Frances Marion Dee (November 26, 1909 – March 6, 2004) was an American actress. She starred opposite Maurice Chevalier in the early talkie musical, Playboy of Paris (1930). She starred in the film An American Tragedy (1931) in a role later recreated by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1951 retitled remake, A Place in the Sun. She also had a prominent role in the classic 1943 Val Lewton psychological horror film I Walked With a Zombie.
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Died March 6, 2004 (aged 94) Norwalk, Connecticut. U.S.
Occupation Actress
Years active 1930–1953
Spouse(s) Joel McCrea (1933–1990) his death
Children Jody McCrea (1934–2009)
David McCrea (b. 1935)
Peter McCrea (b. 1955)
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When Dee was seven years old, her family moved to Chicago, Illinois.
She attended Shakespeare Grammar School and Hyde Park High School, where
she went by the nickname of Frankie Dee.
After graduating from Hyde Park High in 1927, of which she was vice president of her senior class, as well as voted Belle of the Year, she spent two years at the University of Chicago, where she participated in dramatic activities, before returning to California.
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Dee's additional screen credits included June Moon, Little Women, Of Human Bondage, Becky Sharp, and Payment on Demand. She co-starred with her husband Joel McCrea in the Western Four Faces West (1948).
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Joel McCrea died on their 57th wedding anniversary. Their three sons, including the actor Jody McCrea, and many grandchildren, also survived McCrea. She was honored at the 1998 Memphis Film Festival in Mississippi. In 2004, Frances Dee McCrea died in Norwalk, Connecticut, due to complications from a stroke at the age of 94. Jody McCrea died in 2009.
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1929 Words and Music Co-Ed Uncredited
1930 True to the Navy Girl at Table Uncredited
A Man from Wyoming Nurse Uncredited
Manslaughter Party Guest Uncredited
Monte Carlo Receptionist Uncredited
Follow Thru Woman in Ladies' Locker Room Uncredited
Playboy of Paris Yvonne Phillbert
Along Came Youth Elinor Farrington
1931 June Moon Edna Baker
An American Tragedy Sondra Flinchley
Caught Kate Winslow
Rich Man's Folly Ann Trumbull
Nice Women Jerry Girard
Working Girls Louise Adams
1932 This Reckless Age Lois Ingals
Sky Bride Ruth's Friend Uncredited
The Strange Case of Clara Deane Nancy Deane
Love Is a Racket Mary Wodehouse
The Night of June 13 Ginger Blake
If I Had a Million Mary Wallace Uncredited
1933 The Crime of the Century Doris Brandt
King of the Jungle Ann Rogers
The Silver Cord Hester
Headline Shooter Jane Mallory
One Man's Journey Joan Stockton
Little Women Margaret "Meg" March
Blood Money Elaine Talbart
1934 Keep 'Em Rolling Marjorie Deane
Coming Out Party Joyce 'Joy' Stanhope
Finishing School Virginia Radcliff
The Gay Deception Mirabel Miller
1936 Half Angel Allison Lang
Come and Get It Restaurant Patron Uncredited
1937 Souls at Sea Margaret Tarryton
1941 So Ends Our Night Marie Steiner
A Man Betrayed Sabra Cameron
Happy Land Agnes March
1945 Patrick the Great Lynn Andrews
1947 The Private Affairs of Bel Ami Marie de Verenne
1948 Four Faces West Fay Hollister
1951 Payment on Demand Eileen Banson
Reunion in Reno Mrs. Doris Linaker
1952 Because of You Susan Arnold
1953 Mister Scoutmaster Helen
1954 Gypsy Colt Em MacWade
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The nurse in Jacques Tourneur's eerie masterpiece I Walked With A Zombie (1943) was Frances Dee, that lovely star of the 1930s and 1940s, who has died aged 96. The film's most haunting moment is her nocturnal walk through a sugar-cane field on the way to a voodoo meeting. Her performance as the ostensibly pure heroine, unselfishly attempting to bring the zombie wife of the man she loves back to life, lent the film the credibility it needed. It was also a high point in the career of Dee, who will be remembered as a classy dame.
