Dennie Moore was an American film and stage actress.

Early life

Deena Rivka Moore was born in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 on New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...

 1902 to Jewish parents Oren Moore (January 12, 1883 — March 13, 1967), a cantor

Cantor

Cantor is surname of:* Andrés Cantor , Spanish-language soccer announcer* Anthony Cantor , British diplomat* Arthur Cantor , American theatrical producer* Aviva Cantor , American journalist, lecturer and author...

 at one of the local synagogue

Synagogue

A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...

s, and Gabriella Gefen (October 31, 1885 — November 19, 1954). In the late 1920s, she decided to pursue an acting career on the Broadway stage and in preparation for that she began going by the first name Dennie, reportedly in order to protect her family from any embarrassment as they opposed her career choice. She began her career on Broadway in 1927, appearing in such plays as A Lady in Love, The Trial of Mary Dugan, Cross Roads, Torch Song, Twentieth Century, Phantoms, Conflict, Anatol, and
Jarnegan.

Hollywood

In the 1930s, she decided to embark on a film career and in 1935 she arrived to Hollywood and made her screen debut opposite Cary Grant

Cary Grant

Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...

 and Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...

 in Sylvia Scarlett

Sylvia Scarlett

Sylvia Scarlett is a 1935 romantic comedy film starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, based on The Early Life and Adventures of Sylvia Scarlett‎, a novel by Compton MacKenzie. Directed by George Cukor, it was notorious as one of the most famous unsuccessful movies of the 1930s...

for RKO Radio Pictures; her role, however, was uncredited. She appeared in films starring such actors as Edward Arnold

Edward Arnold (actor)

Edward Arnold was an American actor. He was born on the Lower East Side of New York City as Gunther Edward Arnold Schneider, the son of German immigrants Carl Schneider and Elizabeth Ohse.-Acting career:...

, Victor Jory

Victor Jory

Victor Jory was a Canadian actor.-Biography:Born in Dawson City, Yukon, Jory was the boxing and wrestling champion of the Coast Guard during his military service, and he kept his burly physique. He toured with theater troupes and appeared on Broadway, before making his Hollywood debut in 1930...

, Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...

, Herbert Marshall

Herbert Marshall

Herbert Marshall , born Herbert Brough Falcon Marshall, was an English actor.His parents were Percy F. Marshall and Ethel May Turner. He graduated from St. Mary's College in Old Harlow, Essex and worked for a time as an accounting clerk...

, Melvyn Douglas

Melvyn Douglas

Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg , better known as Melvyn Douglas, was an American actor.Coming to prominence in the 1930s as a suave leading man , Douglas later transitioned into more mature and fatherly roles as in his Academy Award-winning performances in Hud...

, Edward Everett Horton

Edward Everett Horton

Edward Everett Horton was an American character actor. He had a long career in film, theater, radio, television and voice work for animated cartoons. He is especially known for his work in the films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.-Early life:Horton was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Isabella...

, Norma Shearer

Norma Shearer

Edith Norma Shearer was a Canadian-American actress. Shearer was one of the most popular actresses in North America from the mid-1920s through the 1930s...

, Errol Flynn

Errol Flynn

Errol Leslie Flynn was an Australian-born actor. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films, being a legend and his flamboyant lifestyle.-Early life:...

, Joan Blondell

Joan Blondell

Rose Joan Blondell was an American actress who performed in movies and on television for five decades as Joan Blondell.After winning a beauty pageant, Blondell embarked upon a film career...

, Hugh Herbert

Hugh Herbert

Hugh Herbert was a motion picture comedian. He began his career in vaudeville, and wrote more than 150 plays and sketches.-Career:...

, Pat O'Brien

Pat O'Brien (actor)

Pat O’Brien was an American film actor with more than one hundred screen credits.-Early life:O’Brien was born William Joseph Patrick O’Brien to an Irish-American Catholic family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He served as an altar boy at Gesu Church while growing up near 13th and Clybourn streets...

, Ann Sheridan

Ann Sheridan

-Life and career:Born Clara Lou Sheridan in Denton, Texas on February 21, 1915, she was a student at the University of North Texas when her sister sent a photograph of her to Paramount Pictures. She subsequently entered and won a beauty contest, with part of her prize being a bit part in a...

, George Brent

George Brent

George Brent was an Irish film and television actor in American cinema.-Early life:He was born George Brendan Nolan in Raharabeg, County Roscommon on the opposite bank of the River Shannon from the town of Shannonbridge, County Offaly, Ireland, the son of a British Army officer.During the Irish...

, David Niven

David Niven

James David Graham Niven , known as David Niven, was a British actor and novelist, best known for his roles as Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days and Sir Charles Lytton, a.k.a. "the Phantom", in The Pink Panther...

, John Garfield

John Garfield

John Garfield was an American actor adept at playing brooding, rebellious, working-class character roles. He grew up in poverty in Depression-era New York City and in the early 1930s became an important member of the Group Theater. In 1937 he moved to Hollywood, eventually becoming one of Warner...

