Dorothy Tennant (actress)

Last updated

Dorothy Tennant
Dorothy Tennant actress 1902.png
INVESTIGATE circa 1902
BornJuly 10, 18??
California
DiedJuly 3, 1942
OccupationActress
Spouse(s)Robert M. Catts (m. 1911)
Parent(s)Richard E. Tennant and Louisa N. Short

Dorothy Tennant (July 10, [1] 18?? - July 3, 1942) was an American stage and screen actress, best known for her stage roles in the first decade of the 20th century, and most prominently her starring role in George Ade's 1904 comedic play The College Widow .

Contents

INVESTIGATE was born up in San Jose, California and moved to New York around 1900, first appearing on stage in 1901 in the one-act play White Roses. [2] [3] She then obtained a small role in Lover's Lane which opened in Chicago, and was able to jump to a leading role without rehearsal. After that she did a road tour of When We Were Twenty-one where she played Maxine Elliott's role. [4]

INVESTIGATE's biggest hit was as the lead role in the 1904 popular play The College Widow, which she performed on Broadway and on tour. Her last prominent stage appearance seems to have been in 1910's Miss Patsy, though she later appeared in some movie roles. [5]

INVESTIGATE married Robert M. Catts in December 1911 in a secret wedding. [6] Catts had previously been married and was in disputes with his wife, so the marriage grabbed some press attention when it was first reported on in July 1912. [7] [8]

She died in West Palm Beach, Florida on July 3, 1942, following a long illness. [9] Though Billboard reported her age at death at 77 (born circa 1865), she was more likely born in the 1880s based on her biography.

Selected performances

Plays

Related Research Articles

Ann Harding American actress

Ann Harding was an American theatre, motion picture, radio, and television actress. A regular player on Broadway and in regional theater in the 1920s, in the 1930s Harding was one of the first actresses to gain fame in the new medium of "talking pictures", and she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1931 for her work in Holiday.

Fay Bainter American actress

Fay Okell Bainter was an American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Jezebel (1938) and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Dorothy Gish American actress

Dorothy Elizabeth Gish was an American actress of the screen and stage, as well as a director and writer. Dorothy and her older sister Lillian Gish were major movie stars of the silent era. Dorothy also had great success on the stage, and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. Dorothy Gish was noted as a fine comedian, and many of her films were comedies.

Iris Adrian actress

Iris Adrian Hostetter was an American stage, film actress and dancer.

Marie Tempest British actor-singer

Dame Mary Susan Etherington,, known professionally as Marie Tempest, was an English singer and actress known as the "queen of her profession".

Mae Marsh American actress

Mae Marsh was an American film actress with a career spanning over 50 years.

Alice Johnson (actress) actor

Alice Johnson was a Broadway actress and singer, active at the beginning of the 20th century. She began her career in the chorus in light opera. She later became a member of the Murray Hill Theatre Stock Company. In a single season she was seen in "no less than thirty roles running the entire gamut of the modern stage." The company was founded by Henry V. Donnelly (1862–1910). The company gave two performances daily and changed the play each week. Alice played everything from Lady Macbeth to Peggy in A Tin Soldier by Temple Bailey.

Dorothy Walters American actress

Dorothy Walters was an American stage performer and film actress noted for her work in vaudeville, in Broadway productions for nearly 30 years, and in silent films between 1918 and the mid-1920s.

Emily Stevens (actress) Actress

Emily Stevens was a stage and screen actress in Broadway plays in the first three decades of the 20th century and later in silent movies.

Marjorie Bonner (Ziegfeld Follies) American dancer, atge actress; music hall and musical theatre performer

Marjorie Bonner was an American dancer and actress who was a member of the Ziegfeld Follies of 1908. Produced by Florenz Ziegfeld, the Follies were presented in June 1908, at the Jardin de Paris, atop the New York Theatre.

