Marion Davies (born January 3, 1897;
died September 23, 1961) was an American comedic actress.
Though one of the greatest silent screen comediennes, Marion Davies is best remembered today
for her relationship with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. Even during her career,
her high-profile social life often obscured her professional achievements.
Of Greek and Irish heritage, she was born Marion Cecilia Douras in Brooklyn, New York, the
youngest of five children born to Herbert Douras, a lawyer who moved in New York City political
circles, and Rose Reilly, formerly of Jersey City, New Jersey. Her elder siblings included
Rose, Reine, and Ethel. A brother, Charles, drowned at the age of 15 in 1906. She spoke fluent
Greek and liked to do puzzles.
The Douras family lived near Prospect Park in Brooklyn, but already the bright lights of
Manhattan beckoned to the sisters. The sisters changed their surname to Davies, which one of
them spotted from a realtor's sign in the neighbourhood. Even at a time when New York was the
melting pot for new immigrants, having a Anglo-Saxon surname greatly helped one's prospects.
The Davies girls all hit the Great White Way, and Marion was signed on as a chorine in Florenz
Ziegfeld's spectacular annual "Ziegfeld Follies" revues. Massively and expensively staged and
brimming with the best comedic and musical talent, Ziegfeld's productions also showcased some
of the most sensationally attractive young women in the world.
Along with other lovelies starting out in the 1916 "Follies", like Olive Thomas and Mae Murray,
Marion's beauty, vivacity and talent made her a star, and she soon outgrew the chorusline.
Also like Thomas and Murray, she exchanged her popularity on stage for success in the movies.
After making her screen debut in late 1916 in a fashion newsreel, modeling gowns by Lucile
(Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon), she appeared in her first feature film in 1917's Runaway Romany, for
which she also wrote the script. Playing mainly light comedic roles, she quickly became a
major movie personality, making a small fortune which enabled her to provide financial
assistance for her family and friends.
By the mid-1920s, however, Marion's career was often overshadowed by her relationship with
married media mogul William Randolph Hearst and their fabulous social life at San Simeon and
Ocean House in Santa Monica. Hearst met her soon after she'd started working in movies, and
formed Cosmopolitan Pictures solely to produce starring vehicles for her. Hearst's relentless
efforts to promote her career instead had a detrimental effect, but he persisted, making
Cosmopolitan's distribution deals first with Paramount, then Goldwyn, and then Metro Goldwyn
Mayer. Marion, herself, in her published memoirs "The Times We Had", concluded that Hearst's
over-the-top promotion of her career, in fact, had a negative result.
Hearst loved seeing her in expensive costume pictures such as When Knighthood Was in Flower
(1922), Little Old New York (1923), Janice Meredith (1924) and Quality Street (1927), but in
retrospect she seems to have fared just as well, if not better, in contemporary comedies like
Tillie the Toiler, The Fair Co-Ed (both 1927), and especially two directed by King Vidor,
The Patsy and the backstage-in-Hollywood saga Show People (both 1928), where she showed a shining
comedic talent and pantomimic skills. The Patsy contains her wonderful imitations, that she
usually did for friends, of silent stars Lillian Gish, Mae Murray and Pola Negri.
The coming of sound made Marion nervous, because she had never completely overcome a childhood
stutter. But with her usual persistence she did well, and made several memorable comedies and
musicals during the 1930's, including Marianne (1929), Not So Dumb (1930), The Florodora Girl
(1930), The Bachelor Father (1931), Five and Ten (1931) with Leslie Howard, Polly of the
Circus (1932) with Clark Gable, Blondie of the Follies (1932), Peg o' My Heart (1933), Going
Hollywood (1933) with Bing Crosby, and Operator 13 (1934) with Gary Cooper. She was involved
with many aspects of her films and was considered an astute businesswoman. Her career, however,
was hampered by Hearst's insistence that she play distinguished, dramatic parts, as opposed
to the comic roles that were her forte. She also harboured an increasing dependence on alcohol,
hiding bottles of liquor in San Simeon's toilet tanks. However, her body of work has often
been praised by contemporary critics.
