Dorothy McGuire
Dorothy Hackett McGuire was an American actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for Gentleman's Agreement and won the National Board of Review Award for Best Actress for Friendly Persuasion.
Life and career
Early years
Born in Omaha, Nebraska, McGuire was the only child of Thomas Johnson McGuire and Isabelle Flaherty McGuire. She made her stage debut at the age of 13 at the local community playhouse in Barrie's A Kiss for Cinderella. Her co-star was Henry Fonda, who was also born in Nebraska and was making a return visit to his home town after becoming a success on Broadway.After her father's death, McGuire attended a convent school in Indianapolis, Indiana. She later attended Pine Manor Junior College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, serving as president of that school's drama club. She graduated from Pine Manor when she was 19.
Theatre
She appeared in summer stock at Deertrees, Maine, in 1937 before going to New York.She acted on radio, playing Sue in the serial Big Sister and took part in an experimental television broadcast, The Mysterious Mummy Case. She was hired by producer Jed Harris to understudy the ingenue in a Broadway play, Stop Over, which ran only 23 performances.
She was then understudy to Martha Scott in Our Town in 1938. She eventually took over Scott's role.
She toured in My Dear Children opposite John Barrymore and, in 1939, was in a revue with Benny Goodman, Swingin' the Dream. She had a role in the short lived Medicine Show, and a part in the longer running revival of Kind Lady.
''Claudia''
McGuire achieved Broadway fame when cast in the title role of the domestic comedy Claudia. It ran for 722 performances from 1941 to 1943. Brooks Atkinson wrote "She gives a splendid performance of a part that would be irritating if it were played by a dull actress. She is personally genuine; the charm she radiates across the play is not merely theatrical mannerism. "Brought to Hollywood by producer David O. Selznick on the strength of her stage performance, McGuire starred in her first film Claudia, a movie adaptation of her Broadway success, portraying a child bride who almost destroys her marriage through her selfishness. Selznick developed the project then sold it to 20th Century Fox; under this deal Selznick would share McGuire's services with Fox.
McGuire's co-star in Claudia was Robert Young, and RKO reunited them in The Enchanted Cottage, which was a box office success.
At age 28, she played the mother in A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, replacing Gene Tierney who had fallen pregnant. Under the direction of Elia Kazan at 20th Century Fox the film was a big success.
So too was The Spiral Staircase in which McGuire played the lead role, a mute. It was originally prepared by Selznick who envisioned Ingrid Bergman in the lead; Selznick sold the project to RKO along with the services for his producer Dore Schary.
McGuire and Young made a third film together, Claudia and David, a sequel to Claudia, which was less well received. Schary and RKO put her in Till the End of Time, a popular hit. She later said, "I fought the hardest for this role and it was my least successful. I went right back to playing nice girls and faithful wives. "
She was offered the lead in Anna and the King of Siam but turned it down to go travelling with her family.
McGuire was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for Gentleman's Agreement directed by Kazan at Fox. The film was a surprise hit.
Following this film, she and Peck and some other actors helped form the La Jolla Playhouse. She appeared in productions of The Importance of Being Earnest, I Am a Camera, The Winslow Boy and then went to live in Italy for a year.
Selznick announced a variety of films to star McGuire that were not made including Dark Medallion, A Doll's House Wings of the Dove and Sands of Time.
Radio
McGuire was a member of the cast of Big Sister, and Joyce Jordan, M.D.. She also appeared in This Is My Best, Screen Directors Playhouse and in Theatre Guild on the Air.Decline as star
McGuire spent some time away from screens before returning in two movies for Fox, Mother Didn't Tell Me and Mister 880. Neither was particularly popular.She made her TV debut in Robert Montgomery Presents, an adaptation of Dark Victory, with McGuire playing the Bette Davis role. Schary had become head of production at MGM, where McGuire appeared in Callaway Went Thataway, which lost money. She did I Want You for Sam Goldwyn then returned to Broadway for Legend of Lovers but it only had a short run.
McGuire made Invitation at MGM, which flopped, and Make Haste to Live at Republic. She had a huge hit with Three Coins in the Fountain at Fox and appeared in episodes of The United States Steel Hour, Lux Video Theatre, The Best of Broadway and Climax!.
