Family
Wellman married four times:
- Helene Chadwick: married (1918–1923) separated after a month; later divorced
- Margery Chapin (daughter of Frederic Chapin): married (1925–1926); together for a short time; adopted Robert Emmett Tansey's daughter, Gloria.
- Marjorie Crawford: married (1931–1933) divorced
- Dorothy Coonan: married (March 20, 1934–1975); until his death; they had seven children - four daughters, three sons.
Dorothy starred in Wellman's 1933 film Wild Boys of The Road and had seven children with Wellman, including actors Michael Wellman, William Wellman Jr., Maggie Wellman, and Cissy Wellman. His daughter Kathleen "Kitty" Wellman married actor James Franciscus, although they later divorced. His first daughter is Patty Wellman, and he had a third son, Tim Wellman.
His son William Jr. wrote a book about Wellman, The Man And His Wings: William A. Wellman and the Making of the First Best Picture, and has appeared a number of times on Turner Classic Movies to introduce films made by his father.
William Wellman died in 1975 of leukemia. He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at sea. His widow, Dorothy Wellman, died on September 16, 2009, in Brentwood, California, at the age of 95.
Read more about this topic: William A. Wellman
Famous quotes containing the word family:
“A real hangover is nothing to try out family remedies on. The only cure for a real hangover is death.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“Our civility, England determines the style of, inasmuch as England is the strongest of the family of existing nations, and as we are the expansion of that people. It is that of a trading nation; it is a shopkeeping civility. The English lord is a retired shopkeeper, and has the prejudices and timidities of that profession.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“No wealth can buy the requisite leisure, freedom, and independence which are the capital in this profession. It comes only by the grace of God. It requires a direct dispensation from Heaven to become a walker. You must be born into the family of the Walkers. Ambulator nascitur, non fit.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)