Marie Doro
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Marie Doro (May 25, 1882 - October 9, 1956) was an American stage actress and film actress of the early silent film era of the 1910 through the early 1920s.
[edit] Personal life
Marie Doro was born Marie Katherine Steward in Duncannon, Pennsylvania, U.S. and began her career as a theater actress before transitioning to the new medium of motion pictures in 1915 under contract with film producer Adolph Zukor.
Marie Doro was briefly married to vaudeville and silent screen actor Elliott Dexter. The union did not last long however, and the couple soon divorced. The union spawned no offspring and Doro never remarried.
[edit] Career
Doro's film debut for Zukor's Famous Players studio was the starring role in the now lost short film The Morals of Marcus in 1915.
The following year she played the lead in the 1916 film version of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, a role she previously played with much acclaim on stage in 1912. Throughout the 1910s, Doro remained a highly respected and popular leading lady. Unfortunately, most of her earliest screen appearances are now lost and have not been viewed for nearly one hundred years. One surviving film, Lost and Won from 1915 in which Doro convincingly portrays a young girl, shows her to have been a charming actress with a remarkably natural acting style for the era.
Although still a very much a popular leading lady, by the early 1920s Marie Doro became increasingly disillusioned with Hollywood and her acting career. She became reclusive and drawn to sprirtual matters and after moving to New York City even briefly studied at the Union Theological Seminary. In 1924 Doro made her last American film appearance, playing the title character in Sally Bishop and briefly relocated to Europe where she made several more films in Italy. After returning to the United States of America, Marie Doro spent the rest of her life in seclusion. In 1956 she died of heart failure in New York City, New York, allocating $90,000 dollars in her will to the Actors' Fund. Marie Doro was laid to rest at the Duncannon Cemetery in Duncannon, Perry County, Pennsylvania.
For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Marie Doro was awarded a star on the legendary Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1725 Vine Street in Hollywood, California, USA.
