Frances Marion Dee (November 26, 1909 – March 6, 2004) was an American actress. Her first film was the musical ''

Playboy of Paris ''Playboy of Paris'' is a 1930 American pre-Code musical comedy film directed by Ludwig Berger and starring Maurice Chevalier, Frances Dee (in her film debut), and O.P. Heggie. It was based on a 1911 play '' The Little Cafe'' by Tristan Bernard ...

'' (1930). She starred in the film ''

An American Tragedy ''An American Tragedy'' is a 1925 novel by American writer Theodore Dreiser. He began the manuscript in the summer of 1920, but a year later abandoned most of that text. It was based on the notorious murder of Grace Brown in 1906 and the trial of ...

'' (1931). She is also known for starring in the 1943

Val Lewton Val Lewton (May 7, 1904 – March 14, 1951) was a Russian-American novelist, film producer and screenwriter best known for a string of low-budget horror films he produced for RKO Pictures in the 1940s. His son, also named Val Lewton, was a pain ...

psychological horror film ''

I Walked With a Zombie ''I Walked with a Zombie'' is a 1943 American horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur and produced by Val Lewton for RKO Pictures. It stars James Ellison, Frances Dee, and Tom Conway, and follows a Canadian nurse who travels to care for th ...

''.

Early life

The younger daughter of Francis "Frank" Marion Dee and his wife, the former Henriette Putnam, Frances Marion Dee was born in Los Angeles, California, where her father worked as a civil-service examiner. When Dee was seven years old, her family moved to Chicago, Illinois. She attended Shakespeare Grammar School and Hyde Park High School, where she went by the nickname of Frankie Dee. After graduating from Hyde Park High in 1927, of which she was vice president of her senior class, as well as voted Belle of the Year, she spent two years at the University of Chicago, where she participated in dramatic activities, then returned to California.

Career

Following her sophomore year in 1929, she went on summer vacation with her mother and older sister to visit family in the Los Angeles area. She began working as a movie extra as a lark. Her big break came when she was still an extra; she was offered the lead opposite Maurice Chevalier in ''

''. The audience appeal established in two films opposite Paramount stars

Charles "Buddy" Rogers Charles Edward "Buddy" Rogers (August 13, 1904 – April 21, 1999) was an American film actor and musician. During the peak of his popularity in the late 1920s and early 1930s he was publicized as "America's Boyfriend". Life and career Early ...

and

Richard Arlen Richard Arlen (born Sylvanus Richard Mattimore, September 1, 1899 – March 28, 1976) was an American actor of film and television. Biography Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Arlen attended the University of Pennsylvania. He served in Canada as a ...

led to the co-starring role of Sondra Finchley, opposite

Phillips Holmes Phillips Raymond Holmes (July 22, 1907 – August 12, 1942) was an American actor. For his contributions to the film industry, he was posthumously given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. Early life, education and career Born in ...

and Sylvia Sidney, in Paramount Pictures's prestigious and controversial production of ''

'', directed by Josef von Sternberg. Dee's additional screen credits included ''

June Moon ''June Moon'' is a play by George S. Kaufman and Ring Lardner. Based on the Lardner short story "Some Like Them Cold," about a love affair that loses steam before it ever gets started, it includes songs with words and music by Lardner but is not ...

'', '' Little Women'', ''

Of Human Bondage ''Of Human Bondage'' is a 1915 novel by W. Somerset Maugham. The novel is generally agreed to be Maugham's masterpiece and to be strongly autobiographical in nature, although he stated, "This is a novel, not an autobiography; though much in i ...

'', ''

Becky Sharp Rebecca "Becky" Sharp, later describing herself as Rebecca, Lady Crawley, is the main protagonist of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1847–48 novel ''Vanity Fair''. She is presented as a cynical social climber who uses her charms to fascinate an ...

'', and ''

Payment on Demand ''Payment on Demand'' is a 1951 American drama film directed by Curtis Bernhardt and starring Bette Davis and Barry Sullivan. The screenplay by Bernhardt and Bruce Manning chronicles a marriage from its idealistic early days to its dissolution. P ...

''. She co-starred with her husband

Joel McCrea Joel Albert McCrea (November 5, 1905 – October 20, 1990) was an American actor whose career spanned a wide variety of genres over almost five decades, including comedy, drama, romance, thrillers, adventures, and Westerns, for which he bec ...

in the Western ''

Four Faces West ''Four Faces West'' is a 1948 American Western film starring Joel McCrea, his real-life wife Frances Dee, and Charles Bickford. It is based on the novel ''Pasó por aquí'' by Eugene Manlove Rhodes. Its plot concerns a down-on-his-luck cow ...

'' (1948).

Personal life

Dee met actor

on the set of the 1933 film ''The Silver Cord''. The couple married on October 20, 1933, after a whirlwind courtship, and remained married until McCrea's death in 1990. During their lifetime together, the McCreas lived, raised their children, and rode their horses on their ranch in what was then an unincorporated area of eastern Ventura County, California. They ultimately donated several hundred acres of their personal property to the newly formed Conejo Valley

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams (philanthropist), Georg ...

for the city of Thousand Oaks, California. Dee, like McCrea, was a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

. Joel McCrea died on their 57th wedding anniversary. Dee was honored at the 1998 Memphis Film Festival in Tennessee. In 2004, Frances Dee McCrea died in Norwalk, Connecticut due to complications from a stroke at the age of 94.

Filmography

References

External links

* *
francesdeemccrea.com
Biography and obituary
Photographs of Frances Dee
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dee, Frances 1909 births 2004 deaths 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses Actors from Norwalk, Connecticut American film actresses University of Chicago alumni Actresses from Chicago Actresses from Los Angeles California Republicans WAMPAS Baby Stars