Minnie Dupree (January 19, 1875 – May 23, 1947) was an American stage, film, and radio actress. During the Great Depression, she helped organize the Stage Relief Fund to assist unemployed actors and actresses.
Biography
Born in
San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
, Dupree made her acting debut in a touring company under
John A. Stevens in 1887.
The next year, she made a big impression in a small role in
William Gillette
William Hooker Gillette (July 24, 1853 – April 29, 1937) was an American actor-manager, playwright, and stage-manager in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best remembered for portraying Sherlock Holmes on stage and in a 1916 ...
's New York play ''Held by the Enemy''.
Richard Mansfield
Richard Mansfield (24 May 1857 – 30 August 1907) was an English actor-manager best known for his performances in Shakespeare plays, Gilbert and Sullivan operas, and the play '' Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde''.
Life and career
Mansfield was born ...
, Stuart Robson Stuart Robson may refer to:
* Stuart Robson (actor)
* Stuart Robson (speedway rider)
See also
* Stewart Robson
Stewart Ian Robson (born 6 November 1964) is an English former football player and TV and radio football pundit. He played for A ...
, and Nat Goodwin
Nathaniel Carl "Nat" Goodwin (July 25, 1857 – January 31, 1919) was an American actor and vaudevillian born in Boston.
Life and career
While clerk in a large shop Goodwin studied for the stage and made his first appearance in 1874 at the How ...
.[ She landed a starring role in 1900 in ''Women and Wine''.][ Other leading roles followed, including in ''The Climbers'' (1901), ''A Rose o' Plymouth-town'' (1902), ''Heidelberg'' (1902), ''The Music Master'' (1904), and ''The Road to Yesterday'' (1906).
Her later stage career was not successful, and exceptions were ''The Old Soak'' (1922), ''The Shame Woman'' (1923), '']Outward Bound
Outward Bound (OB) is an international network of outdoor education organizations that was founded in the United Kingdom by Lawrence Holt and Kurt Hahn in 1941. Today there are organizations, called schools, in over 35 countries which are att ...
'' (1924), playing Mrs. Midge, and as a replacement for the part of Martha Brewster in the hit '' Arsenic and Old Lace'' in 1941. Her last stage appearance was in ''Land's End'' (1946). She acted in two feature-length films: ''The Young in Heart
''The Young in Heart'' is a 1938 American comedy film produced by David O. Selznick, directed by Richard Wallace (director), Richard Wallace, and starring Janet Gaynor, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Paulette Goddard. The supporting cast features Rol ...
'' (1938), with Janet Gaynor
Janet Gaynor (born Laura Augusta Gainor; October 6, 1906 – September 14, 1984) was an American film, stage, and television actress.
Gaynor began her career as an extra in shorts and silent films. After signing with Fox Film Corporation (later ...
, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Douglas Elton Fairbanks Jr., (December 9, 1909 – May 7, 2000) was an American actor, producer and decorated naval officer of World War II. He is best known for starring in such films as ''The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1937), '' Gunga Din'' (1939) ...
, Paulette Goddard
Paulette Goddard (born Marion Levy; June 3, 1910 – April 23, 1990) was an American actress notable for her film career in the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Born in Manhattan and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Goddard initially began her career a ...
, Roland Young
Roland (; frk, *Hrōþiland; lat-med, Hruodlandus or ''Rotholandus''; it, Orlando or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the ...
, and Billie Burke
Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke (August 7, 1884 – May 14, 1970) was an American actress who was famous on Broadway and radio, and in silent and sound films. She is best known to modern audiences as Glinda the Good Witch of the North ...
, and ''Anne of Windy Poplars
Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie.
Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...
'' (1940).
Personal life
On November 8, 1896, it was announced that she would marry Major William H. Langley, a reputed millionaire, at the end of the season. At the time, she was described as a "handsome blonde, and the possessor of a magnificent head of curly hair."[
Dupree died in New York City on May 23, 1947, at age 72.
]
References
Further reading
Articles
* Arthur, Helen
"Beauties of the American Stage"
''National Magazine''. December 1904. p. 328 (image), p. 329 (article).
"Minnie Dupree an Advocate of Woman Suffrage"
''The Providence Evening News''. October 15, 1914.
"Stage Women's War Relief Makes Its First Shipment: First Box of Surgical Dressings Packed Under Supervision of Minnie Dupree"
''Billboard''. May 5, 1917. p. 16
* Parsons, Louella
"'Over the Hill,' Old Melodrama, May Be Remade; Minnie Dupree Picked for Aged Mother"
The Milwaukee Sentinel. November 29, 1938.
"Portrait of Actress Brought from Frat"
''The Lawrence Journal-World''. May 11, 1940.
* Winchell, Walter
"The Star's Dressing Room"
''The Daytona Beach Morning Journal''. February 7, 1947.
"Minnie Dupree Dies; Stage, Film Actress"
''The Montreal Gazette''. May 24, 1947.
Books
*Briscoe, Johnson (1907)
"January 19: Minnie Dupree"
''The Actor's Birthday Book: An Authoritative Insight Into the Lives of the Men and Women of the Stage Born Between January 1 and December 31''. New York: Moffat, Yard & Company. p. 30.
* Browne, Walter; Koch, E. De Roy, editors (1908)
''Whos Who On the Stage, 1908''
New York: B. Dodge & Company. p. 141.
* Hines, Dixie; Hanaford, Harry Prescott, editors (1914)
''Who's Who in Music and Drama''
New York: H. P. Hanaford. p. 104.
* Parker, John, editor (1922)
''Who's Who in the Theatre''
Boston: Small,Maynard & Company. p. 247.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dupree, Minnie
1875 births
1947 deaths
19th-century American actresses
20th-century American actresses
Actresses from San Francisco
American film actresses
American radio actresses
American stage actresses