Marion Davies

Acting

Born Jan 03, 1897

From Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Died Sep 22, 1961

From Wikipedia Marion Davies (January 3, 1897 – September 22, 1961) was an American film actress, producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist. Davies was already building a solid reputation as a film comedienne when newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, with whom she had begun a romantic relationship, took over management of her career. Hearst financed Davies' pictures, promoted her heavily through his newspapers and Hearst Newsreels, and pressured studios to cast her in historical dramas for which she was ill-suited. For this reason, Davies is better remembered today as Hearst's mistress and the hostess of many lavish events for the Hollywood elite. In particular, her name is linked with the 1924 scandal aboard Hearst's yacht where one of his guests, film producer Thomas Ince, became ill. Despite the legend surrounding Ince's death, likely from alcohol consumption, he did not die on the Hearst yacht. The producer died a few days later in the arms of his wife. In the film Citizen Kane (1941), the title character's wife—an untalented singer whom he tries to promote—was widely assumed to be based on Davies. But many commentators, including Citizen Kane writer/director Orson Welles himself, have defended Davies' record as a gifted actress, to whom Hearst's patronage did more harm than good. She retired from the screen in 1937, choosing to devote herself to Hearst and charitable work. In Hearst's declining years, Davies provided financial as well as emotional support until his death in 1951. She married for the first time eleven weeks after his death, a marriage which lasted until Davies died of stomach cancer in 1961 at the age of 64.

Marion Davies

Known For

Operator 13

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

The Pilgrim

Hollywood: The Dream Factory

Show People

The Hollywood Revue of 1929

Blondie of the Follies

Page Miss Glory

A Dream Comes True

Five and Ten

Filmography — Acting

Operator 13

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

The Pilgrim

Hollywood: The Dream Factory

Show People

The Hollywood Revue of 1929

Blondie of the Follies

Page Miss Glory

A Dream Comes True

Five and Ten

Pirate Party on Catalina Isle

That's Entertainment! III

It's a Wise Child

The Battle Over Citizen Kane

The Patsy

Hearts Divided

The Big Parade of Comedy

The Florodora Girl

Checking Out: Grand Hotel

Cain and Mabel

Lights of Old Broadway

Captured on Film: The True Story of Marion Davies

The Bride's Play

When Knighthood Was in Flower

A Trip to Paramountown

Enchantment

Zander the Great

The Fair Co-Ed

Marianne

Quality Street

Getting Mary Married

Peg o' My Heart

Going Hollywood

Polly of the Circus

Hedda Hopper's Hollywood

Tillie the Toiler

Ever Since Eve

Yolanda

The Restless Sex

The Bachelor Father

The Wife of the Centaur

The Red Mill

Beauty's Worth

The Burden of Proof

The Christmas Party

Murders of Hollywood

April Folly

Runaway Romany

Adam and Eva

Buried Treasure

Janice Meredith

Behind the Scenes of Cain and Mabel

Not So Dumb

Citizen Hearst

Screen Snapshots, Series 3, No. 12

The Cardboard Lover

Little Old New York

Beverly of Graustark

The Cinema Murder

The Dark Star

The Young Diana

Cecilia of the Pink Roses

The Casting Couch

The Belle of New York

Filmography — Crew

Show People

Blondie of the Follies