Years active 1944-1955 Siblings Doris Dowling | Role Model Name Constance Dowling | |
 | ||
Born July 24, 1920 ( 1920-07-24 ) New York City, New York, U.S. Died October 28, 1969, Los Angeles, California, United States Children Peter Tors, Steven Tors, Michael Tors, David Tors, Alfred Ndwego Movies Gog, Black Angel, Blind Spot, Mad About Opera, Knickerbocker Holiday Similar People | ||
Black Angel (1946) - Clip with Constance Dowling and Dan Duryea
Constance Dowling (July 24, 1920 - October 28, 1969) was an American model turned actress of the 1940s and 1950s.
Contents
- Black Angel 1946 Clip with Constance Dowling and Dan Duryea
- Knickerbocker Holiday 1945 Nelson Eddy Charles Coburn Constance Dowling
- Early life and career
- Stage
- Film
- Personal life
- Death
- References
Knickerbocker Holiday 1945 Nelson Eddy Charles Coburn Constance Dowling
Early life and career
Born in New York City, Dowling was a model and chorus girl before moving to California in 1943. She had two brothers, Richard Dowling and Robert Dowling, and was the elder sister of actress Doris Dowling. She attended Wadleigh High School for Girls in New York City.
Dowling was a dancer at the Paradise nightclub in New York City, a job that she obtained by lying about her age to her employer and lying about the job to her mother.
Stage
Prior to her move to Hollywood, she appeared in several Broadway productions, including Quiet City, Liliom, Panama Hattie (with sister Doris), Hold On To Your Hats, and The Strings, My Lord, Are False.
Film
Dowling—promoted by press agents of producer Samuel Goldwyn as three-dimensional ("she can sing, she can dance and she can act")—began her screen career appearing in Up in Arms (1944) for Samuel Goldwyn. At the time, newspaper columnist Sheilah Graham reported that Danny Kaye "was hoping for a big movie name to star opposite him ... but boss Sam Goldwyn thinks otherwise and has signed" Dowling. In the same year, she appeared opposite Nelson Eddy in Knickerbocker Holiday,
In 1946, newspaper columnist Hedda Hopper reported that Dowling had signed a long-term contract with Eagle-Lion Films. Soon after having appeared in The Well-Groomed Bride (1946) and Black Angel (1946), she was loaned to Columbia Pictures to appear in Boston Blackie and the Law.
Dowling lived in Italy in 1947 through 1950 and appeared in some unmemorable Italian films. Dowling returned to Hollywood in the 1950s and landed a part in the sci-fi film Gog, her last film.
Personal life
Dowling had been involved in a long affair with married director Elia Kazan in New York. He couldn't bring himself to leave his wife and the affair ended when Dowling went to Hollywood under contract to Goldwyn. She was later linked with Italian poet/novelist Cesare Pavese who committed suicide in 1950 after being rejected by Dowling. One of his last poems is entitled "Death will come and she'll have your eyes".
In 1955, Dowling married film producer Ivan Tors, writer and producer of her last film. (Another source, published two years earlier, refers to Downling and Tors as "honeymooning.") She then retired from acting, going on to have three sons and a foster child with Tors: Steven, David, Peter and foster son Alfred Ndwego of Kenya. (An obituary listed Ndwego as an adopted son rather than a foster son and spelled his last name Ndewga.)
Death
On October 28, 1969, Dowling died at the age of 49 of a heart attack at UCLA Medical Center. She was survived by her husband and four sons.