Born in Los Angeles, where her army officer father was stationed, she began working in movies as an extra in her early 20s, making her debut in Words And Music (1929), in which John Wayne (billed as Duke Morrison) had his first speaking part. Spotted by a Paramount talent scout, she was given a substantial role as a restaurant owner's daughter opposite waiter Maurice Chevalier in Playboy Of Paris (1930). She would continue to play wealthy women in love with men unable to keep her in the manner to which she was accustomed.
Typical was her society girl Sondra
Finchley in An American Tragedy (1931), Josef Von Sternberg's
melodramatic version of the Theodore Dreiser novel. Dee (in the part
later played by Elizabeth Taylor) is the incentive behind the murder of
his pregnant, working-class girlfriend by Clyde Griffiths. In This
Reckless Age (1932), she was the spoilt daughter of indulgent parents;
in Love Is A Racket (1932), an actor whose extravagance gets her in hock
to a gangster; and in Blood Money (1933), she is a blueblood who
shoplifts for thrills.
From a personal point of view, The Silver Cord (1933) was the most significant film Dee made. The story of a possessive mother (Laura Hope Crews), who persuades her younger son (Eric Linden) to give Dee up, with tragic consequences, it also starred Joel McCrea, as the rebellious older son. A few months after the film wrapped, McCrea and Dee married, had three sons and remained together for 57 years, until his death in 1990.
Through the 1930s, they had parallel careers, co-starring only in Wells Fargo (1937). Dee had secondary roles in three adaptations from classic novels: as Meg, to Katharine Hepburn's Jo, in Little Women (1934); as Sally Athelny, to Bette Davis's Mildred, in Of Human Bondage (1934); and as Amelia Sedley, to Miriam Hopkins, in the title role of Becky Sharp (1935), the first feature made in three-strip Technicolor.
However, she starred in William Wyler's charming The Gay Deception (1935). And in Henry Hathaway's Souls At Sea (1937), she has Gary Cooper and George Raft fighting over her. In one scene, Raft had to throw a rock at Dee, but the actor refused to do it, saying, "I'd look like a real rat." The scene was cut from the script.
Randolph Scott and Ralph Bellamy vie for Dee in Coast Guard (1939), and political exile Fredric March risks his life by returning to Nazi Germany to visit her, as his wife, in So Ends Our Night (1941). In both A Man Betrayed (1941) and Meet The Stewarts (1942), she is a rich girl marrying poor boys - John Wayne and William Holden respectively.
In 1945, Jean Renoir offered McCrea and Dee the leads in The Southerner, but they turned them down, presumably thinking that a film about poor farmers would not enhance their reputations. They did co-star again in Four Faces West (1948), a western in which not a single shot was fired. Dee's final film was Gypsy Colt (1954).
From the mid-1940s, life on the ranch with McCrea kept her busy, and she only made sporadic appearances in pictures. By the 1970s, she and McCrea were said to be worth between $50m and $100m. Their sons survive her.
· Frances (Jean) Dee, film actor, born November 26 1907; died March 4 2004.
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14/09/2019.
Frances Dee -Actress
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Profile :
*Dee in the 1940s
Born Frances Marion Dee November 26, 1909 Los Angeles, California, U.S.Died March 6, 2004 (aged 94) Norwalk, Connecticut. U.S.
Occupation Actress
Years active 1930–1953
Spouse(s) Joel McCrea (1933–1990) his death
Children Jody McCrea (1934–2009)
David McCrea (b. 1935)
Peter McCrea (b. 1955)
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2. Introduction :
Frances Marion Dee (November 26, 1909 – March 6, 2004) was an American actress. She starred opposite Maurice Chevalier in the early talkie musical, Playboy of Paris (1930). She starred in the film An American Tragedy (1931) in a role later recreated by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1951 retitled remake, A Place in the Sun. She also had a prominent role in the classic 1943 Val Lewton psychological horror film I Walked With a Zombie.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3. Early life :
The younger daughter of Francis "Frank" Marion Dee and his wife, the former Henriette Putnam, Frances Marion Dee was born in Los Angeles, California, where her father was working as a civil-service examiner.
