Billie Dove | |
|---|---|
 Dove in 1920 | |
| Born | Bertha Eugenie Bohny May 14, 1903 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | December 31, 1997 (aged 94) |
| Resting place | Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1921–1932, 1962 |
| Spouses | Robert Kenaston (m. 1935;died 1970)John Miller (m. 1973,divorced) |
| Children | 2 |
Lillian Bohny (born Bertha Eugenie Bohny; [1] May 14, 1903 [2] – December 31, 1997), known professionally as Billie Dove, was an American actress. [3] [4]
Dove was born Bertha Eugenie Bohny in New York City in 1903 to Charles and Bertha (née Kagl) Bohny, [5] both immigrants from Switzerland. She had a younger brother, Charles Reinhardt Bohny (1906-1963). [6] As a teen, she worked as a model to help support her family and was hired as a teenager by Florenz Ziegfeld to appear in his Ziegfeld Follies Revue. She legally changed her name to Lillian Bohny in the early 1920s and moved to Hollywood, where she began appearing in silent films. She soon became one of the more popular actresses of the 1920s, appearing in Douglas Fairbanks' smash hit Technicolor film The Black Pirate (1926), as Rodeo West in The Painted Angel (1929), and The American Beauty (1927).
She married Irvin Willat, the director of her seventh film, in 1923. The two divorced in 1929. Dove had a legion of male fans, one of her more persistent was Howard Hughes. She had a three-year romance with Hughes and was engaged to marry him, but she ended the relationship.
Hughes cast her as a comedian in his film Cock of the Air (1932). She also appeared in his movie The Age for Love (1931). [7]
Dove was also a pilot, poet, and painter. [8]
Following her last film, Blondie of the Follies (1932), Dove retired from the screen to be with her family. She married wealthy oil executive Robert Alan Kenaston in 1935, [9] a marriage that lasted for 35 years until his death in 1970. The couple had a son, Robert Alan Kenaston, Jr., who married actress Claire Kelly and died in 1995 from cancer, and an adopted daughter, Gail who briefly married media mogul Merv Adelson. [10] Billie Dove later had a brief third marriage, in 1973, to architect John Miller, which ended in divorce. [11]
Aside from a cameo in Diamond Head (1963), Dove never returned to the movies. She spent her retirement years in Rancho Mirage, then moved to the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California where she died of pneumonia on New Year's Eve 1997, aged 94. [12]
She is interred in the Freedom Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Glendale.
Dove has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6351 Hollywood Blvd. Jazz singer Billie Holiday took her professional pseudonym from Dove as an admirer of the actress. [13]
| Year | Title | Role | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1921 | Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford | Dorothy Wells | Lost film |
| At the Stage Door | Mary Mathews | Lost film | |
| 1922 | Polly of the Follies | Alysia Potter | Lost film Trailer survives |
| Beyond the Rainbow | Marion Taylor | A copy is held at the UCLA Film and Television Archive | |
| Youth to Youth | Eve Allison | Lost film | |
| One Week of Love | Bathing Party Guest | Lost film Uncredited | |
| 1923 | All the Brothers Were Valiant | Priscilla Holt | Lost film |
| Madness of Youth | Nanette Benning | Lost film | |
| Soft Boiled | The Girl | A copy is held at the George Eastman Museum | |
| The Lone Star Ranger | Helen Longstreth | Lost film | |
| The Thrill Chaser | Olala Ussan | Lost film | |
| 1924 | On Time | Helen Hendon | Lost film |
| Try and Get It | Rhoda Perrin | A copy is held at the Library of Congress | |
| Yankee Madness | Dolores | Lost film | |
| Wanderer of the Wasteland | Ruth Virey | Lost film filmed in Technicolor | |
| The Roughneck | Felicity Arden | Lost film | |
| The Folly of Vanity | Alice | A copy is held at the Czech Film Archive | |
| 1925 | The Air Mail | Alice Rendon | An incomplete copy is held at the Library of Congress |
| The Light of Western Stars | Madeleine Hammond | Lost film | |
| Wild Horse Mesa | Sue Melberne | ||
| The Lucky Horseshoe | Eleanor Hunt | A copy is preserved at the Museum of Modern Art | |
| The Fighting Heart | Doris Anderson | Lost film | |
| The Ancient Highway | Antoinette St. Ives | Lost film | |
| 1926 | The Black Pirate | Princess Isobel | Filmed in Technicolor |
| The Lone Wolf Returns | Marcia Mayfair | A copy is held at the George Eastman Museum | |
| The Marriage Clause | Sylvia Jordan | An incomplete copy is held at the Library of Congress | |
| Kid Boots | Eleanore Belmore | A copy is held at the Library of Congress | |
| 1927 | An Affair of the Follies | Tamara | Lost film |
| Sensation Seekers | Luena "Egypt" Hagen | ||
| The Tender Hour | Marcia Kane | ||
| The Stolen Bride | Sari | ||
| The American Beauty | Millicent Howard | Lost film | |
| The Love Mart | Antoinette Frobelle | Lost film | |
| 1928 | The Heart of a Follies Girl | Teddy O'Day | Lost film |
