Dorothy Dandridge

Halle Berry played Dandridge in the made for TV movie, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999). But as a young actress she had specialised in straight female-leads in musical comedies, where the cardinal rule was to make space for the featured comedian. Perhaps the joke was not entirely on her. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6719 Hollywood Blvd. In her interviews and press profiles she preserved the myth of her on-screen character - the rich, regal woman who never quite understood the joke - and claimed she had returned reluctantly to acting as a result of widowhood. She is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, in Glendale, California. She also played some dramatic parts. Modern analysts believe that she may have suffered from manic depression. Fields (in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break), Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, Jack Benny and Danny Kaye.

In 1965, Dandridge was found dead in her home of an overdose of Imipramine, a tricyclic antidepressant. She also played the same type with W.C. In 1957 she made Island in the Sun and in 1959 Porgy and Bess. Her last movie was What a Way to Go! in 1964, in which she played Shirley MacLaine's mother. Despite the nomination, she had to go to Italy to make her next movie, Tamango, in 1956. Her first feature film was the Marx Brothers movie The Cocoanuts in 1929 in which she played Mrs Potter, the same role she played in the stage version from which the film was adapted. For this performance, she received an Academy Award nomination. Over the course of her lifetime she played in 40 movies, not including some minor silent work.

In 1954, Dandridge was cast in Carmen Jones, the remake of the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet. Groucho once said a lot of people believed they were married in real life, but they were not. During this period, she starred in several "soundies", video films designed to be displayed on juke boxes, including Paper Doll by the Mills Brothers and Cow Cow Boogie. They include Mrs Rittenhouse in Animal Crackers, Mrs Claypool in A Night at the Opera, Mrs Gloria Teasdale in Duck Soup, Martha Phelps in The Big Store, Mrs Susan Dewkesbury in At the Circus, and Emily Upjohn in A Day at the Races. All of her early roles were stereotypical parts for African American actresses, but her singing ability brought her popularity in nightclubs around the country. Dumont played wealthy high-society widows whom Groucho alternately insulted and romanced for their money. She did not receive another role until 1940, when she appeared in Four Shall Die. (There were in fact five Marx brothers, but only a maximum of four ever performed together.).

Her first on-screen appearance was as an extra in a 1935 Our Gang short, Teacher's Beau. Dorothy first important role was a small part in the Marx Brothers' A Day at the Races in 1937. Groucho called her practically the fifth Marx brother. Dandridge began singing in her church's choir and, with the prodding of her mother, moved to Hollywood. Margaret Dumont was the stage-name of American comic actor Daisy Juliette Baker (October 20, 1889 - March 6, 1965), remembered mostly for being the comic foil to Groucho Marx in seven of the Marx Brothers movies. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, she was the first African American to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Dorothy Jean Dandridge (November 9, 1922 - September 8, 1965) was an American actress.