DOROTHY MCGUIRE Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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DOROTHY MCGUIRE

Name: Dorothy Hackett McGuire                                                         
Born: 14 June 1916 Omaha, Nebraska, United States                                     
Died: 13 September 2001 Santa Monica, California, United States                       
                                                                                       
Dorothy Hackett McGuire (June 14, 1916 – September 13, 2001) was an Academy         
Award-nominated American actress.                                                     
                                                                                       
Born in Omaha, Nebraska, she began her acting career on the stage in numerous         
summer stock productions. Eventually, she succeeded on Broadway, first appearing       
as an understudy to Martha Scott in Our Town, and subsequently starring in the         
domestic comedy, Claudia.                                                             
                                                                                       
Brought to Hollywood by producer David O. Selznick on the strength of her stage       
performance, McGuire starred in her first film, a movie adaptation of her             
Broadway success, Claudia, and portrayed the character of a child bride who           
almost destroys her marriage through her selfishness. Her inaugural screen             
performance was popular with both the public and critics alike and was the             
catalyst for not only a sequel, Claudia and David (both movies co-starring             
Robert Young), but also for numerous other film roles.                                 
                                                                                       
McGuire had a lengthy Hollywood career. Her versatility served her well in taut       
melodramas, such as The Spiral Staircase and Make Haste to Live, as well as in         
light, frothy comedies, such as Mother Didn't Tell Me and Mister 880. By 1943,         
at the age of 27, she was already playing mother roles, in such movies as A Tree       
Grows In Brooklyn. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in         
1947 for Gentleman's Agreement. Other notable films include Three Coins in the         
Fountain, Friendly Persuasion, Old Yeller, Swiss Family Robinson, and The             
Greatest Story Ever Told.                                                             
                                                                                       
Married to Life Magazine photographer John Swope for more than 35 years, she had       
a son, photographer Mark Swope, and a daughter Topo (born 1948), who also became       
an actress. McGuire died of cardiac arrest following a brief illness at the age       
of 85 in 2001.                                                                         
                                                                                       
McGuire has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6933 Hollywood Blvd.