Mary Ella Dees {born September 9, 1911-died August 4, 2004} was an Amercian stage and screen actress who once served as a primary stand-in double for late 1930's actress Jean Harlow [1]. Dees, often cast as the ingénue, worked in a number of big budget MGM produced pictures mostly during the 1930's, including The Last Gangster (1937) with James Stewart - in which she played a gangster's moll - and George Cukor directed film The Women (1939), as well as a number of Three Stooges shors, which included Hoi Polloi (1935), and numerous Marx Brothers comedies. A favorite of noted director Irving Thalberg, he requested her to call him "Pappa". "If one played with Pappa," Dees had recalled some nearly 70 years later before her passing, "then Pappa gave one parts in pictures." Since Thalberg was the most powerful man in Hollywood, starlets seldom ever said "no".
Mary Dees | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 1, 1911 Syracuse, New York, U.S. |
| Died | August 4, 2004 (aged 92) Lake Worth, Florida, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1929-1985 |
Biography and career
Born in Syracuse, New York, the daughter of a successful lawyer, Dees, who was also for a time raised in Tuscaloosa, Alabama,[2]. had embarked on her career in summer stock theatre while still a teen in 1929, followed by the back row of a New York chorus line. But by 1933, Dees had installed herself at the Garden of Allah hotel complex in Hollywood, owned by the silent movie star Nazimova. In 1937, upon the death of starlet actress Jean Harlow, Mary was employed by MGM boss Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg as a four-minute stand in for Harlow, who was acting on the film Saratoga with Clark Gable, which was still in production at the time; in desperation the producers Mayer and Thalberg had scrambled to find a replacement double to shoot the remaining 4 minutes that were needed to complete the project, which had been in danger of being shelved. Dees filled in admirably the star, albeit briefly, with her back to the camera or wearing a floppy hat most of the time, as the film went on to become one of 1937's biggest critical and box-office hits, as well as probably one of Harlow's most noted works.
Later career
Dees appeared in her last film role in 1946, appearing in the Marx Brothers film A Night in Casablanca. She continued on act on stage in repretoiry theatre, first in her homestate New York area and then, after later on, in a move to South Florida, from 1960 on. She retired from acting altogether in 1985.
Personal
Dees, who also was a long-term date of boxer Jack Dempsey, also had briefly at one time dated reputed mobster Johnny Roselli. "I didn't pick boyfriends very well," she said. "My choice of dates did frustrate MGM bosses and horrified my mother." In 1937, she met 1933 King Kong film star Bruce Cabot while working on the film Bad Guy; Their relationship eventually ended in the early 1940s. Into her 90's, Dees had reportedly always tried her best to look the part of a star actor; in wearing gargantuan floppy hats and long painted nails. "We were stars," Dees was once quoted as saying. "Today actors look like any other jerk on the street."
Mary Dees died on August 4, 2004 in Lake Worth, Florida at age 92, less than a month before her 93rd birthday, after a long bout with an undisclosed illness.[3]