Dorothy Malone

Stars

Born Dorothy Eloise Maloney on Jan. 30, 1925 in Chicago, Ill.

Died Jan. 19, 2018 in Dallas, Texas

Dorothy Malone found success in Hollywood at a young age.

RKO Pictures signed the then-brunette Maloney at 18, and she made her film debut in 1943's “Gildersleeve on Broadway” and “The Falcon and the Co-Eds.” She signed with Warner Bros. in 1945 (and by that time was officially known as Dorothy Malone) and made a splash in a small but juicy supporting role as a flirtatious book seller opposite Humphrey Bogart in 1946's “The Big Sleep.”

Eventually becoming a blonde, Malone made a series of forgettable films including 1949’s “Flaxy Martin” and 1955’s “Sincerely Yours” with Liberace. In 1956, she teamed up with director Douglas Sirk (as well as Rock Hudson and Lauren Bacall) and won a supporting actress Oscar as a hard-drinking nymphomaniac in “Written on the Wind.” She worked with Sirk again 1957’s “The Tarnished Angels.”

She never shied away from doing TV during her movie heyday, appearing in “Route 66,” “Death Valley Days” and “Dr. Kildare.” She also played Constance MacKenzie Carson on the 1964-68 ABC prime-time melodrama “Peyton Place,” based on the novel and 1957 movie. Baby boomers may also remember her from the first Frankie Avalon-Annette Funicello musical comedy, 1963’s “Beach Party.” Her last film role was as Hazel Dobkins in 1992’s “Basic Instinct.”

Malone died January 19, 2018, at an assisted living center in Dallas. She was 93.

— Susan King for the Los Angeles Times June 28, 2010, updated January 24, 2018

Related stars

Points of interest

Academy Awards

Year	Category	Work
1956	Best Supporting Actress	Written on the Wind	Win

Four thoughts about Dorothy Malone

“

I've spoke with Dorothy from Hollywood about every week or few weeks for going on 12 1/2 years (except one time for about 2years when I and my girlfriend misplaced her number) she is an extremely honorable and fabulous person! Her motion picture and tv career where sensational and she's so humble! She loves it when I or we call such a great and magnamious listener! She'd listen to stories all day. I've had her on the phone with fans; even the one legged man who shines her star on Vine St and in a conference call with a lawyer fan in Ohio. One the most memorable things she ever said was: "Be good to yourself, be good to the world, and the world will be good to you."
Closest stars: Ronald Reagan and Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart's wife ya know,
elaborating on what wonderful actors they
were to work with.
Other places she would find important besides Hollywood would be of course Dallas, Chicago, New York and Hong Kong.
Of course she deserves her Star with the Motion Picture emblem on it! She although
never hardly top-billed a movie was consistently the lovely leading lady who made the story captivating and enthralling.
The great Talk Show Host Larry King once told me riding down the elevator in the CNN building in Hollywood one time "She's my all time sex symbol." Finally as good as her career was from Bogart to Douglas and Sharon Stone she had those unhappy marriages; but is always so sweet and honorable.
.

” — Denny Malone, December 15, 2012 at 6:50 p.m.

Share a thought about Dorothy Malone

Did you ever meet Dorothy Malone? Share your memory.
Which other stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame have connections to Dorothy Malone?
Are other places in the world important to Dorothy Malone?
Does Dorothy Malone deserve this star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?