CINEFILER

Dorothy Davenport

Born
March 13, 1895
Died
October 12, 1977
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.
Full Filmography
Acting
A Gold Necklace
(1910)
A Friend
The Golden Supper
(1910)
Flower Girl
A Brave Little Woman
(1912)
Clara Lyttell
Her Indian Hero
(1912)
Veda Mead
His Only Son
(1912)
Jessie Carter
Pierre of the North
(1913)
Mary McKenzie - the Factor's Daughter
The Spark of Manhood
(1913)
The Cracksman's Reformation
(1913)
Dorothy
The Fires of Fate
(1913)
Dot - Wally's Sweetheart
Retribution
(1913)
Dorothy
A Cracksman Santa Claus
(1913)
Dot
The Lightning Bolt
(1913)
Dot
A Hopi Legend
(1913)
The Revelation
(1913)
Mrs. Burns
The Heart of the Hills
(1914)
The Government Detective
The Intruder
(1914)
The Woodsman's Sweetheart
The Countess Betty's Mine
(1914)
Countess Betty Ardmore
The Wheel of Life
(1914)
The Prospector's Wife
Fires of Conscience
(1914)
Ethel
The Greater Devotion
(1914)
A Flash in the Dark
(1914)
Mrs. Randall
Breed o' the Mountains
(1914)
Sue Jarvis
The Voice of the Viola
(1914)
Dorothy
The Way of a Woman
(1914)
Dorothy
The Mountaineer
(1914)
Dorothy - Jim's Sweetheart
The Spider and Her Web
(1914)
Cupid Incognito
(1914)
Angela Graham
A Gypsy Romance
(1914)
Queen of the Gypsies
The Test
(1914)
The Poor Man's Wife
The Test of Manhood
(1914)
Ethel Crandall
The Skeleton
(1914)
Jack's Wife
The Fruit of Evil
(1914)
Women and Roses
(1914)
Wallace's Mistress
The Quack
(1914)
Mary Rohan
The Siren
(1914)
Renee
The Man Within
(1914)
Passing of the Beast
(1914)
The Mountie's Wife
Love's Western Flight
(1914)
Dorothy
A Wife on a Wager
(1914)
'Cross the Mexican Line
(1914)
Dorothy West
The Den of Thieves
(1914)
Dorothy
In Humble Guise
(1915)
Grace Hunt
The Unknown
(1915)
Nancy Preston
Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo
(1915)
Grand Duchess Feodora
The Unattainable
(1916)
Bessie Gale
The Devil's Bondwoman
(1916)
Beverly Hope
The Way of the World
(1916)
Beatrice Farley
Barriers of Society
(1916)
Martha Gorham
Black Friday
(1916)
Elionor Rossitor
A Yoke of Gold
(1916)
Carner
Doctor Neighbor
(1916)
Hazel Rogers
The Wrong Heart
(1916)
Mothers of Men
(1917)
Clara Madison
Treason
(1917)
Luella Brysk
The Girl and the Crisis
(1917)
Ellen Wilmot
The Scarlet Crystal
(1917)
Marie Delys
The Squaw Man's Son
(1917)
Edith, Lady Effington
His Extra Bit
(1918)
The Wife
The Fighting Chance
(1920)
Leila Mortimer
Human Wreckage
(1923)
Ethel MacFarland
Broken Laws
(1924)
Joan Allen
The Red Kimona
(1925)
Woman Telling the Story (uncredited)
The Satin Woman
(1927)
Mrs. Jean Taylor (as Mrs. Wallace Reid)
Hellship Bronson
(1928)
Mrs. Bronson
Man Hunt
(1933)
Mrs. Scott
Production
Directing
Writing
Data provided by TMDB