Lili Damita

Lili Damita died of Alzheimer's disease in Palm Beach, Florida and was interred in the Oakland Cemetery in Fort Dodge, Iowa. She died from lymphedema in Los Angeles, California. During the Vietnam Conflict, her son Sean Flynn was working as a freelance photo journalist under contract to Time Magazine when he and fellow journalist Dana Stone went missing on the road south of Phnom Penh, Cambodia on April 6, 1970. Although Lili Damita spent an enormous amount of money searching for her son, he was never found and in 1984 was declared legally dead. Although regarded as a capable and popular film actress, it was for her contributions to television that Dru was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Following the marriage, she gave up her film career, taking up residence in Palm Beach, Florida. The couple divorced in 1942 and Damita eventually married Albert Loomis, a Fort Dodge, Iowa dairy owner. Her film career began to fade by the end of the 1950s but she continued working frequently in television. Divorced from Curtiz, in 1935 she married a virtual unknown who would become Hollywood's biggest box office attraction, Errol Flynn with whom she had a son, Sean born in 1941. She later lamented that she had been typecast in western films, commenting that once an actress became typecast, that was the end, and adding that she had never liked horses.

In 1929, she went to Hollywood, making her American debut in a film titled "The Rescue." Soon, she was an important star at Warner Brothers Studios, appearing with rising male stars such as Gary Cooper and James Cagney. She also gave a well received performance in the drama film All the King's Men (1949). She became the second wife of Hungarian born film director Michael Curtiz after appearing in three of his Austrian made films. Over the next decade she appeared frequently in films, most often cast in westerns such as the John Wayne films Red River (1948) and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949). Offered a role in film, in 1921 she appeared in her first French made silent film before going on to perform in films in Britain, Austria, and Germany. Dru was spotted by a talent scout and made her first film appearance in Abie's Irish Rose in 1946. Born Liliane-Marie-Madeleine Carré in Bordeaux, France, by age 16 she was performing in popular music-halls, eventually starring in the Revue at the Casino de Paris. During this time Dru met and married the popular singer Dick Haymes and when they moved to Hollywood she found work in theater.

Lili Damita (July 19, 1901 – March 21, 1994) was an actress. Born Joanne Letitia LaCock in Logan, West Virginia, Dru came to New York City in 1940, and after finding employment as a model, was chosen by Al Jolson to appear in the cast of his Broadway show Hold Onto Your Hats. Joanne Dru (January 31, 1922 – September 10, 1996) was an American film actress.