Frances Dee

Frances Dee

Born: November 26, 1909
Died: March 6, 2004
in Los Angeles, California, USA
Frances Marion Dee (November 26, 1909 – March 6, 2004) was an American screen and television 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 re-titled 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. Dee was the wife of Hollywood star Joel McCrea.

Movies for Frances Dee...

Complicated Women
Title: Complicated Women
Character: Self - Interviewee
Released: May 6, 2003
Type: Movie
Looks at the stereotype-breaking films of the period from 1929, when movies entered the sound era, until 1934 when the Hays Code virtually neutered film content. No longer portrayed as virgins or vamps, the liberated female of the pre-code films had dimensions. Good girls had lovers and babies and held down jobs, while the bad girls were cast in a sympathetic light. And they did it all without apology.
bee
The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
Title: The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: October 1, 1988
Type: Movie
This documentary revisits the making of Gone with the Wind via archival footage, screen tests, insightful interviews and rare film footage.
bee
Night of 100 Stars
Title: Night of 100 Stars
Character: Self
Released: March 8, 1982
Type: Movie
The most glittering, expensive, and exhausting videotaping session in television history took place Friday February 19, 1982 at New York's Radio City Music Hall. The event, for which ticket-buyers paid up to $1,000 a seat (tax-deductible as a contribution to the Actors' Fund) was billed as "The Night of 100 Stars" but, actually, around 230 stars took part. And most of the audience of 5,800 had no idea in advance that they were paying to see a TV taping, complete with long waits for set and costume changes, tape rewinding, and the like. Executive producer Alexander Cohen estimated that the 5,800 Radio City Music Hall seats sold out at prices ranging from $25 to $1,000. The show itself cost about $4 million to produce and was expected to yield around $2 million for the new addition to the Actors Fund retirement home in Englewood, N. J. ABC is reputed to have paid more than $5 million for the television rights.
bee
Hollywood: The Selznick Years
Title: Hollywood: The Selznick Years
Character: 'Gone with the Wind' screen test (archive footage) (uncredited)
Released: December 31, 1961
Type: Movie
Henry Fonda hosts this retrospective on the career and films of iconic filmmaker David O. Selznick, who epitomized the era of the auteur producer in the 30s and 40s.
bee
Gypsy Colt
Title: Gypsy Colt
Character: Em MacWade
Released: April 2, 1954
Type: Movie
In this trans-species remake of Lassie, Come Home, a faithful horse undertakes a perilous journey to return to the family it loves.
bee
Mister Scoutmaster
Title: Mister Scoutmaster
Character: Helen Jordan
Released: September 2, 1953
Type: Movie
Snobby TV star, Robert Jordan, worries that he is out of touch with the younger generation and that's why his TV show is failing. He becomes a Boy Scout leader in an effort to "get in touch." Overnight hikes and other adventures follow, all centered around one small boy who takes a liking to the old curmudgeon.
bee
Because of You
Title: Because of You
Character: Susan Arnold
Released: December 4, 1952
Type: Movie
A female ex-con falls in love and hesitates to reveal her past.
bee
Title: Four Star Playhouse
Character: Rhoda Stroude
Released: September 25, 1952
Type: TV
Four Star Playhouse is an American television anthology series that ran from 1952 to 1956, sponsored in its first bi-weekly season by The Singer Company; Bristol-Myers became an alternate sponsor when it became a weekly series in the fall of 1953. The original premise was that Charles Boyer, Ida Lupino, David Niven, and Dick Powell would take turns starring in episodes. However, several other performers took the lead from time to time, including Ronald Colman and Joan Fontaine. Blake Edwards was among the writers and directors who contributed to the series. Edwards created the recurring character of illegal gambling house operator Willie Dante for Dick Powell to play on this series. The character was later revamped and spun off in his own series starring Howard Duff, then-husband of Lupino. The pilot for Meet McGraw, starring Frank Lovejoy, aired here, as did another episode in which Lovejoy recreated his role of Chicago newspaper reporter Randy Stone, from the radio drama Nightbeat.
