Marion Davies

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.

Cast

Blondie of the Follies

(Blondie McClune)

Citizen Hearst

(Self (archival footage))

Show People

(Peggy Pepper)

Ever Since Eve

(Marge Winton)

Behind the Scenes of Cain and Mabel

(Herself)

The Hollywood Revue of 1929

(Self)

Going Hollywood

(Sylvia Bruce)

Screen Snapshots, Series 3, No. 12

(Self)

The Wife of the Centaur

(Cameo in chorus line)

The Patsy

(Patricia Harrington)

Five and Ten

(Jennifer Rarick)

When Knighthood Was in Flower

(Mary Tudor)

The Cardboard Lover

(Sally)

Hollywood: The Dream Factory

(Self (archive footage))

Operator 13

(Gail Loveless)

Janice Meredith

(Janice Meredith)

The Red Mill

(Tina)

The Cinema Murder

(Elizabeth Dalston)

Marianne

(Marianne)

Peg o' My Heart

(Margaret 'Peg' O'Connell)

The Florodora Girl

(Daisy Dell)

Cain and Mabel

(Mabel O'Dare)

The Fair Co-Ed

(Marion)

Hearts Divided

(Betsy Patterson)

Beauty's Worth

(Prudence Cole)

Page Miss Glory

(Loretta)

Little Old New York

(Patricia O'Day)

Polly of the Circus

(Polly Fisher)

Not So Dumb

(Dulcy)

The Bachelor Father

(Antoinette "Tony" Flagg)

Checking Out: Grand Hotel

((archive footage))

A Trip to Paramountown

(Self)

Hedda Hopper's Hollywood

(Self)

The Christmas Party

(Herself)

Enchantment

(Ethel Hoyt)

The Battle Over Citizen Kane

(Self (archive footage))

Beverly of Graustark

(Beverly Calhoun)

Zander the Great

(Mamie Smith)

Adam and Eva

(Eva King)

Quality Street

(Phoebe Throssel)

The Restless Sex

(Stephanie)

It's a Wise Child

(Joyce Stanton)

The Pilgrim

(Congregation Member (uncredited))

Getting Mary Married

(Mary Bussard)

Lights of Old Broadway

(Fely / Anne)

The Bride's Play

(Enid of Cashell / Aileen Barrett)

That's Entertainment! III

((archive footage))

April Folly

(April Poole)

The Belle of New York

(Violet Gray)

Buried Treasure

(Pauline Vandermuellen)

A Dream Comes True

(Herself (uncredited))

Pirate Party on Catalina Isle

(Marion Davies)

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

(Chariot Race Spectator (uncredited))

The Young Diana

(Diana May)

Tillie the Toiler

(Tillie Jones)

Yolanda

(Princess Mary / Yolanda)

The Love Goddesses

((archive footage))

The Big Parade of Comedy

(Tina in 'The Red Mill' (archive footage))

Runaway Romany

(Romany)

Cecilia of the Pink Roses

(Cecilia)

The Burden of Proof

(Elaine Brooks)

The Dark Star

(Rue Carew)

Captured on Film: The True Story of Marion Davies

((archive footage))