Dunne turned to musical theater, making her
Broadway debut in 1922 in
Arthur Miller's The Clinging Vine. The following year, Dunne played a season of light opera in
Atlanta, Georgia. Though, in her own words, Dunne created "no great furore," by 1929 she was playing leading roles in a successful Broadway career, grateful that she was never in the chorus line.
Dunne met her future husband, Francis Griffin, a New York dentist, at a supper dance in New York. Despite differing opinions and battles that raged furiously, Dunne eventually agreed to marry him and leave the theater. They were wed on
July 16, 1928.
Dunne's role as Magnolia Hawks in
Jerome Kern and
Oscar Hammerstein II's Show Boat was the result of a chance meeting with showman
Florenz Ziegfeld in an elevator the day she returned from her honeymoon. Dunne was discovered by Hollywood while starring with the Chicago company of the musical in 1929. She signed a contract with
RKO and appeared in her first movie in 1930,
Leathernecking, an early musical. She moved to Hollywood with her mother and brother, and maintained a long-distance marriage with her husband in New York until he joined her in California in
1936. That year, she re-created her role as Magnolia in what is considered the classic film version of
Show Boat.
During the 30s and 40s, Dunne blossomed into a popular screen heroine in movies such as
Back Street (1932),
Magnificent Obsession (1935), and
Love Affair (1939). She sang "
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" in the 1935
Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers film version of the musical
Roberta. She possessed an exceptional aptitude for comedy. The unique Dunne trademark flair for combining elegance and madcap comedy is seen at its best in such films as
Theodora Goes Wild (1936),
The Awful Truth (1937) and
My Favorite Wife (1940), the latter two opposite
Cary Grant. Other notable roles include
Anna Leonowens in
Anna and the King of Siam (1946), Lavinia Day in
Life with Father (1947), and Martha Hanson in
I Remember Mama (1948). In
The Mudlark (1950), Dunne was nearly unrecognizable under heavy makeup as
Queen Victoria. She retired from the screen in 1952, after
It Grows on Trees, a comedy about a couple who discover that money
does grow on trees, at least in their back yard.
She continued with television performances on
Ford Theatre, General Electric Theater, and the
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, remaining active as an actress until 1962.
Dunne commented in an interview that she had lacked the "terrifying ambition" of some other actresses and said, "I drifted into acting and drifted out. Acting is not everything. Living is."
rss feed