Dorothy Fay
Encyclopedia
Dorothy Fay was an American
actress.
, Arizona
, the daughter of Harry T. Southworth and Harriet Fay Fox. Her father was a medical doctor. Fay attended the University of Southern California
in Los Angeles
, California
, and studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
in London
. She began her motion picture
career
in the late 1930s, performing in several B grade
Westerns. In 1938, she appeared opposite George Houston
in Frontier Scout at Grand National Pictures. She also appeared with Western stars Buck Jones
and William Elliott
.
Fay made four movies with her husband, country
singer and actor Tex Ritter
, at Monogram Pictures
: Song of the Buckaroo (1938), Sundown on the Prairie (1939), Rollin' Westward (1939) and Rainbow Over the Range (1940). She played a heroine in The Green Archer
(1940) and White Eagle
(1941), both at Columbia Pictures
. Fay also made a few small appearances in other genres, such as the crime drama Missing Daughters (1939). In 1940, she asked Monogram to give her a different part and was loaned to MGM
for a small role in The Philadelphia Story, which starred Cary Grant
, Katharine Hepburn
and James Stewart
. She also appeared as a debutante in the MGM musical Lady Be Good
(1941) starring Eleanor Powell
, Ann Sothern
, Robert Young
and Lionel Barrymore
.
on June 14, 1941; the marriage ended at his death January 2, 1974. They had two sons, Thomas and John
, a well known comedic actor. Among her grandchildren is actor Jason Ritter
.
Fay made several more movies after she and Ritter married, but then retired from show business in late 1941. In 1965, she and Ritter moved to Nashville
, because of his singing and recording career. For a time, she was an official greeter at the Grand Ole Opry
. She returned to Southern California
in 1981. Fay turned down several offers to return to movie work, including an opportunity to appear on the television series The Love Boat
playing the mother of real-life son, John. But she was a frequent guest at Western movie conventions.
In 1987, Fay suffered a stroke
that impacted her speech. She moved to the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital
in Woodland Hills, California, in 1989. In August 2001, her death was mistakenly reported in the obituary section of The Daily Telegraph
in London
. This reportedly happened when a nurse at the Motion Picture Hospital returned after a holiday to find her not in her room. When told that she had "gone," as she had, but only to another wing, the nurse promptly called one of Dorothy Fay's friends, who happened to be a regular contributor to the Telegraph obituaries desk. Fay and her family found the blunder amusing and took it in good sport.
less than two months after the death of her youngest son, John. She is interred with her parents at Mountain View Cemetery, in her hometown, Prescott, Arizona.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress.
Early life and career
She was born Dorothy Fay Southworth in PrescottPrescott, Arizona
Prescott is a city in Yavapai County, Arizona, USA. It was designated "Arizona's Christmas City" by Arizona Governor Rose Mofford in the late 1980s....
, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, the daughter of Harry T. Southworth and Harriet Fay Fox. Her father was a medical doctor. Fay attended the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, and studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school located in London, United Kingdom. It is generally regarded as one of the most renowned drama schools in the world, and is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, having been founded in 1904.RADA is an affiliate school of the...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. She began her motion picture
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
career
Career
Career is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a person's "course or progress through life ". It is usually considered to pertain to remunerative work ....
in the late 1930s, performing in several B grade
B-movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
Westerns. In 1938, she appeared opposite George Houston
George F. Houston
George Fleming Houston was an American B-western film actor and accomplished singer in the early half of the 20th century.-Early life, World War I service:...
in Frontier Scout at Grand National Pictures. She also appeared with Western stars Buck Jones
Buck Jones
Buck Jones was an American motion picture star of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, best known for his work starring in many popular western movies...
and William Elliott
William Elliott
William Elliott may refer to:*William Henry Elliott , British general*William Elliott , lieutenant in the Royal Navy and marine painter*William Elliott , English engraver...
.
Fay made four movies with her husband, country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
singer and actor Tex Ritter
Tex Ritter
Woodward Maurice Ritter , better known as Tex Ritter, was an American country music singer and movie actor popular from the mid-1930s into the 1960s, and the patriarch of the Ritter family in acting...
, at Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures Corporation is a Hollywood studio that produced and released films, most on low budgets, between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram is considered a leader among the smaller studios sometimes referred to...
: Song of the Buckaroo (1938), Sundown on the Prairie (1939), Rollin' Westward (1939) and Rainbow Over the Range (1940). She played a heroine in The Green Archer
The Green Archer (1940 serial)
The Green Archer is the 12th serial released by Columbia Pictures. It was based on Edgar Wallace's 1923 novel The Green Archer, which had previously been adapted into the silent serial of the same name in 1925 by Pathé Exchange.-Production:...
(1940) and White Eagle
White Eagle
White Eagle may refer to:A coat of arms:*White Eagle of the Serbian royal houses Nemanjić, Mrnjavčević, Lazarević, Crnojević, Obrenović and Karađorđević used on the Coat of arms of Serbia and the Flag of Serbia ....
(1941), both at Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
. Fay also made a few small appearances in other genres, such as the crime drama Missing Daughters (1939). In 1940, she asked Monogram to give her a different part and was loaned to MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
for a small role in The Philadelphia Story, which starred Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
, Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
and James Stewart
James Stewart (actor)
James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...
. She also appeared as a debutante in the MGM musical Lady Be Good
Lady Be Good (1941 film)
Lady Be Good is the title of an MGM musical film which was released in 1941.The film starred dancer Eleanor Powell along with Ann Sothern, Robert Young, Lionel Barrymore, and Red Skelton. It was directed by Norman Z. McLeod and produced by Arthur Freed...
