Dorothy Patrick - Career

Career

During her early career she was billed under her birth name, Dorothea Davis until she married New York Rangers hockey star, Lynn Patrick, and became Dorothy Patrick. Though she had one son in the marriage, the aspiring actress remained career-bound, not ready to co-star as a house-frau.

While appearing at dinner-club showcases in Jersey City, Patrick won Samuel Goldwyn's talent-search contest, MGM's coveted, "Gateway to Hollywood." With a movie contract in hand, she moved to Hollywood with her mother and young son to live in Culver City and work at nearby MGM studios. The "Star System" cultivated in the era saw Dorothy training at the studio's repertory workshop along with stars like Judy Garland as one of the students. Dorothy first appeared as a Goldwyn Girl in Up in Arms starring Danny Kaye (1944). Her most noted MGM appearance was opposite Robert Walker in the Jerome Kern musical showcase and Technicolor dazzler, Till the Clouds Roll By (1946).

As a "Queen of the Bs," she continued to appear in films produced in the 1940s and 1950s including, High Wall (1947) with Robert Taylor; New Orleans (1947) with Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday (the only film-record of Holiday singing); The Mighty McGurk (1947) with Wallace Beery; Follow Me Quietly (1949) with William Lundingan; the Fritz Lang-directed noir classic, House by the River (1950).

In the early days of Hollywood television, Patrick made guest appearances on the locally-produced TV show, Mike Stokey's Pantomime Quiz. The Korean War-era saw her at celebrity appearances for USO and was Miss Naval Air Force Recruiting 1951. At Columbia, Patrick co-starred with Preston Foster and Wayne Morris in the oil wild-catting yarn, The Big Gusher (1951); in the modern-day western, Outlaw Stallion (1954) opposite Billy Gray with Phil (Philip) Carey.

Dorothy co-starred or was supporting actress in a series of Republic programmers. The studio was best known releasing Saturday Matinee serials, westerns, mysteries and crime dramas. Republic films include 711 Ocean Drive (1950) with Edmond O'Brien, Joanne Dru and Otto Kruger (caps with a slam-bang gun-chase scene at Hoover Dam); the "true life" crime drama, Lonely Hearts Bandits (1950) with John Eldredge; genre westerns, Thunder Pass (1954) with Dane Clark, John Carradine and Andy Devine; "Gringos go south-of-the-border" comedy, Belle of Old Mexico (1950) with Latina comedienne, Estelita Rodriguez, and Robert Rockwell, Florence Bates.

A "trouper" in the world of Hollywood actress-survivors, in her working career, besides acting in co-starring or supporting roles in film and television, for several summer seasons Dorothy was also seen on stage at the La Jolla Playhouse: One summer appearing opposite Howard Duff in "Anniversary Waltz" another as "Mrs. Miniver." Work in roles didn't exclude mentionable decorative walk-ons in noted productions, The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) and Singin' in the Rain (1952).

Her last movies were in 1955 as Dorothy Davis Patrick at 20th Century Fox: Violent Saturday (1955) as the wife of Victor Mature and The View from Pompey's Head (1955) with Richard Egan and Dana Wynter. That same year saw Dorothy take a hiatus from Hollywood to raise her two adolescent sons back East in Short Hills, a New Jersey suburb of New York City. There she was also able to keep abreast of the New York Broadway scene as well as the local "off-Broadway" venue, The Papermill Playhouse in Short Hills. She was then in her third marriage and to film producer and former Foote, Cone and Belding Chicago advertising executive-VP, Hugh Davis. Returning to Hollywood in 1961 and up for a few parts on television she found her creative niche appearing with the Leonovich Theatre in West Hollywood for several seasons while a Real Estate agent in Beverly Hills. A working, lifelong SAG (Screen Actors Guild) actress, Dorothy appeared in more than 35 motion picture films and television productions.