bee
Reunion in Reno
Title: Reunion in Reno
Character: Mrs. Doris Linaker
Released: October 9, 1951
Type: Movie
A little girl enlists the aid of an attorney to obtain a divorce from her parents. Breezy B comedy was loosely remade as Irreconcilable Differences.
bee
Payment on Demand
Title: Payment on Demand
Character: Eileen Benson
Released: February 3, 1951
Type: Movie
David gives his wife, Joyce, an unexpected—and unpleasant—surprise when he suddenly demands a divorce. When she then learns that David has taken up with a younger woman, Joyce decides to make the most of this separation by taking a solo trip to the Caribbean. However, just before diving into a vacation fling, she runs into Emily, an old chum whose own divorce has left her embittered. Joyce then debates giving married life one last chance.
bee
Title: Lux Video Theatre
Character: Louise
Released: October 2, 1950
Type: TV
Lux Video Theatre is an American anthology series that was produced from 1950 until 1959. The series presented both comedy and drama in original teleplays, as well as abridged adaptations of films and plays.
bee
Four Faces West
Title: Four Faces West
Character: Fay Hollister
Released: August 3, 1948
Type: Movie
Cowboy Ross McEwen arrives in town. He asks the banker for a loan of $2000. When the banker asks about securing a loan that large, McEwen shows him his six-gun collateral. The banker hands over the money in exchange for an I.O.U., signed "Jefferson Davis". McEwen rides out of town and catches a train, but not before being bitten by a rattler. On the train, a nurse, Miss Hollister, tends to his wound. A posse searches the train, but McEwen manages to escape notice. However a mysterious Mexican has taken note of the cowboy, and that loudmouthed brat is still nosing around. Who will be the first to claim the reward for the robber's capture?
bee
The Private Affairs of Bel Ami
Title: The Private Affairs of Bel Ami
Character: Marie de Varenne
Released: April 25, 1947
Type: Movie
A self-serving journalist uses influential women in late-1800s Paris and denies the one who truly loves him.
bee
Patrick the Great
Title: Patrick the Great
Character: Lynn Andrews
Released: May 4, 1945
Type: Movie
A famous stage actor hopes to land the lead role in a big new Broadway musical, but he's unaware his teenage son has already been given the part.
bee
Happy Land
Title: Happy Land
Character: Agnes Marsh
Released: November 10, 1943
Type: Movie
An Iowa drugstore owner becomes embittered when his son is killed in World War II. The druggist believes that the boy's life was cut short before he had an opportunity to truly appreciate his existence.
bee
I Walked with a Zombie
Title: I Walked with a Zombie
Character: Betsy Connell
Released: April 21, 1943
Type: Movie
A nurse in the Caribbean turns to voodoo in hopes of curing her patient, a mindless woman whose husband she's fallen in love with.
bee
Meet the Stewarts
Title: Meet the Stewarts
Character: Candace "Candy" Goodwin
Released: May 21, 1942
Type: Movie
A young, newlywed couple learns to make their marriage work—on a budget.
bee
Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 1
Title: Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 1
Character: Herself
Released: October 2, 1941
Type: Movie
Hedda Hopper guides us through some of Hollywood's sights; the home of William S. Hart and a Kay Kyser recording-session being among them.
bee
A Man Betrayed
Title: A Man Betrayed
Character: Sabra Cameron
Released: March 7, 1941
Type: Movie
Bucolic lawyer John Wayne takes on big-city corruption in A Man Betrayed. He sets out to prove that an above-suspicion politician (Edward Ellis) is actually a crook. The price of integrity is sweet in this instance, since Wayne happens to be in love with the politician's daughter (Frances Dee).
bee
So Ends Our Night
Title: So Ends Our Night
Character: Marie Steiner
Released: February 27, 1941
Type: Movie
An anti-Nazi on the run and a young Jewish couple race across Europe trying to escape Hitler's ever powerful influence.