(1941) starring Eleanor Powell
Eleanor Powell
Eleanor Torrey Powell was an American film actress and dancer of the 1930s and 1940s, known for her exuberant solo tap dancing.-Early life:...
, Ann Sothern
Ann Sothern
Ann Sothern was an American film and television actress whose career spanned six decades.-Early life and career:...
, Robert Young
Robert Young (actor)
Robert George Young was an American television, film, and radio actor, best known for his leading roles as Jim Anderson, the father of Father Knows Best and as physician Marcus Welby in Marcus Welby, M.D. .-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Young was the son of an Irish immigrant father...
and Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen and radio. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul...
.
Later years
Fay married singer/actor Tex RitterTex Ritter
Woodward Maurice Ritter , better known as Tex Ritter, was an American country music singer and movie actor popular from the mid-1930s into the 1960s, and the patriarch of the Ritter family in acting...
on June 14, 1941; the marriage ended at his death January 2, 1974. They had two sons, Thomas and John
John Ritter
Jonathan Southworth "John" Ritter was an American actor, voice over artist and comedian perhaps best known for having played Jack Tripper and Paul Hennessy in the ABC sitcoms Three's Company and 8 Simple Rules, respectively...
, a well known comedic actor. Among her grandchildren is actor Jason Ritter
Jason Ritter
Jason Morgan Ritter is an American actor, son of the late actor John Ritter and actress Nancy Morgan. Ritter is probably best known for his role as Kevin Girardi in the television series Joan of Arcadia and as Sean Walker in the NBC series The Event.-Early life:Ritter was born in Los Angeles,...
.
Fay made several more movies after she and Ritter married, but then retired from show business in late 1941. In 1965, she and Ritter moved to Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
, because of his singing and recording career. For a time, she was an official greeter at the Grand Ole Opry
Grand Ole Opry
The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, that has presented the biggest stars of that genre since 1925. It is also among the longest-running broadcasts in history since its beginnings as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM-AM...
. She returned to Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
in 1981. Fay turned down several offers to return to movie work, including an opportunity to appear on the television series The Love Boat
The Love Boat
The Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24,1977, until May 24,1986.The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain...
playing the mother of real-life son, John. But she was a frequent guest at Western movie conventions.
In 1987, Fay suffered a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
that impacted her speech. She moved to the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital
Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital
The Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital is a retirement community, with individual cottages, and a fully licensed, acute-care hospital, located at 23388 Mulholland Drive in Woodland Hills, California...
in Woodland Hills, California, in 1989. In August 2001, her death was mistakenly reported in the obituary section of The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. This reportedly happened when a nurse at the Motion Picture Hospital returned after a holiday to find her not in her room. When told that she had "gone," as she had, but only to another wing, the nurse promptly called one of Dorothy Fay's friends, who happened to be a regular contributor to the Telegraph obituaries desk. Fay and her family found the blunder amusing and took it in good sport.
Death
Dorothy Fay died of natural causes at the age of 88 in Woodland Hills, CaliforniaWoodland Hills, Los Angeles, California
Woodland Hills is a district in the city of Los Angeles, California.Woodland Hills is located in the southwestern area of the San Fernando Valley, east of Calabasas and west of Tarzana, with Warner Center in its northern section...
less than two months after the death of her youngest son, John. She is interred with her parents at Mountain View Cemetery, in her hometown, Prescott, Arizona.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1938 | Frontier Scout | Julie, Steve's Sweetheart | |
| The Stranger from Arizona | Ann Turner | ||
| Law of the Texan | Helen Clifford | ||
| Prairie Justice | Anita Benson | ||
| Song of the Buckaroo | Anna Alden | ||
| 1939 | Long Shot | Betty Ralston | |
| Trigger Pals | Doris Allen | Credited as Dorothy Faye | |
| Sundown on the Prairie | Ruth Graham | Alternative title: Prairie Sundown | |
| Rollin' Westward | Betty | Alternative title: Rollin' West | |
| Missing Daughters | Showgirl | Uncredited | |
| 1940 | Convicted Woman | Frances | Uncredited |
| Sporting Blood | Guest | Uncredited Alternative title: Sterling Metal |
|
| Rainbow Over the Range | Mary Manners | ||
| Glamour for Sale | Trilby | Uncredited | |
| The Green Archer The Green Archer (1940 serial) The Green Archer is the 12th serial released by Columbia Pictures. It was based on Edgar Wallace's 1923 novel The Green Archer, which had previously been adapted into the silent serial of the same name in 1925 by Pathé Exchange.-Production:... |
Elaine Bellamy | ||
| The Philadelphia Story | Main Line Society Woman | Uncredited | |
| 1941 | White Eagle White Eagle (1941 serial) White Eagle is the eighth serial released by Columbia Pictures and was based on a 1943 western film starring Buck Jones.-Plot:White Eagle, a Pony Express Rider, is the son of a massacred Army officer who has been raised by an Indian tribe. He believes himself to be the son of the tribal chief, and... |
Janet Rand | |
| North from the Lone Star | Madge Wilson | ||
| Lady Be Good Lady Be Good (1941 film) Lady Be Good is the title of an MGM musical film which was released in 1941.The film starred dancer Eleanor Powell along with Ann Sothern, Robert Young, Lionel Barrymore, and Red Skelton. It was directed by Norman Z. McLeod and produced by Arthur Freed... |
Debutante | Uncredited |