Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthdate
1897-01-03
Day of Death
1961-09-22
Place of Birth
Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
Marion Davies
Biography
From Wikipedia Marion Davies (January 3, 1897 – September 22, 1961) was an American film actress, producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist. Davies was already building a solid reputation as a film comedienne when newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, with whom she had begun a romantic relationship, took over management of her career. Hearst financed Davies' pictures, promoted her heavily through his newspapers and Hearst Newsreels, and pressured studios to cast her in historical dramas for which she was ill-suited. For this reason, Davies is better remembered today as Hearst's mistress and the hostess of many lavish events for the Hollywood elite. In particular, her name is linked with the 1924 scandal aboard Hearst's yacht where one of his guests, film producer Thomas Ince, became ill. Despite the legend surrounding Ince's death, likely from alcohol consumption, he did not die on the Hearst yacht. The producer died a few days later in the arms of his wife. In the film Citizen Kane (1941), the title character's wife—an untalented singer whom he tries to promote—was widely assumed to be based on Davies. But many commentators, including Citizen Kane writer/director Orson Welles himself, have defended Davies' record as a gifted actress, to whom Hearst's patronage did more harm than good. She retired from the screen in 1937, choosing to devote herself to Hearst and charitable work. In Hearst's declining years, Davies provided financial as well as emotional support until his death in 1951. She married for the first time eleven weeks after his death, a marriage which lasted until Davies died of stomach cancer in 1961 at the age of 64.
Filmography (64)
Citizen Hearst
2021Checking Out: Grand Hotel
2004
Murders of Hollywood
2003
Captured on Film: The True Story of Marion Davies
2001
The Battle Over Citizen Kane
1996
The Casting Couch
1995
That's Entertainment! III
1994
Hollywood: The Dream Factory
1972
The Big Parade of Comedy
1964
Hedda Hopper's Hollywood
1960
Ever Since Eve
1937
Cain and Mabel
1936
Hearts Divided
1936
Behind the Scenes of Cain and Mabel
1936