bee
Coast Guard
Title: Coast Guard
Character: Nancy Bliss
Released: August 4, 1939
Type: Movie
Steady, dependable Coast Guard Lieutenant Raymond "Ray" Dower and reckless aviator Thomas "Speed" Bradshaw are the closest of friends. Ray saves the life of Captain Tobias Bliss, tramp steamer skipper, in a daring rescue at sea. Speed flies the injured man back to the base hospital, where the two officers later visit him. There Ray meets Nancy Bliss, Bliss' grand-daughter, and falls in love with her. Speed meets her at a dance and urges Ray to propose before some other guy does. Ray is assigned to flood rescue duty, and Speed and Nancy start going out together and discover they are in love.
bee
If I Were King
Title: If I Were King
Character: Katherine de Vaucelles
Released: September 28, 1938
Type: Movie
King Louis XI masquerades as a commoner in Paris, seeking out the treachery he is sure lurks in his kingdom. At a local tavern, he overhears the brash poet François Villon extolling why he would be a better king. Annoyed yet intrigued, the King bestows on Villon the title of Grand Constable. Soon Villon begins work and falls for a lovely lady-in-waiting, but then must flee execution when the King turns on him.
bee
Wells Fargo
Title: Wells Fargo
Character: Justine Pryor
Released: December 31, 1937
Type: Movie
In the 1840s, Ramsey MacKay, the driver for the struggling Wells Fargo mail and freight company, will secure an important contract if he delivers fresh oysters to Buffalo from New York City. When he rescues Justine Pryor and her mother, who are stranded in a broken wagon on his route, he doesn't let them slow him down and gives the ladies an exhilirating ride into Buffalo. He arrives in time to obtain the contract and is then sent by company president Henry Wells to St. Louis to establish a branch office.
bee
Souls at Sea
Title: Souls at Sea
Character: Margaret Tarryton
Released: September 3, 1937
Type: Movie
Michael 'Nuggin' Taylor and Powdah save lives during a sea tragedy in this story about the slave trade on the high seas during 1842.
bee
Half Angel
Title: Half Angel
Character: Allison Lang
Released: May 22, 1936
Type: Movie
Allison Long is acquitted on charges of poisoning her father but then her benefactor is poisoned. Reporter Duffy Giles has faith in her innocence.
bee
The Gay Deception
Title: The Gay Deception
Character: Mirabel Miller
Released: September 13, 1935
Type: Movie
A wide-eyed working girl wins a $5,000 sweepstakes and plunges into the lush life of New York City, where she meets a bellboy who is more than he seems.
bee
Becky Sharp
Title: Becky Sharp
Character: Amelia Sedley
Released: June 28, 1935
Type: Movie
The first feature length film to use three-strip Technicolor film. Adapted from a play that was adapted from William Makepeace Thackeray's book "Vanity Fair", the film looks at the English class system during the Napoleonic Wars era.
bee
Of Human Bondage
Title: Of Human Bondage
Character: Sally Athelny
Released: July 20, 1934
Type: Movie
A young man finds himself attracted to a cold and unfeeling waitress who may ultimately destroy them both.
bee
Finishing School
Title: Finishing School
Character: Virginia Radcliffe
Released: May 4, 1934
Type: Movie
Virginia, who studies at a boarding school for upper-class girls, falls in love with a medical intern who works as a waiter for a living. Both the director of the school and her mother oppose such a relationship.
bee
Coming Out Party
Title: Coming Out Party
Character: Joyce 'Joy' Stanhope
Released: March 9, 1934
Type: Movie
In this romance, a lovely young debutante falls in love with a jazz violinist. Her mother wants her to marry a wealthy young man, but the strong-willed girl initially demurs until the night of her debut. Her social adviser fills the debutante’s dance card with partners, which inflames the violinist.
bee
Keep 'Em Rolling
Title: Keep 'Em Rolling
Character: Marjorie Deane
Released: March 2, 1934
Type: Movie
World War I drama about a soldier and the wild horse he befriends.
bee
Little Women
Title: Little Women
Character: Meg
Released: November 24, 1933
Type: Movie
Little Women is a coming-of-age drama tracing the lives of four sisters: Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. During the American Civil War, the girls father is away serving as a minister to the troops. The family, headed by their beloved Marmee, must struggle to make ends meet, with the help of their kind and wealthy neighbor, Mr. Laurence, and his high spirited grandson Laurie.