| Yellow Lily | Judith Peredy | A copy is held at the BFI National Archive | |
| Night Watch | Yvonne Corlaix | A copy is held at the Cineteca Italiana | |
| Adoration | Elena | A copy is held at the Czech Film Archive | |
| 1929 | Careers | Hélène Gromaire | |
| The Man and the Moment | Joan Winslow | ||
| Her Private Life | Lady Helen Haden | ||
| The Painted Angel | Mammie Hudler | Lost film; Vitaphone track survives | |
| 1930 | The Other Tomorrow | Edith Larrison | Lost film |
| A Notorious Affair | Patricia Hanley | ||
| Sweethearts and Wives | Femme de Chambre | ||
| One Night at Susie's | Mary Martin | ||
| 1931 | The Lady Who Dared | Margaret Townsend | |
| The Age for Love | Jean Hurt | Lost film | |
| 1932 | Cock of the Air | Lili de Rosseau | |
| Blondie of the Follies | Lottie | ||
| 1962 | Diamond Head | Herself | Cameo role |
The Great Ziegfeld is a 1936 American musical drama film directed by Robert Z. Leonard and produced by Hunt Stromberg. It stars William Powell as the theatrical impresario Florenz "Flo" Ziegfeld Jr., Luise Rainer as Anna Held, and Myrna Loy as Billie Burke.
The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical revue productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 to 1931, with renewals in 1934, 1936, 1943, and 1957. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air.
Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke, better known as Billie Burke, was an American actress who was famous on Broadway and radio, and in silent and sound films. She is best known to modern audiences as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in the MGM film musical The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Florenz Edward Ziegfeld Jr. was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies (1907–1931), inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris. He also produced the musical Show Boat. He was known as the "glorifier of the American girl". Ziegfeld is a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame.
Olive Thomas was an American silent-film actress, art model, and photo model.
Helene Anna Held was a Polish-born French stage performer of Jewish origin on Broadway. While appearing in London, she was spotted by impresario Florenz Ziegfeld, who brought her to America as his common-law wife. From 1896 through 1910, she was one of Broadway's most celebrated leading ladies, presented in a succession of musicals as a charming, coquettish Parisian singer and comedienne, with an hourglass figure and an off-stage reputation for exotic behavior, such as bathing in 40 gallons of milk a day to maintain her complexion. Detractors implied that her fame owed more to Ziegfeld's promotional flair than to any intrinsic talent, but her audience allure was undeniable for over a decade, with several of her shows setting house attendance records for their time. Her uninhibited style also inspired the long-running series of popular revues, the Ziegfeld Follies.
Lilyan Tashman was an American stage, silent film, and sound film actress.
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Dorothy Mackaill was a British-American actress, most active during the silent-film era and into the pre-Code era of the early 1930s.
Doris Eaton Travis was an American dancer, stage and film actress, dance instructor, owner and manager, writer, and rancher, who was the last surviving Ziegfeld Girl, a troupe of acclaimed chorus girls who performed as members in the Broadway theatrical revues of the Ziegfeld Follies.
Grace Darmond was a Canadian-American actress.
Lillian Lorraine was an American stage and screen actress of the 1910s and 1920s, and a prominent Ziegfeld Girl in the Broadway revues Ziegfeld Follies during the 1910s.
Mary Hay Caldwell was an American dancer, musical comedy and silent screen actress, playwright, and former Ziegfeld girl.
Claire Kelly was an American actress and model.
Mervyn Lee Adelson was an American real estate developer and television producer who co-founded Lorimar Television.
At the Stage Door, also known by its working title Women of Conquest, is a 1921 silent American romantic drama film directed by Christy Cabanne. It stars Billie Dove, Huntley Gordon, and Miriam Battista, and was released on December 11, 1921. The film gives a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes reality of life in the New York theater, as seen by a small town girl trying to make it in the big city. The picture received mixed reviews. This was Dove's first time on film, having moved over from the Ziegfeld Follies.
Diana Allen was a Swedish-American actress and Ziegfeld girl who starred in silent films such as 1921's Miss 139, which is now lost.
Carmen Regina Revnes, known professionally as Sybil Carmen, was an American actress, dancer, and Ziegfeld girl.
Annette Margaret Bade was an American stage performer, best known as a Ziegfeld girl.
Alta L. King was an American dancer, singer, and Ziegfeld girl in musical theatre.
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