At MGM she was in Trial, playing Glenn Ford's love interest. The movie was a hit.
Mother roles
McGuire was cast as Gary Cooper's wife in Friendly Persuasion, directed by William Wyler. The success of this performance saw her cast in a series of "mother" roles, continuing with Old Yeller at Disney.McGuire returned to Broadway in Winesburg, Ohio which had a short run, then she played a wife and mother in The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker at Fox.
She was the matriarchs in some melodramas: This Earth Is Mine with Jean Simmons at Universal; A Summer Place for Delmer Daves with Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue at Warners, a big success; and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs.
She returned to Disney with Swiss Family Robinson, one of the most popular films of the year. She made a second film with Daves and Donahue, Susan Slade playing a mother who passed off her daughter's illegitimate child as her own. She was a mother in Disney's Summer Magic.
McGuire played the Virgin Mary in The Greatest Story Ever Told. She was off screen for a number of years before returning in a British family film, Flight of the Doves.
Television
McGuire appeared in some TV movies, She Waits and a PBS adaptation of Another Part of the Forest. She provided voice work for Jonathan Livingston Seagull and made one final appearance on Broadway in a revival of The Night of the Iguana alongside Richard Chamberlain.However most of McGuire's later career work was for the small screen: The Runaways, Rich Man, Poor Man, the pilot for Little Women, The Incredible Journey of Doctor Meg Laurel, Ghost Dancing, Amos, Between the Darkness and the Dawn, American Geisha, Caroline? and The Last Best Year.
She was also in episodes of Fantasy Island, Hotel, The Love Boat, Glitter, St Elsewhere and Highway to Heaven. She provided the narration for Summer Heat and toured in 1987 in I Never Sang for My Father.
In 1982, she said, "I love my career, but I never felt much about it--about how to nurture it...It's been very erratic, after all....To this day, I don't know what shapes a Hollywood career....I was never a classic beauty. I had no image. So I found myself in a lot of things accidentally."
Personal life and death
Married to Life magazine photographer John Swope for more than 35 years, she had a son, photographer Mark Swope, and a daughter, actress Topo Swope.McGuire died of cardiac arrest on Thursday, September 13, 2001, following a brief illness, at the age of 85.
Recognition
For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Dorothy McGuire has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard. It was dedicated February 8, 1960.Complete filmography
Complete TV credits
| Year | Title | Role | Episode |
| 1951 | Robert Montgomery Presents | Judith Traherne | "Dark Victory" |
| 1954 | The United States Steel Hour | Tina | "A Garden in the Sea" |
| 1954 | Lux Video Theatre | Jody Norris | "To Each His Own" |
| 1954 | Tracy Lord | "The Philadelphia Story" | |
| 1954 | Climax! | Janet Spence | "The Gioconda Smile" |
| 1954 | What's My Line | Herself | |
| 1956 | Climax! | Miranda | "Pale Horse, Pale Rider" |
| 1964 | The Red Skelton Hour | Guest Vocalist | "A Man and His Money Are Soon Parted" |
| 1976 | Rich Man, Poor Man | Mary Jordache | 7 episodes |
| 1982 | The Love Boat | Hanna Hamilton | "Thanksgiving Cruise: The Best of Friends/Too Many Dads/Love Will Find a Way" |
| 1983 | Fantasy Island | Joan Mallory | "Three's a Crowd/Second Time Around" |
| 1984 | The Love Boat | Sarah Webster | "Aerobic April/The Wager/Story of the Century" |
| 1984 | The Young and the Restless | Cora Miller | |
| 1985 | Hotel | Mrs. Christopher | "Skeletons" |
| 1985 | Glitter | The Matriarch | "The Matriarch" |
| 1986 | St. Elsewhere | Augusta Endicott | 3 episodes |
| 1986 | Highway to Heaven | Jane Thompson | "Keep Smiling" |
| 1988 | Highway to Heaven | Jane Thompson | "We Have Forever: Part 1" "We Have Forever: Part 2" |
| 1988 | American Playhouse | Margaret Garrison | "I Never Sang for My Father" |