Dorothy Davenport

Biography

Dorothy Davenport (March 13, 1895 – October 12, 1977) was an American actress, screenwriter, film director, and producer who appeared in silent film for Biograph Studios under the direction of D.W. Griffith. While filming on location in Oregon for The Valley of the Giants (1919), Wallace Reid was injured in a train wreck. As a remedy for the pain from this injury, studio doctors administered large doses of morphine to Reid to which he became addicted. Reid's health slowly grew worse over the next few years, and he died of the addiction in 1923. After Reid's death, Davenport and Thomas Ince co-produced the film Human Wreckage (1923) with James Kirkwood, Sr., Bessie Love and Lucille Ricksen, a film that dealt with the dangers of narcotics addiction. Davenport took Human Wreckage on a roadshow engagement, followed up with another "social conscience" picture about excessive mother-love called Broken Laws in 1924, again billed as "Mrs. Wallace Reid" to capitalize on her husband's notorious death. She then produced The Red Kimona (1925) about white slavery. On screen she opens the film in silent narration or prologue. The details of the latter film were so realistic that Davenport was successfully sued. She would later direct Linda (1929), Sucker Money (1933), Road to Ruin (1934), and The Woman Condemned (1934) and worked as a producer, writer, and dialogue director. Among her last credits are co-author of the screenplay for Footsteps in the Fog (1955), and as dialogue director for The First Traveling Saleslady (1956) with Ginger Rogers. She and husband Wallace Reid had two children. She was married to him until his death on January 18, 1923. She never remarried. Dorothy Davenport died at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in 1977 in Woodland Hills, California. She is interred with her husband in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale. Description above from the Wikipedia article Dorothy Davenport, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known For

The Way of the World

The Oath and the Man

The Devil's Bondwoman

Mothers of Men

The Road to Ruin

The Red Kimona

Broken Laws

The Heart of the Hills

All Movies (68)

• The Road to Ruin1934 · as Mrs. Merrill (uncredited)
• Man Hunt1933 · as Mrs. Scott
• Hellship Bronson1928 · as Mrs. Bronson
• The Satin Woman1927 · as Mrs. Jean Taylor (as Mrs. Wallace Reid)
• The Red Kimona1925 · as Woman Telling the Story (uncredited)
• Broken Laws1924 · as Joan Allen
• Human Wreckage1923 · as Ethel MacFarland
• The Fighting Chance1920 · as Leila Mortimer
• His Extra Bit1918 · as The Wife
• The Squaw Man's Son1917 · as Edith, Lady Effington
• Treason1917 · as Luella Brysk
• The Girl and the Crisis1917 · as Ellen Wilmot
• The Scarlet Crystal1917 · as Marie Delys
• Mothers of Men1917 · as Clara Madison
• The Wrong Heart1916
• The Devil's Bondwoman1916 · as Beverly Hope
• Barriers of Society1916 · as Martha Gorham
• Black Friday1916 · as Elionor Rossitor
• The Unattainable1916 · as Bessie Gale
• A Yoke of Gold1916 · as Carner
• The Way of the World1916 · as Beatrice Farley
• Doctor Neighbor1916 · as Hazel Rogers
• The Unknown1915 · as Nancy Preston
• Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo1915 · as Grand Duchess Feodora
• In Humble Guise1915 · as Grace Hunt
• The Test of Manhood1914 · as Ethel Crandall
• The Den of Thieves1914 · as Dorothy
• 'Cross the Mexican Line1914 · as Dorothy West
• A Wife on a Wager1914
• Love's Western Flight1914 · as Dorothy
• Passing of the Beast1914 · as The Mountie's Wife
• The Man Within1914
• The Siren1914 · as Renee
• The Quack1914 · as Mary Rohan
• Women and Roses1914 · as Wallace's Mistress
• The Fruit of Evil1914
• The Skeleton1914 · as Jack's Wife
• The Test1914 · as The Poor Man's Wife
• A Gypsy Romance1914 · as Queen of the Gypsies
• Cupid Incognito1914 · as Angela Graham
• The Spider and Her Web1914
• The Way of a Woman1914 · as Dorothy
• The Mountaineer1914 · as Dorothy - Jim's Sweetheart
• The Heart of the Hills1914 · as The Government Detective
• The Voice of the Viola1914 · as Dorothy
• Breed o' the Mountains1914 · as Sue Jarvis
• A Flash in the Dark1914 · as Mrs. Randall
• The Greater Devotion1914
• Fires of Conscience1914 · as Ethel
• The Wheel of Life1914 · as The Prospector's Wife
• The Countess Betty's Mine1914 · as Countess Betty Ardmore
• The Intruder1914 · as The Woodsman's Sweetheart
• A Hopi Legend1913
• The Lightning Bolt1913 · as Dot
• A Cracksman Santa Claus1913 · as Dot
• Retribution1913 · as Dorothy
• The Fires of Fate1913 · as Dot - Wally's Sweetheart
• The Cracksman's Reformation1913 · as Dorothy
• The Revelation1913 · as Mrs. Burns
• The Spark of Manhood1913 · as Maud Brewster
• Pierre of the North1913 · as Mary McKenzie - the Factor's Daughter
• His Only Son1912 · as Jessie Carter
• Her Indian Hero1912 · as Veda Mead
• A Brave Little Woman1912 · as Clara Lyttell
• The Golden Supper1910 · as Flower Girl
• The Troublesome Baby1910 · as Girl at Station
• A Gold Necklace1910 · as A Friend
• The Oath and the Man1910 · as Aristocrat