McGuire, Dorothy (1918—)

views updated

McGuire, Dorothy (1918—)

American actress who was nominated for an Academy Award for her work in Gentleman's Agreement . Born Dorothy Hackett McGuire on June 14, 1918, in Omaha, Nebraska; daughter of Thomas Johnson McGuire and Isabelle (Flaherty) McGuire; attended Pine Manor Junior College, c. 1936; married John Swope (a photographer), in 1943; children: one son; daughter Topo Swope .

Moved to New York City (c. 1937); won title role in first Broadway play (1940); made film debut (1943); nominated for Academy Award (1948).

Selected filmography:

Claudia (1943); A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1944); The Enchanted Cottage (1945); The Spiral Staircase (1946); Claudia and David (1946); Gentleman's Agreement (1947); Mother Didn't Tell Me (1950); Three Coins in the Fountain (1954); Trial (1955); Old Yeller (1957); The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker (1959); The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960); Susan Slade (1961); Summer Magic (1962); The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965); (voice only) Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1975).

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1918, Dorothy McGuire began acting as a child and appeared in a local theater production of Cinderella at age 12; her costar, a friend of the family, was Henry Fonda. McGuire's father died when she was a teenager, and as a result she was sent to a convent school in Indianapolis. Afterward, she went on to Pine Manor Junior College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, but departed in the late 1930s to try her luck in New York City. Aside from a job as understudy to Martha Scott in Our Town (1938), she found little success in her audition rounds, and barely survived with summer stock work and touring companies. In 1940, her luck changed when she won the coveted title role in Claudia, Rose Franken 's stage adaptation of her popular stories. McGuire made her Broadway debut the following February to effusive critical praise, and was signed to a studio contract to reprise the role on the silver screen. The 1943 film version of Claudia, the story of a naive newlywed who breaks free of her attachment to her mother, marked her screen debut.

Dorothy McGuire went on to appear in a number of other critically acclaimed films, including A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1944), based on the novel by Betty Smith , The Spiral Staircase (1946), for which studio executive David O. Selznick gave her a convertible as a bonus, and the film version of Laura Z. Hobson 's novel Gentleman's Agreement (1947), a role that earned her an Academy Award nomination. During the 1950s, she was cast in Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), Old Yeller (1957), and The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker (1959), among other films. Later credits included The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960), based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by William Inge, The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), in which she portrayed Mary the Virgin , and a voice role in Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1975).

McGuire was known for her determined attitude. She earned some enmity within the studio for refusing to be made up to look extremely ugly for her role as a homely woman who finds love with a disfigured man in The Enchanted Cottage (1945), although film critics generally agree that her choice was correct. She also turned down the lead in Anna and the

King of Siam (1946), the movie version of Margaret Landon 's book about Anna Leonowens (Irene Dunne took the part instead), and declined to be part of the studio publicity machine by being seen on the town with actors. In 1943, she married photographer John Swope, with whom she had two children, and made her home in Beverly Hills. Though she went back to Broadway in 1976 in a revival of Tennessee Williams' Night of the Iguana, McGuire confined her screen work after 1973 to television movies.