Dolores Gray

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Dolores Gray bigraphy, stories - Film

Dolores Gray : biography

June 7, 1924 – June 26, 2002

Dolores Gray (June 7, 1924 – June 26, 2002) was an American stage and film actress.

Stage Work

  • Seven Lively Arts (1944) (Broadway)
  • Are You With It? (1945) (Broadway)
  • Sweet Bye and Bye (1946) (closed on the road)
  • Annie Get Your Gun (1947) (London)
  • Two on the Aisle (1951) (Broadway)
  • Pygmalion (1952) (summer theatre)
  • Carnival in Flanders (1953) (Broadway)
  • Can-Can (1957) (summer theatre)
  • Silk Stockings (1958-9) (summer theatre)
  • Destry Rides Again (1959) (Broadway)
  • Lady in the Dark (1959) (summer theatre)
  • Annie Get Your Gun (1962) (The Muny)
  • Sherry! (1967) (Broadway)
  • Gypsy (1973) (London) (replacement for Angela Lansbury)
  • Gypsy (1976) (Paper Mill Playhouse)
  • Gypsy (1982) (Corning, New York)
  • All Dressed Up (1982) (Montclair, New Jersey)
  • Going Hollywood (1983) (workshop)
  • 42nd Street (1986) (Broadway and US national tour)
  • Star Dust (1987) (concert reading)
  • Follies (1987) (London)
  • Broadway at the Bowl (1988) (Hollywood Bowl)

Death

Gray died of a heart attack in Manhattan, aged 78.

Filmography

  • Lady for a Night (1942)
  • Mr. Skeffington (1944)
  • It’s Always Fair Weather (1955)
  • Kismet (1955)
  • The Opposite Sex (1956)
  • Designing Woman (1957)

Life and career

Her parents divorced when she was aged two; her father died when she was seven, and her mother took her to Hollywood. She was performing as a singer in local clubs when she was fourteen, and, within a year, she was ‘discovered’ by Rudy Vallee, who gave her a guest spot on his nationwide radio show.

Born as Dolores Stein to Barbara Gray and Henry Stein in Chicago, Dolores Gray was briefly signed with MGM, appearing in Kismet (1955) and It’s Always Fair Weather (1955).

Her career commenced as a cabaret artiste in restaurants and supper clubs in San Francisco.Who’s Who in the Theatre (1981) Gale, Gale Biography In Context In 1945 she appeared in her own radio program. While she was appearing in Annie Get Your Gun in London (1947 – 1950), she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1948. As a fundraiser to help rebuild the RADA theatre, she appeared as Nell Gwynne in In Good King Charles’s Golden Days at Drury Lane Theatre (Oct 1948). She appeared at the London Palladium in 1958 while doing a concert tour of Europe and in cabaret at The Talk of the Town in February 1963.

Among her many stage roles, she appeared in Two on the Aisle (1951), Carnival In Flanders (1953); Destry Rides Again (1959); Sherry! (1967); and 42nd Street (1986). She also performed the lead role in Annie Get Your Gun in its first London production (1947).

Gray earned the Tony Award for her role in Carnival in Flanders, even though this Broadway musical, with a script by Preston Sturges, ran for only six performances. She therefore holds a record that is unlikely to be broken: briefest run in a performance which still earned a Tony.

Portraying a singing and dancing stage actress, she appeared with Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall in the highly successful film Designing Woman (1957), as his former mistress. During her successful music career, she sang Marilyn Monroe’s part on the Decca Records soundtrack album of There’s No Business Like Show Business (1954).

She was best known for her theatre roles. She recalled once, "What a gift that would be to have more of a permanent record. A stage performance is just that, then it’s lost. When I see movies on TV, I think, ‘How great to have that.’ But why look back? The decisions I made, I made. I can’t change that."

Marriage

On September 24, 1966, Dolores Gray married Andrew J. Crevolin, a California businessman and Thoroughbred racehorse owner who won the 1954 Kentucky Derby. Despite erroneous reports in the media that they divorced, they remained married until his death in 1992. The union was childless.

Encomium

Theatre critic Michael Phillips wrote Gray’s voice sounded like "a freight-train slathered in honey".http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2002-07-03/features/0207030029_1_dolores-gray-dinah-shore-annie-oakley