- Claire Dodd
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Claire Dodd
Claire in 1933Born Dorothy Anne Dodd
December 29, 1908
Baxter, Iowa, U.S.Died November 23, 1973 (aged 64)
Beverly Hills, California, U.S.Occupation Actress Years active 1930–1942 Spouse Jack Milton Strauss (1931–1938) (divorced)
H. Brand Cooper (1942–1973) (her death)Claire Dodd (December 29, 1908 – November 23, 1973) was an American film actress.
Born as Dorothy Anne Dodd in Baxter, Iowa, Dodd was born to Walter W. Dodd, a farmer and veterinarian, and Ethel V. Cool Dodd, the daughter of Baxter Postmaster Peter J. Cool. As Dorothy Dodd, she attended school in Baxter. When her parents later separated in Montana, she went to California, where she worked as a model in Los Angeles and auditioned for minor film roles.[citation needed] Dorothy moved to New York City to study singing and dancing.[citation needed]. She joined the Ziegfeld Follies where she was eventually discovered by Darryl F. Zanuck.
Some confusion has led to Dodd's birthplace being listed as Des Moines, Iowa. Early in her career, Dodd applied for a passport in preparation for a trip to Europe, and was reported as saying she only knew she was born in Iowa. Whether an attempted bit of publicity, she wound up with plenty in her home state. Dorothy Anne Dodd had many relatives who still lived in and around Baxter when Claire's memory lapse was reported in the Register & Tribune's Iowa News Service on April 29, 1935, and folks there were in an uproar. "She isn't worthy of her birthplace" was the title of one editorial in a local paper the next day, reasoning "No native-born Baxterian has any business forgetting the name of his birthplace". Another Iowa editor offered up the explanation "Maybe Claire Dodd, who forgot her Iowa birthplace, is the type which thinks hard whether to answer 'yes' or 'no' to the word 'Born' on a questionnaire." Deputy Jasper County Clerk John B. Norris quickly sent by registered mail a copy of Claire's birth certificate to Hollywood. The returned receipt was dated May 6, 1935, and signed for her by her husband at the time, J.M. Strauss. According to sources, the birth certificate also listed a birth year of 1911, not 1908, apparently a rare instance of an actress adding years to, rather than subtracting years from, her actual age.
She went on to work for Warner Brothers, Parmount and Universal studios. Her films included Ex-Lady (1933), The Personality Kid (1934), The Glass Key (1935), Three Loves Has Nancy (1938), and The Black Cat (1941). She twice played secretary Della Street to Warren William's Perry Mason, in The Case of the Curious Bride (1935) and The Case of the Velvet Claws (1936).
She worked in almost sixty films in twelve years from 1930 to 1942. She quit films and married H. Brand Cooper to whom she gave and raised four children (one of whom, Jon Michael Strauss, b. 1936, was from her first marriage).
Death
She died at her home in Beverly Hills, California from cancer, aged 64. She is buried in the Brand Family Cemetery on the grounds of the Brand Library and Art Center in Glendale California. Photo of grave marker
External links
- Claire Dodd at the Internet Movie Database
- Claire Dodd at AllRovi
- Claire Dodd at Find a Grave
- Template:"When Dorothy forgot: 'There's no place like home'" Sunday Times-Republican Past Times, Nov. 17, 1996, Marshalltown, Iowa
Categories:- Actors from Iowa
- American film actors
- People from Baxter, Iowa
- Cancer deaths in California
- Ziegfeld Girls
- 1908 births
- 1973 deaths
- American film actor, 1900s birth stubs
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