bee
Blood Money
Title: Blood Money
Character: Elaine Talbart
Released: November 17, 1933
Type: Movie
The title refers to the business of affable, ambitious bail bondsman (and politically-connected grifter) Bill Bailey, who, in the course of his work, crosses paths with every kind of offender there is, from first-time defendants to career criminals.
bee
One Man's Journey
Title: One Man's Journey
Character: Joan Stockton
Released: August 31, 1933
Type: Movie
Dr. Eli Watt, a widower, comes to a small town, considering himself a failure in his attempt to have a meaningful career in New York. He raises his son Jimmy as well as Letty, a baby whose mother has died in childbirth and whose father blames Watt and abandons the child. Watt dreams of returning to do research studies, but always something gets in the way: an epidemic, his children's needs, or the needs of his generally ungrateful patients. Only with the passing years does he come to find that his future isn't over and his past isn't quite the failure he believed.
bee
Headline Shooter
Title: Headline Shooter
Character: Jane Mallory
Released: July 28, 1933
Type: Movie
A newsreel photographer neglects his love life to get the perfect shot.
bee
The Silver Cord
Title: The Silver Cord
Character: Hester
Released: May 5, 1933
Type: Movie
A domineering matriarch is less than happy when her son brings home his new bride. She immediately sets to work at sabotaging their marriage as well as the engagement of her younger and weaker son.
bee
King of the Jungle
Title: King of the Jungle
Character: Ann Rogers
Released: March 10, 1933
Type: Movie
A white youth raised in the jungle by animals is captured by a safari and brought back to civilization as an attraction in a circus.
bee
The Crime of the Century
Title: The Crime of the Century
Character: Doris Brandt
Released: February 18, 1933
Type: Movie
A doctor who is also a “mentalist” confesses to a murder. The only problem is that the murder he’s confessed to hasn’t happened yet – although dead bodies are now starting to turn up all over the place. A reporter sets out to solve the “mystery”.
bee
Hollywood on Parade No. A-6
Title: Hollywood on Parade No. A-6
Character: Self
Released: January 12, 1933
Type: Movie
A promotional film featuring movie stars at play. Includes Buster Keaton in a Napoleonic admiral suit in his "land yacht", a custom-built bus he occasionally lived in during the period.
bee
If I Had a Million
Title: If I Had a Million
Character: Mary Wallace (uncredited)
Released: November 18, 1932
Type: Movie
An elderly business tycoon, believed to be dying, decides to give a million dollars each to eight strangers chosen at random from the phone directory.
bee
The Night of June 13
Title: The Night of June 13
Character: Ginger Blake
Released: September 17, 1932
Type: Movie
Elna Curry, once a concert pianist, develops an unfounded jealousy of neighbor, Trudie Morrow. Elna who suffers from neurasthenia, believes that Trudie is having an affair with her husband, John, and vows revenge on Trudie. John explains to Trudie Elna's condition and plan. Trudie, being good-hearted tells John that she'll move. One evening, John returns late from work to discover Elna dead. John burns Elna's suicide note to protect Trudie. This results in John being charged for murder and put on trial.
bee
Love Is a Racket
Title: Love Is a Racket
Character: Mary Wodehouse
Released: June 18, 1932
Type: Movie
A gossip columnist helps a Broadway ingenue who's beholden to a penthouse gangster.
bee
The Strange Case of Clara Deane
Title: The Strange Case of Clara Deane
Character: Nancy Deane
Released: May 6, 1932
Type: Movie
A young dress designer marries an insurance agent. They soon have a daughter, but what the wife doesn't know is that her husband is actually a criminal...
bee
This Reckless Age
Title: This Reckless Age
Character: Lois Ingals
Released: January 9, 1932
Type: Movie
Donald Ingals and his wife Eunice are conventional and loving parents who are shocked when their son Bradley comes home from college with ideas that they consider to be outrageous. His parents would like him to get involved with Mary Burke, a prim and proper young lady. More complications ensue because Bradley's sister Lois is attracted to the flapper lifestyle, but she isn't sure whether she can handle its emotional demands.