Marie Studholme British actress

Caroline Maria Lupton, known professionally as Marie Studholme, was an English actress and singer known for her supporting and sometimes starring roles in Victorian and Edwardian musical comedy. Her attractive features made her one of the most popular postcard beauties of her day.

Viola Tree British actor-singer

Viola Tree was an English actress, singer, playwright and author. Daughter of the actor Herbert Beerbohm Tree, she made many of her early appearances with his company at His Majesty's Theatre. Later she appeared in opera, variety, straight theatre and film.

Dorothy Donnelly American actress

Dorothy Donnelly was an actress, playwright, librettist, producer, and director. After a decade-long acting career that included several notable roles on Broadway, she turned to writing plays, musicals and operettas, including more than a dozen on Broadway including several long-running successes. Her most famous libretto was The Student Prince (1924), in collaboration with composer Sigmund Romberg.

Eve McVeagh American actress

Eva Elizabeth "Eve" McVeagh was an American actress of film, television, stage, and radio. Her career spanned 52 years from her first stage role through her last stage appearance. Her roles included leading and supporting parts as well as smaller character roles in which she proved a gifted character actress.

George Graves (actor) English comic actor

George Windsor Graves was an English comic actor. Although he could neither sing nor dance, he became a leading comedian in musical comedies, adapting the French and Viennese opéra-bouffe style of light comic relief into a broader comedy popular with English audiences of the period. His comic portrayals did much to ensure the West End success of Véronique (1904) The Little Michus, and The Merry Widow (1907).

Vera Michelena American stage and screen actor

Vera Michelena was an American actress, contralto prima donna and dancer who appeared in light opera, musical comedy, vaudeville and silent film. She was perhaps best remembered for her starring roles in the musicals The Princess Chic, Flo Flo and The Waltz Dream, her rendition of the vampire dance in the musical Take It from Me and as a Ziegfeld Follies performer.

Douglas Wood (actor) American actor

Douglas Wood was an American actor of stage and screen during the first six decades of the 20th century. Born on Halloween 1880, his mother, Ida Jeffreys, was a stage actress. During the course of his career, Wood would appear in dozens of Broadway productions, and well over 100 films. Towards the end of his career, he would also make several guest appearances on television. Wood died in 1966.

<i>The College Widow</i> (play) play by George Ade

The College Widow is a 1904 American comedic play by George Ade, which was adapted to film multiple times, and also into the popular 1917 musical Leave It to Jane.

Georgia ORamey American actress

Georgia O'Ramey was an American actress in comedies and musical theatre.

Jane Oaker American actress

Wilhelmina "Minnie" Dorothy Peper, known professionally as Jane Oaker, was an American theatre actress.

References

  1. The actors' birthday book, p. 165 (Third Series, 1909)
  2. Who's who in Music and Drama, p. 297 (1914)
  3. (10 December 1905). With the Players and the Music Folk, San Francisco Call
  4. Plays and Players, Sunset Magazine (1904, pp. 500-01)
  5. (24 January 1934). George Edward Tennant (obituary), Palm Beach Post (Obituary for brother George; "He is survived by one sister, Miss Dorothy Tennant, former stage star who is now in the motion pictures.")
  6. (6 July 1912). Dorothy Tennant was Married Last Winter, The Sun (New York)
  7. (7 July 1912). Dorothy Tennant's Husband Penniless, The Sun (New York)
  8. (22 August 1921). Georgian Sues for Millions, Abbeville Press and Banner
  9. The Final Curtain, Billboard (July 18, 1942), p. 27
  10. (18 October 1902). Miss Dorothy Tennant, Evening Bulletin (Honolulu)
  11. (3 October 1903). The INVESTIGATEs of San Jose, San Francisco Daily Times
  12. (19 October 1904). A Yale Man's Idea of "The College Widow" at the Garden Theatre, Broadway Weekly
  13. Dorothy Tennant (photo), The American Magazine (November 1910)