Dina Merrill
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| Dina Merrill | |
|---|---|
 Merrill, Bobby Short & Dick Sheridan in New York City (1970) |
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| Born | Nedenia Marjorie Hutton December 9, 1925 New York City, United States |
| Spouse(s) | Ted Hartley (1989–present) Cliff Robertson (1966-1986) (divorced) 1 child Stanley M. Rumbough, Jr.(1946-1966) (divorced) 3 children |
Dina Merrill (born December 9, 1925) is an American actress and socialite.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Merrill was born Nedenia Marjorie Hutton in New York City, the only child of Post Cereals heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post and her second husband, Wall Street stockbroker Edward Francis Hutton.[1] She was educated at Miss Porter's School.
[edit] Career
Merrill acted in twenty-two motion pictures, including Desk Set with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, The Sundowners, Don't Give Up the Ship, Caddyshack II, I'll Take Sweden with Bob Hope, The Young Savages with Burt Lancaster, A Nice Little Bank That Should Be Robbed with Mickey Rooney, Catch Me If You Can, Operation Petticoat with Cary Grant (who had previously been married to her cousin, Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton) and Tony Curtis, The Courtship of Eddie's Father with Glenn Ford and Ron Howard, Butterfield 8 with Elizabeth Taylor, A Wedding with Desi Arnaz, Jr. and Carol Burnett, True Colors with John Cusack and The Player with Whoopi Goldberg. Merrill appeared regularly on television in the 1960s. For example, she did a stint as one of the What's My Line? Mystery Guests on the popular Sunday Night CBS-TV program.
The actress has been married three times. Her first husband was Stanley M. Rumbough, Jr., an heir to the Colgate-Palmolive toothpaste fortune and entrepreneur (married 1946, divorced 1966). They had three children, Stanley Hutton Rumbough, David Post Rumbough (1950-1973) and Nedenia ("Nina") Colgate Rumbough. Her second husband was the American actor Cliff Robertson (married 1966, divorced 1986); they had one child, Heather Merriweather Robertson (1969-2007). In 1989, she married the former actor Ted Hartley In 1991, Merrill and Hartley merged their company Pavilion Communications with RKO to form RKO Pictures, which owns the copyright to the films and intellectual property of the former RKO Radio Pictures movie studio. She has six grandchildren: Denia and Welyn Craig, David Colgate (Cole), Allegra Hutton, Siena Post and Kiera Basten Rumbough.
Merrill is a significant shareholder and former director of Lehman Brothers, having served as the chairman of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and a member of the Bank's Compensation and Benefits Committee. She is a presidential appointee to the Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a trustee of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Foundation, a vice president of the New York City Mission Society.
