe Brown and produced by Charles R. Rogers. Burgess strained ligaments in her back and shoulders during filming at Universal Pictures studio in July 1933. She was performing fight scenes with Mary Carlisle and Sally O'Neil.
Burgess appeared with Richard Barthelmess and Jean Muir in A Modern Hero (1934), which deals with a young circus rider. Gambling (1934) starred George M. Cohan, and was produced by Harold B. Franklin at the Eastern Services Studios in Astoria, Queens. Burgess played the part of Dorothy Kane. Her role as Trixie in The Lone Star Ranger (1942) represented a return to playing a dance-hall girl, as she did in In Old Arizona. The film was produced by 20th Century-Fox.
Private life
Burgess became engaged to movie director Clarence Brown in 1932. She was involved in a romance with wealthy New York jeweler Jules Galenzer in 1934.
Manslaughter charge
Burgess was charged with manslaughter following an auto accident in which she was driving; 17-year-old Louise Manfredi died in the wreck, in San Francisco, on the night of December 23, 1932. Burgess, driving alone, collided with a car driven by 18-year-old Andrew Salz, a student at the University of California-Berkeley. Burgess's hearing was postponed and her bail was fixed at $50. She suffered from shock and was placed in a San Francisco sanitarium. Salz and Burgess each accused the other of responsibility for the accident.
Burgess was sued by Louise Manfredi's parents, Italo and Marie Manfredi, in January 1933. They sought $25,000 in damages. A compromise payment of $6,150 was approved by the San Francisco Superior Court in August 1933. Earlier, a compromise amounting to $6,000 was agreed upon for damages claimed by 18-year-old swimmer Betty Lou Davis, who was injured in the same accident.
Death
Dorothy Burgess was living in Palm Springs, California in May 1961 when she was hospitalized. On August 20, 1961, she died of lung cancer at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California. She was 54. Her remains are in vaultage at Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles.
Partial filmography
In Old Arizona (1928) as Tonia Maria
Protection (1929) as Myrtle Hines
Pleasure Crazed (1929) as Alma Dean
A Song of Kentucky (1929) as Nancy Morgan
Swing High (1930) as Trixie
Recaptured Love (1930) as Peggy Price
Oh! Oh! Cleopatra (1931, Short) as Cleopatra
Lasca of the Rio Grande (1931) as Lasca
Taxi! (1932) as Marie Costa
Play Girl (1932) as Edna
The Stoker (1932) as Margarita Valdez
Out of Singapore aka Gangsters on the Sea (1932) as Concha Renaldo
Malay Nights (1932) as Eve Blake
On Your Guard (1933) as 'Sissy' Shannon
Ladies They Talk About (1933) as 'Sister' Susie
What Price Decency (1933) as Norma
Strictly Personal (1933) as Bessie
Rusty Rides Alone (1933) as Mona Quillan
Hold Your Man (1933) as Gypsy Angecon
Easy Millions (1933)
It's Great to Be Alive (1933) as Al Moran
I Love That Man (1933) as Ethel or Giggles
The Important Witness (1933) as Ruth Dana
Headline Shooter (1933) as Ruby - Burnett's moll
Ladies Must Love (1933) as Peggy Burns
Night Flight or Dawn To Dark (1933) as Pellerin's Girlfriend
From Headquarters (1933) as Dolly White
Miss Fane's Baby Is Stolen (1934) as Dotty
Orient Express (1934) as Mable Express
Fashions of 1934 (1934) as Glenda
A Modern Hero (1934) as Hazel Flint Radier
Affairs of a Gentleman (1934) as Nan Fitzgerald
Black Moon (1934) as Juanita Perez Lane
The Circus Clown (1934) as Babe
Hat, Coat, and Glove (1934) as Ann Brewster
Friends of Mr. Sweeney (1934) as Millie Seagrove
Gambling (1934) as Dorothy Kane
Village Tale (1935) as Lulu Stevenson
Manhattan Butterfly (1935) as Another Singer
The Lady in Question (1940) as Antoinette (uncredited)
I Want a Divorce (1940) as 'Peppy' Gilman
Cadet Girl (1941) as Minor Role (uncredited)
Lady for a Night (1942) as Flo
Lone Star Ranger (1942) as Trixie
Man of Courage (1943) as Sally Dickson
Girls in Chains (1943) as Mrs. Peters
The West Side Kid (1943) as Toodles (final film role)
References
External links
1907 births
1961 deaths
Actresses from Los Angeles
American agnostics
American film actresses
American people convicted of manslaughter
American socialites
American stage actresses
Burials in Riverside County, California
20th-century deaths from tuberculosis
American Presbyterians
Western (genre) film actresses
20th-century American actresses
Tuberculosis deaths in California