Dorothy Malone

Dorothy Malone was a film star during Hollywood's Golden Age who was best known for her Oscar-winning performance in Douglas Sirk's "Written on the Wind" (1956). Born in Chicago, Malone and her family moved with her family to Dallas when she was six-months old. Tragedy had struck Malone's family early on when two of her sisters died from complications from polio, so Malone grew up knowing how fleeting life was. She decided quite early to make the most of her existence, and quickly settled on becoming a performer. She began modeling for Neiman Marcus as a teenager and after a brief stint at Southern Methodist University, where she majored in drama, Malone was offered a contract with RKO studios at the age of 18. She appeared in  a number of films during her year with RKO, most notably 1943's "Higher and Higher," which also starred Frank Sinatra. After one year, however, RKO decided not to renew Malone's contract. Undeterred, Malone signed a new contract with Warner Bros., and quickly raised her acting profile by appearing in films like "Too Young to Know" (1945) and "Frontier Days" (1945). Her first big break came in 1946 when she appeared alongside Humphrey Bogart in the Director Howard Hawks' film "The Big Sleep" (1946). Her role in "The Big Sleep" led to bigger parts in films like the musical comedy "Two Guys from Texas" (1948), which was Malone's first lead role. Malone left Warner Bros. in the late 1940s to become a freelance film actor in Hollywood. She continued nabbing a multitude of roles throughout the 1950s, including "Torpedo Alley" (1952), "Scared Stiff" (1953), and "The Fast and the Furious" (1955), the latter of which was also the first film produced by the legendary producer Roger Corman. Then in 1956 Malone appeared in a supporting role alongside Rock Hudson and Lauren Bacall in the Douglas Sirk melodrama "Written on the Wind." The film earned Malone her first and only Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Malone continued acting in films throughout the remainder of the 1950s and early 1960s, but in 1964 she gained renewed attention for her role as Constance Mackenzie on the prime time soap opera "Peyton Place" (ABC, 1964-69). Her role on "Peyton Place" ended in 1968 and Malone spent the next twenty-plus years of her acting career appearing in TV shows, made-for-TV movies, and little seen films. She appeared in only a handful of roles throughout the 1980s, with her last on-screen part being in 1992's "Basic Instinct." Malone spent the remaining years of her life in suburban Dallas, the same place she grew up. She died peacefully at a Dallas nursing facility on January 19, 2018. She was 93.