Hearst reportedly had tried to push MGM executives to hire Marion for the role of Marie
Antoinette in Marie Antoinette (1938). Louis B. Mayer had other ideas and hired producer
Irving Thalberg's wife Norma Shearer for the part instead. Hearst reacted by pulling his
newspaper support for MGM, and moved Cosmopolitan Pictures to Warner Bros.'s studios, but
stayed only a few years. Davies' films there, including Page Miss Glory (1935), Hearts Divided,
Cain and Mabel (both 1936), and Ever Since Eve (1937), her last film. Cosmopolitan Pictures
folded, so Marion left the screen and retreated to San Simeon.
William R. Hearst and Marion Davies lived as a couple for decades but were never married as
Hearst never divorced his wife. At one point he reportedly came close to marrying Davies, but
decided his wife's settlement demands were too high. In the mid-1920s, she was allegedly
involved with Charlie Chaplin, and in the mid-1930s reports claimed Davies was infatuated with
actor Dick Powell. The alleged affair with Chaplin became the stuff of legend in 1924 when
Hearst, Davies and Chaplin were on Hearst's yacht with film producer Thomas Ince during which
Ince was killed. In spite of no supporting evidence, rumours have circulated since that Hearst
mistook Ince for Chaplin and shot him in a jealous rage. The rumours were dramatised in the
play "The Cat's Meow", which was later made into a 2001 film starring Edward Herrmann as Hearst,
Kirsten Dunst as Davies, Eddie Izzard as Chaplin and Cary Elwes as Ince.
By the early 1940s, Hearst's empire crumbled, and he was beginning to lose everything. Over
Hearst's objections, Davies sold many of the gifts he had given her over the years (supposedly
worth millions of American dollars) to raise money to bail him out; Davies commented that
the "gold digger had fallen in love." When Hearst died, his family had every trace of Davies'
presence in his home removed, and when discussing his life and legacy, made no reference to
her.
Ten weeks after Hearst's death, Davies married for the first time, on October 31, 1951, at the
age of fifty-four. Her husband was former sea captain, policeman and sometime actor, Horace G.
Brown. It was not a happy marriage (he allegedly encouraged her drinking): Davies filed for
divorce twice, but neither was finalised. Marion's friends, and the media, noticed a remarkable
physical similarity between Brown and the young William Randolph Hearst.
In her last years, the generous Marion Davies was involved with charity work: in 1952 she
donated $1.9 million to establish a children's clinic at UCLA, which still bears her name.
She also fought childhood diseases through the Marion Davies Foundation.
Davies died of cancer in 1961, in Hollywood. Her funeral was attended by many old-time
Hollywood legends and President Herbert Hoover. She is buried in the Hollywood Forever
Cemetery in Hollywood.
After the death of Davies' niece, Patricia Lake (née Van Cleeve), Lake's family announced that
she was in fact the daughter of Marion Davies and William Randolph Hearst; prior to the
announcement, it had been said that Lake was the daughter of Rose Davies (Marion's sister) and
her first husband, George Van Cleeve. Although the claim does not appear to have been verified
independently, Lake and her husband, Arthur Lake, who played Dagwood in numerous films were
buried beside Davies.
Davies was rumoured to be the inspiration for the shrill, talentless Susan Alexander character
portrayed in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, which was based loosely on Hearst's life. This
portrayal has led to various portrayals of her as a loose, drunken woman, the most recent of
which was Melanie Griffith's in HBO's RKO 281. Welles himself deeply regretted that so many
assumed Susan Alexander was a carbon copy of Davies. He felt that the real Davies was a great
actress and a wonderful woman. Davies was also portrayed by Virginia Madsen in the telefilm
The Hearst and Davies Affair (1985) (with Robert Mitchum as Hearst) and Heather Macnair in
Chaplin (1992). Madsen later became a Davies fan and said that she felt she had inadvertently
portrayed her as a stereotype, rather than as a real person. Many film historians and fans
resent the negative reputation Kane garnered her, and have worked to restore her image in the
public eye. Their efforts included a 2001 documentary which featured appearances by friends
and costars who tearfully remembered Davies, even four decades after her death.
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