After graduating from Hyde Park High in 1927, of which she was vice president of her senior class, as well as voted Belle of the Year, she spent two years at the University of Chicago, where she participated in dramatic activities, before returning to California.
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4. Career :
Following her sophomore year in 1929, she went on summer vacation with her mother and older sister to visit family in the Los Angeles, California area. She began working as a movie extra as a lark. Her big break came when, still an extra, she was offered the lead opposite Maurice Chevalier in Playboy of Paris.
The audience appeal established in two films opposite Paramount stars Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Richard Arlen, led to the co-starring role as Sondra Finchley, opposite Phillips Holmes and Sylvia Sidney, in Paramount Pictures's prestigious, and controversial, production of An American Tragedy, directed by Josef von Sternberg.
Dee's additional screen credits included June Moon, Little Women, Of Human Bondage, Becky Sharp, and Payment on Demand. She co-starred with her husband Joel McCrea in the Western Four Faces West (1948).
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5. Personal life :
Dee met actor Joel McCrea on the set of the 1933 film The Silver Cord. The couple married on October 20, 1933, after a whirlwind courtship, and remained married until McCrea's death in 1990. During their lifetime together, the McCreas lived, raised their children, and rode their horses on their ranch in what was then an unincorporated area of eastern Ventura County, California. They ultimately donated several hundred acres of their personal property to the newly formed Conejo Valley YMCA for the city of Thousand Oaks, California, both of which celebrated their 40th anniversaries in 2004. She, like Joel, was a Republican.
Joel McCrea died on their 57th wedding anniversary. Their three sons, including the actor Jody McCrea, and many grandchildren, also survived McCrea. She was honored at the 1998 Memphis Film Festival in Mississippi. In 2004, Frances Dee McCrea died in Norwalk, Connecticut, due to complications from a stroke at the age of 94. Jody McCrea died in 2009.
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6. Filmography :
Year Title Role Notes
1929 Words and Music Co-Ed Uncredited
1930 True to the Navy Girl at Table Uncredited
A Man from Wyoming Nurse Uncredited
Manslaughter Party Guest Uncredited
Monte Carlo Receptionist Uncredited
Follow Thru Woman in Ladies' Locker Room Uncredited
Playboy of Paris Yvonne Phillbert
Along Came Youth Elinor Farrington
1931 June Moon Edna Baker
An American Tragedy Sondra Flinchley
Caught Kate Winslow
Rich Man's Folly Ann Trumbull
Nice Women Jerry Girard
Working Girls Louise Adams
Sky Bride Ruth's Friend Uncredited
The Strange Case of Clara Deane Nancy Deane
Love Is a Racket Mary Wodehouse
The Night of June 13 Ginger Blake
If I Had a Million Mary Wallace Uncredited
King of the Jungle Ann Rogers
The Silver Cord Hester
Headline Shooter Jane Mallory
One Man's Journey Joan Stockton
Little Women Margaret "Meg" March
Blood Money Elaine Talbart
Coming Out Party Joyce 'Joy' Stanhope
Finishing School Virginia Radcliff
*1934. Of Human Bondage Sally Altheny
1935 Becky Sharp Amelia SedleyThe Gay Deception Mirabel Miller
1936 Half Angel Allison Lang
Come and Get It Restaurant Patron Uncredited
1937 Souls at Sea Margaret Tarryton
*1937 Wells Fargo Justine Pryor MacKay
1938 If I Were King Katherine de Vaucelles
*1939 Coast Guard Nancy Bliss
A Man Betrayed Sabra Cameron
*1942 Meet the Stewarts Candace Goodwin
1943 I Walked With a Zombie Betsy ConellHappy Land Agnes March
1945 Patrick the Great Lynn Andrews
1947 The Private Affairs of Bel Ami Marie de Verenne
1948 Four Faces West Fay Hollister
Reunion in Reno Mrs. Doris Linaker
1952 Because of You Susan Arnold
1953 Mister Scoutmaster Helen
1954 Gypsy Colt Em MacWade
