#Fact1Marion Davies starred in 48 films over a 20-year period.2In films from 1917 to 1937, Marion Davies never appeared as an extra, a bit player, or a supporting player.3William Randolph Hearst launched an Oscar campaign for Marion Davies as best actress for Peg o' My Heart (1933), but she was not nominated.4The starring talkie debut of Marion Davies in Marianne (1929) came after an aborted attempt to film The Five O'Clock Girl (1928) and a never-started adaptation of the Broadway musical "Rosalie." Marianne (1929) was also shot as a silent film with with a different supporting cast.5As a long-time friend of Joseph P. Kennedy, Marion Davies was invited to and attended the inauguration of John F. Kennedy on January 20, 1961. There are photographs of the inauguration that show her seated close to the president during his famous speech. Sadly, this was her last public appearance. She died that same year on September 22.6Marion Davies was nicknamed "Queen of the Screen," starring in nearly four dozen feature films (30 silents and 16 talkies) between 1917 and 1937. She also appeared as herself in a handful of short subject films.7Marion Davies appeared in 10 Broadway shows between 1914 and 1920, including the "Ziegfeld Follies of 1916.".8Marion Davies was a friend of George Bernard Shaw, who wanted her to play Eliza in Pygmalion (1938), which starred Leslie Howard. This would have reunited the two stars for the first time since Five and Ten (1931).9In November 1959, Marion Davies funded the clinic at UCLA, which is still called the Marion Davies Children's Clinic.10Starring in nearly 4 dozen films between 1917 and 1937, Marion Davies appeared with some of the all-time greats, including Clark Gable, Marie Dressler, Gary Cooper, William Powell, Norma Shearer, William Haines, Harrison Ford, Billie Dove, Robert Montgomery, Leslie Howard, Bing Crosby, Mary Astor, Ray Milland, Charles Chaplin, Forrest Stanley, Johnny Mack Brown, Joel McCrea, Conrad Nagel, Dick Powell, Marie Prevost, Claude Rains, Pat O'Brien, Jean Parker, Irene Rich, Lawrence Gray, and Jimmy Durante.11Joseph Urban designed many Marion Davies silent films, specializing in everything from Art Deco to Gothic castles and interiors, utilizing his experience as a designer for the Metropolitan Opera in New York. His work can be seen in surviving Davies films like The Restless Sex (1920), Enchantment (1921), The Bride's Play (1922), Beauty's Worth (1922), When Knighthood Was in Flower (1922), Little Old New York (1923), Yolanda (1924), Janice Meredith (1924), and Zander the Great (1925).12Profiled in the book "Funny Ladies" and Stephen M. Silverman (1999).13Davies final live stage appearance was a 64 performance run in Ed Wynn's "Carnival" in April 1920.14For 37 years, William Randolph Hearst anointed gossip columnist Louella Parsons regularly reported in her column the catchphrase: "Marion never looked lovelier." Most readers considered it a pandering cliché.15During the 1960 Democratic Convention held in Los Angeles, California, Davies turned her house over to Joseph P. Kennedy.16Davies was offered the Ina Claire role in Claudia (1943), but Hearst objected to her playing a character role as well as a character who died in the film.17In 1930, Cecil Beaton announced that he was going to photograph the six most beautiful women in the movies. He chose Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Alice White, Dolores Del Rio, Lillian Gish and Marion Davies.18When Davies was in England, she learned that forgotten silent actress Florence Turner, who had been a star at Vitagraph, was destitute, a compassionate Davies paid for her and her mother to return to the United States, put them up in a hotel, and offered Turner a job with her production company.19She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6326 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.20She was famous for doing dead-on impersonations of celebrities at parties. At least, three impersonations became famous and successful into The Patsy (1928).21She had a long-standing reputation in the film industry for being extremely kind to the casts and crews of her films, going so far as to pay hospital bills anonymously if she heard that they were sick.22In addition to her acting career, she spent much of her time at Cosmopolitan Pictures as a production manager. She had been appointed to this position by William Randolph Hearst, who wanted to keep her close to him.23Sister-in-law of George Regas.24Aunt of Natalie Draper, Charles Lederer and Pepi Lederer.25She was William Randolph Hearst's mistress for over 30 years. It was widely considered the "worst kept secret in Hollywood" that she lived with him in California while his wife Millicent resided in New York. His wife would not grant him a divorce so that he could marry Marion. Marion retired from the screen in the late 1930s so she could be with Hearst as his health was declining. When Hearst lay dying in 1951 at age 88, Marion was given a sedative by his lawyer. When she awoke several hours later, she discovered that Hearst had died and that his associates had removed his body as well as all his belongings and any trace that he had lived there with her. His family had a big formal funeral for him in San Francisco. Marion did not attend.26Her tomb at Hollywood Forever Cemetery is often overlooked though it is an imposing structure. It is a miniature Greek temple on the east side of the lake very close to the grave of Tyrone Power. Her family name of Douras appears over the doorway.27Being the practical joker that she was, she once got President Calvin Coolidge drunk by feeding him wine and telling him it was fruit juice.28In 1993, the family of Patricia van Cleve (wife of actor Arthur Lake) revealed, upon her death, that she was actually the child of Marion and William Randolph Hearst. Van Cleve had been raised by Davies' sister Rose and had always been introduced as her niece and Lake as her nephew.29The character of Susan Alexander Kane played by Dorothy Comingore in Citizen Kane (1941) was based on her. She liked to do puzzles and this hobby was incorporated into the character.30Is portrayed by Kirsten Dunst in The Cat's Meow (2001), by Melanie Griffith in RKO 281 (1999), by Virginia Madsen in The Hearst and Davies Affair (1985) and by Heather McNair in Chaplin (1992)31Younger sister of actress Reine Davies.32Following her death, she was interred at Hollywood Memorial Cemetery (now Hollywood Forever Cemetery) in Los Angeles, California.33Mother-in-law of actor Arthur Lake, who was best known for portraying Dagwood Bumstead in a series of Blondie movies in the 1940s and 1950s.34She was the longtime, and sometimes long distance, mistress of newspaper magnate, William Randolph Hearst. Their life together was dubiously mirrored in the film, Citizen Kane (1941) and RKO 281 (1999), and more factually in The Cat's Meow (2001).

ncG1vNJzZmimlanEsL7Toaeoq6RjvLOzjqecrWWnpL%2B1tI6mmKuhn6N6pa3VopysZZ6awW7DzquroWc%3D