Patricia Dane was an American film actress of the 1940s.
Born "Thelma Pearl Pippins" and sometimes known as Thelma Byrnes after her step father in
Jacksonville, FloridaJacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
, she began her career designing clothes for a
New York CityNew 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...
dress firm. She was signed to an MGM contract in 1941 and is sometimes known as Pat Dane in films. Dane's earliest appearances were two uncredited roles in
Ziegfeld GirlZiegfeld Girls were the chorus girls from Florenz Ziegfeld's theatrical spectaculars known as the Ziegfeld Follies , which were based on the Folies Bergère of Paris....
and
I'll Wait For You (both 1941).
She played the part of "Jennitt Hicks" in
Life Begins For Andy Hardy and her well-received performance earned her a long-term contract. Dane played "Garnet" in
Johnny EagerJohnny Eager is a 1941 film noir starring Robert Taylor and Lana Turner. Van Heflin won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.The film is featured in the comedy spoof Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid .-Plot:...
(1942) directed by
Mervyn LeRoyMervyn LeRoy was an American film director, producer and sometime actor.-Early life:Born to Jewish parents in San Francisco, California, his family was financially ruined by the 1906 earthquake...
. The film starred
Robert TaylorRobert Taylor was an American film and television actor.-Early life:Born Spangler Arlington Brugh in Filley, Nebraska, he was the son of Ruth Adaline and Spangler Andrew Brugh, who was a farmer turned doctor...
and
Lana TurnerLana Turner was an American actress.Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget . She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy...
. Dane received favorable press for her acting in
Grand Central Murder (1942), in which she was billed second to
Van HeflinEmmett Evan "Van" Heflin, Jr. was an American film and theatre actor. He played mostly character parts over the course of his film career, but during the 1940s had a string of roles as a leading man...
.
Dane took a break from her film career when she married bandleader
Tommy DorseyThomas Francis "Tommy" Dorsey, Jr. was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was known as "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing", due to his smooth-toned trombone playing. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey...
; the marriage lasted from April 1943 to September 1947. Dane was every bit as forthright and exhibitionistic as Dorsey, and Dorsey loved to show her off to friends, according to Dorsey biographer Peter J. Levinson.
Her MGM contract lapsed in 1945. Following her divorce from Dorsey, she resumed her movie career at the low-budget
Monogram PicturesMonogram Pictures Corporation is a Hollywood studio that produced and released films, most on low budgets, between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram is considered a leader among the smaller studios sometimes referred to...
studio (
Joe Palooka in Fighting Mad, 1948). Dane appeared in two television roles for
Fireside TheaterFireside Theater is an American anthology drama series that ran from on NBC from 1949 to 1958, and was the first successful filmed series on American television. Stories were low budget and often based on public domain stories or written by freelance writers such as Rod Serling. While it was panned...
and
Flight Thirteen, both 1951. Her final film appearances were uncredited parts in
Road To Bali (1952) and
The Harder They FallThe Harder They Fall is a film noir directed by Mark Robson, featuring Humphrey Bogart in his last film before his death in 1957. The film was written by Philip Yordan and based on the 1947 novel by Budd Schulberg....
(1956).
Patricia Dane died in 1995 in Blountstown, Florida, aged 75, from lung cancer. .
Sources
- Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
, Release Attachment on Patricia Dane's Salary, Friday, August 18, 1944, Page 21.
- Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
Tribune, If the Dane's Not Great She Can Always Design Clothes, June 14, 1942, Page 65.
- Oakland Tribune, On the First Rung of the Ladder, January 24, 1943, Page 41.
- Oakland Tribune, Exits and Entrances, Thursday, October 9, 1947, Page 29.
- Olivia R. Vickery, 1st cousin and owner of her effects after her death.
External links