Dorothy Mackaill
Dorothy Mackaill (
March 4,
1903 -
August 12,
1990) was an
British-born
American actress, most notably of the
silent film era and into the early 1930s.
Born in
Hull, England, Dorothy Mackaill lived with her father after her parents separated when she was eleven. As a teenager, Mackaill ran away to
London to pursue a stage career as an actress. After temporarily relocating to
Paris, France she met a
Broadway stage choreography who persuaded her to move to
New York City where she became involved in the
Ziegfeld Follies where she befriended future motion picture actresses
Marion Davies and
Nita Naldi.
By 1920, Mackaill had begun making the transition from "Follie girl" to motion picture actress and that year appeared in her first film, the
Wilfred Noy directed mystery
The Face at the Window. MacKaill also appeared in several comedies of 1920 opposite actor Johnny Hines. In 1921 she appeared opposite
Anna May Wong,
Noah Beery, and
Lon Chaney in the
Marshall Neilan directed drama
Bits of Life. In the following years, Mackaill would appear opposite such popular actors as
Richard Barthelmess,
Rod La Rocque,
Colleen Moore,
John Barrymore,
George O'Brien,
Bebe Daniels,
Milton Sills and
Anna Q. Nilsson.
In 1924, Mackaill rose to leading lady status in the drama
The Man Who Came Back, opposite rugged matinee idol
George O'Brien. Her role of the nightclub chanteuse Marcelle catapulted Mackaill into a genuine
Hollywood star and her career continued to flourish throughout the remainder of the 1920s. That same year she was awarded the
WAMPAS Baby Stars award by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers in the United States, which honored thirteen young women each year who they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom.
In 1926 Mackaill married the successful film director
Lothar Mendes, but the union only lasted for two years before ending in divorce. She would marry two more times: from 1931 to 1934 to Neil Miller, and from 1934 to 1938 to Harold Patterson, both of which marriages also ended in divorce.
The motion industry upheaval during the new
talkie era of the late 1920s and early 1930s left Makaill in a similar situation of many of her silent film contemporaries; Mackaill was quickly passed over by studio executives in favor of newer talent in hopes of luring the American public back to the theaters as the United States sank into the
Great Depression. Mackaill's film contract at
First National Pictures was not renewed upon its expiration in 1931 and Mackaill became a free agent actress. Her most memorable role of this era was the 1932 Columbia Pictures release
Love Affair with a young
Humphrey Bogart as her leading man. She made several films for
MGM,
Paramount and
Columbia before retiring in 1937 for many years from the industry to care for her aging mother.
Dorothy Mackaill occasionally came out of retirement to appear in roles for television, notably in several episodes of the 1960's and 1970s series
Hawaii 5-0, which was filmed on location where Mackaill had lived for several decades.
Dorothy Mackaill died of
kidney failure in
Honolulu, Hawaii in 1990 at the age of 87. She was cremated and her ashes were scattered at sea off of
Waikiki Beach.
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Dorothy Mackaill at Silent Ladies & Gents