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Frances Dee : Beautiful and wealthy movie star on and off the screen
*Frances Dee -A classy dame: Frances Dee. Photo: AP
As the credits fade, two figures are seen advancing along a road. One is a tall, cadaverous black man, the other an attractive nurse, in crisp white uniform and cap, with a dark cloak over her shoulders. "I walked with a zombie," her voice relates. "It does seem an odd thing to say. Had anyone said that to me a year ago, I'm not at all sure I would have known what a zombie was. I might have had some notion - that they were strange and frightening, and perhaps a little funny. But I have walked with a zombie."The nurse in Jacques Tourneur's eerie masterpiece I Walked With A Zombie (1943) was Frances Dee, that lovely star of the 1930s and 1940s, who has died aged 96. The film's most haunting moment is her nocturnal walk through a sugar-cane field on the way to a voodoo meeting. Her performance as the ostensibly pure heroine, unselfishly attempting to bring the zombie wife of the man she loves back to life, lent the film the credibility it needed. It was also a high point in the career of Dee, who will be remembered as a classy dame.
Born in Los Angeles, where her army officer father was stationed, she began working in movies as an extra in her early 20s, making her debut in Words And Music (1929), in which John Wayne (billed as Duke Morrison) had his first speaking part. Spotted by a Paramount talent scout, she was given a substantial role as a restaurant owner's daughter opposite waiter Maurice Chevalier in Playboy Of Paris (1930). She would continue to play wealthy women in love with men unable to keep her in the manner to which she was accustomed.
From a personal point of view, The Silver Cord (1933) was the most significant film Dee made. The story of a possessive mother (Laura Hope Crews), who persuades her younger son (Eric Linden) to give Dee up, with tragic consequences, it also starred Joel McCrea, as the rebellious older son. A few months after the film wrapped, McCrea and Dee married, had three sons and remained together for 57 years, until his death in 1990.
Through the 1930s, they had parallel careers, co-starring only in Wells Fargo (1937). Dee had secondary roles in three adaptations from classic novels: as Meg, to Katharine Hepburn's Jo, in Little Women (1934); as Sally Athelny, to Bette Davis's Mildred, in Of Human Bondage (1934); and as Amelia Sedley, to Miriam Hopkins, in the title role of Becky Sharp (1935), the first feature made in three-strip Technicolor.
However, she starred in William Wyler's charming The Gay Deception (1935). And in Henry Hathaway's Souls At Sea (1937), she has Gary Cooper and George Raft fighting over her. In one scene, Raft had to throw a rock at Dee, but the actor refused to do it, saying, "I'd look like a real rat." The scene was cut from the script.
Randolph Scott and Ralph Bellamy vie for Dee in Coast Guard (1939), and political exile Fredric March risks his life by returning to Nazi Germany to visit her, as his wife, in So Ends Our Night (1941). In both A Man Betrayed (1941) and Meet The Stewarts (1942), she is a rich girl marrying poor boys - John Wayne and William Holden respectively.
In 1945, Jean Renoir offered McCrea and Dee the leads in The Southerner, but they turned them down, presumably thinking that a film about poor farmers would not enhance their reputations. They did co-star again in Four Faces West (1948), a western in which not a single shot was fired. Dee's final film was Gypsy Colt (1954).
From the mid-1940s, life on the ranch with McCrea kept her busy, and she only made sporadic appearances in pictures. By the 1970s, she and McCrea were said to be worth between $50m and $100m. Their sons survive her.
· Frances (Jean) Dee, film actor, born November 26 1907; died March 4 2004.
THE END
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