bee
Working Girls
Title: Working Girls
Character: Louise Adams
Released: December 12, 1931
Type: Movie
Two sisters from Indiana, the wide-eyed and innocent Mae Thorpe, and her more streetwise sister June, move into the Rolf House for Homeless Girls in New York. With June's help, Mae obtains a job as a stenographer for the scientist Joseph von Schraeder, while June gets work as a telegraph operator at Western Union.
bee
Nice Women
Title: Nice Women
Character: Jerry Girard
Released: November 28, 1931
Type: Movie
A mother tries to get her daughter to marry for money, but the daughter wants to marry for love.
bee
Rich Man's Folly
Title: Rich Man's Folly
Character: Ann Trumbull
Released: November 14, 1931
Type: Movie
The dream of Paul Dombey, the wealthy owner of the shipping company, is to have a son to continue his business. Tragically, Dombey's wife dies shortly after giving birth to their son.
bee
An American Tragedy
Title: An American Tragedy
Character: Sondra Finchley
Released: August 22, 1931
Type: Movie
A social climber charms a debutante, seduces a factory worker and commits murder.
bee
Caught
Title: Caught
Character: Kate Winslow
Released: August 8, 1931
Type: Movie
Calamity Jane is a tough and rowdy woman in the old West who owns a saloon and gambling joint (and runs a cattle rustling operation as a sideline). One day she hires a pretty but naive young woman to work as a saloon girl, and finds that the girl is bringing out the maternal instincts she never knew she had. Those instincts are put to the test when a US army cavalry troop arrives to clean up the town and the girl and the young lieutenant in charge of the troop fall in love, and Calamity Jane may know something about the lieutenant that the girl doesn't.
bee
June Moon
Title: June Moon
Character: Edna Baker
Released: March 21, 1931
Type: Movie
An ordinary Joe has ambitions to become a Tin Pan Alley writer.
bee
Along Came Youth
Title: Along Came Youth
Character: Elinor
Released: December 20, 1930
Type: Movie
An American sportsman stranded in London poses as a cook to remain near the aristocratic lady he would woo.
bee
Playboy of Paris
Title: Playboy of Paris
Character: Yvonne Philibert
Released: October 18, 1930
Type: Movie
Yvonne, daughter of Philibert, a Paris cafe owner, is in love with dreamy, blundering Albert, a waiter, though he pays little attention to her. Philibert plans to marry his daughter to a wealthy Parisian, but upon learning that Albert is to come into a large inheritance, he conspires to place him under a longterm contract, confident that he willingly will pay a forfeit to break it.
bee
Follow Thru
Title: Follow Thru
Character: Womanin Ladies' Locker Room (uncredited)
Released: September 26, 1930
Type: Movie
Lora Moore, the club champion, loses a golf match to a woman from another golf club. Then Jerry Downs, a handsome golf pro, and his goofy friend, Jack Martin, show up. Lora takes him on as her golf teacher to work on her putt. She falls for him, but so do several other women. Meanwhile Angie Howard, Lora's friend, chases after Jack. A lot of silliness ensues.
bee
Monte Carlo
Title: Monte Carlo
Character: Receptionist (uncredited)
Released: August 27, 1930
Type: Movie
A countess fleeing her husband mistakes a count for her hairdresser at a Monte Carlo casino.
bee
A Man from Wyoming
Title: A Man from Wyoming
Character: Nurse (uncredited)
Released: July 12, 1930
Type: Movie
A story about a man from Wyoming who enlists in the Army and is sent to the front during World War I. There he saves the life of an American society girl working in the Ambulance Corps. Afterwards at a rest camp, they meet again, fall in love, and are secretly married.
bee
True to the Navy
Title: True to the Navy
Character: Girl at Table (uncredited)
Released: May 25, 1930
Type: Movie
Ruby is a counter girl at the San Diego Soda Shop with a habit of being a girlfriend to Sailors stopping by. Things get a little zany when she sets her eyes on Bull's Eye McCoy a gunner who refuses to settle down.
bee
Words and Music
Title: Words and Music
Character: Co-Ed (uncredited)
Released: August 18, 1929
Type: Movie
Phil and Pete compete for Mary's love and also in a contest for best song written by a college student.