Dorothy Sebastian
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Dorothy Sebastian (April 26, 1903 - April 8, 1957) was an American film actress. Her birth name was Dorothy Sabiston.
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[edit] Southern Birth
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Dorothy possessed brown hair, gray eyes, "swift-moving ankles", and a radiant personality. She resembled both Renée Adorée and Sally O'Neil. She was a very frank person, almost devoid of affectations. In her youth she hoped to be a dancer and later a film actress. Her family frowned on both ambitions. So she fled to New York at the age of fifteen.
[edit] Dancer In New York, Hollywood Actress
Upon her arrival in New York City, Miss Sebastian's southern drawl was thick enough to "cut with a knife". She followed around theatrical agents before returning at night to a $12-a-month room, after being consistently rejected.
Dorothy Sebastian was a former George White's Scandals performer who was teamed with fellow actors Joan Crawford and Anita Page for a popular series of MGM romantic dramas including Our Dancing Daughters (1928) and Our Blushing Brides (1930), both starring Crawford and Page. Her first contact in Hollywood was Robert Kane, who gave her a film test at United Studios.
Sebastian also acted in 1929's Spite Marriage, wherein she was cast opposite her then-lover Buster Keaton.
[edit] Personal life
Sebastian went into semi-retirement in the mid-1930s after marrying Hopalong Cassidy star William Boyd. They wed in Las Vegas, Nevada following a romance which began on a set at Pathe Pictures. After their divorce in 1936, Dorothy attempted a comeback, appearing in much smaller parts than years before.
Sebastian's sister died of burns in a fire at a San Francisco, California hotel in May 1938. Mrs. Helene Bostick, 30, formerly Helene Sebastian, was a resident of Concord, California. She had been smoking in bed in the hotel at 242 Turk Street. The sisters corresponded with one another frequently.
[edit] Court Appearances
The actress was found guilty of drunk driving in November 1938 in a Beverly Hills, California Justice Court. She blamed her crash, at the 9000 block of Sunset Boulevard, on a reaction of garlic with three or four glasses of wine she consumed four or five hours earlier. She was dining at the home of Buster Keaton. Dorothy told the court she believed police assumed from this she had been drinking even more recently. She was given a 30-day suspended jail sentence and paid a fine of $75.
Dorothy was denied an award of $10,000 from a San Diego, California court in 1940. The actress appeared at a Red Cross benefit in San Francisco in 1937, and failed to pay her hotel bill. She contended the promoter should have met the expense. An employee of the Plaza Hotel took out the suit, charging "defrauding an innkeeper". The State Supreme Court of California reversed the decision which awarded Dorothy the money on grounds of malicious prosecution.
[edit] Death
She died of cancer in 1957 in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 53. Her residence was in Brentwood, California.
[edit] References
- Los Angeles Times, "Dorothy Is Gate Crasher", October 24, 1926, Page C20.
- Los Angeles Times, "Alabama Steps To Top", August 10, 1930, Page B16.
- Los Angeles Times, "Film Pair Fly Away To Marry", December 19, 1930, Page A1.
- Los Angeles Times, "Dorothy Sebastian Found Guilty of Drunk Driving", November 8, 1938, Page A2.
- Los Angeles Times, "Miss Sebastian Pays $75 Fine", December 1, 1938, Page A1.
- Los Angeles Times, "High Court Rules Against Actress", May 28, 1940, Page 9.
- Oakland Tribune, "Kin of Actress Burns To Death", May 14, 1938, Page 1.