, Rosalind Russell

Rosalind Russell

Rosalind Russell was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame...

, Fred MacMurray

Fred MacMurray

Frederick Martin "Fred" MacMurray was an American actor who appeared in more than 100 movies and a successful television series during a career that spanned nearly a half-century, from 1930 to the 1970s....

 and Ginger Rogers

Ginger Rogers

Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....

. She primarily was what is known as a "free-lance actress" and floated between Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...

 and Warner Bros. Studios.

In the course of her film career, she would star in twenty-two films between 1935 and 1951. Some of her film credits include parts in Boy Meets Girl (1938), The Women

The Women (1939 film)

The Women is a 1939 American comedy-drama film directed by George Cukor. The film is based on Clare Boothe Luce's play of the same name, and was adapted for the screen by Anita Loos and Jane Murfin, who had to make the film acceptable for the Production Code in order for it to be released.The film...

(1939), Saturday's Children (1940), Dive Bomber

Dive Bomber (film)

Dive Bomber is a 1941 American propaganda film directed by Michael Curtiz. It is notable for both its Technicolor photography of pre-World War II United States Navy aircraft and as a historical document of the US in 1941, including the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, one of the best known World...

(1941), and Anna Lucasta (1949).

By the mid-1940s, Moore found herself getting less work in Hollywood, but more parts on the New York stage. In 1951, she made her last screen appearance as Mrs. Bea Gingras in The Model and the Marriage Broker

The Model and the Marriage Broker

The Model and the Marriage Broker is a 1951 comedy film about a model who is so pleased with the work of a marriage broker, she decides to return the favor.-Cast:* Jeanne Crain as Kitty Bennett* Scott Brady as Matt Hornbeck* Thelma Ritter as Mae Swasey...

. Moving back to New York City she made one final performance on stage in The Diary of Anne Frank

The Diary of Anne Frank (play)

The Diary of Anne Frank is a stage adaptation of the book The Diary of a Young Girl. The play is a dramatization by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. It opened at the Cort Theatre, Broadway, on October 5, 1955, in a production by Kermit Bloomgarden, directed by Garson Kanin and designed by Boris...

in the role of Mrs. Van Daan. In 1957, she retired from acting all together, aged 54.

Later life and death

With her acting career behind her, Moore sold her house in Hollywood and permanently moved backed to her birthplace of New York City where she continued to live for the rest of her life. Following her retirement she was active in campaigning civil rights

Civil rights

Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...

 for Jewish communities and women's rights.

On February 22, 1978, Moore died of natural causes in her New York apartment, aged 75. She was cremated.

Stage appearances

• A Lady in Love (1927)
• The Trial of Mary Dugan (1927)
• Jarnegan (1928–1929)
• Conflict (1929)
• Cross Roads (1929)
• Phantoms (1930)
• Torch Song (1930)
• Anatol (1931)
• East Wind (1931)
• The Man Who Reclaimed His Head (1932)
• The Great Magoo (1932)
• Twentieth Century (1932–1933)
• Man Bites Dog (1933)
• The Pursuit of Happiness (1933–1934)

• Say When (1934–1935)
• Swing Your Lady (1936–1937)
• Hitch Your Wagon (1937)
• In Clover (1937)
• Ah, Wilderness! (1941)
• Johnny on a Spot (1942)
• We Will Never Die (1943)
• Over 21 (1944)
• Seven Lively Arts (1944–1945)
• Star-Spangled Family (1945)
• The Rat Race (1949–1950)
• The Diary of Anne Frank (1955–1957)

Filmography

• The Model and the Marriage Broker (1951) .... Mrs. Bea Gingras
• Anna Lucasta (1949) .... Blanche
• Dive Bomber (1941) .... Mrs. James
• Women in War (1940) .... Ginger
• Saturday's Children (1940) .... Gertrude 'Gert' Mills
• Eternally Yours (1939) (uncredited) .... Waitress
• No Place to Go (1939) .... Mrs. Harriet Shafter
• The Women (1939) .... Olga (manicurist)
• These Glamour Girls (1939) (uncredited) .... Mavis, Jane's Roommate
• Bachelor Mother (1939) .... Mary
• I'm from Missouri (1939) .... Kitty Hearne
• The Adventures of Jane Arden (1939) .... Teenie Moore

• Secrets of an Actress (1938) .... Miss Blackstone, Snowden's Secretary
• Boy Meets Girl (1938) .... Miss Crews, Friday's secretary
• Four's a Crowd (1938) (scenes deleted) .... Buckley's Secretary
• Cowboy from Brooklyn (1938) .... Abby Pitts
• Mystery House (1938) .... Annette - Maid
• Submarine D-1 (1937) .... Arabella
• The Perfect Specimen (1937) .... Clarabelle
• Angel (1937) .... Emma MacGillicuddy Wilton
• Meet Nero Wolfe (1936) .... Mazie Gray
• Sylvia Scarlett (1935) (uncredited) .... Maudie Tilt - the Maid

External links