Marion Davies

Acting Jan 3, 1897 Sep 22, 1961 (aged 64) Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

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.

64 Acting Credits

16 Crew Credits

Marion Davies

Acting

The Pilgrim

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

Show People

That's Entertainment! III

The Hollywood Revue of 1929

The Battle Over Citizen Kane

The Patsy

Operator 13

The Red Mill

Beverly of Graustark

Going Hollywood

Cain and Mabel

Five and Ten

Ever Since Eve

Beauty's Worth

Little Old New York

The Bride's Play

When Knighthood Was in Flower

Blondie of the Follies

Polly of the Circus

Marianne

Quality Street

Pirate Party on Catalina Isle

Not So Dumb

Crew

Show People

The Patsy

Blondie of the Follies

Quality Street

Not So Dumb

The Bachelor Father

Getting Mary Married

Page Miss Glory

The Cardboard Lover

Hearts Divided

April Folly

It's a Wise Child