Dorothy Patrick

Early life

Dorothy Patrick was born Dorothea Davis on June 3, 1921, in St. Boniface, Manitoba, Canada of Scot-English heritage from a family of farmers, ranchers and Canadian National Railway workers. Thanks to a talented uncle who was a uniform manufacturer and tailor to W.W.I Canadian Army officers, she early on became sensitive to fashion and taste. Having poise and beauty older than her years, as a teen Dorothy was a professional photographic model for young ladies' fashions in Creed's, Hudson's Bay and Sears department store catalogues, popular in Canada.

After growing up in Winnipeg, in 1938 at age 17, she and her "backstage" mother, Eva, emigrated to the United States. Settling in New York City at tony Tudor City in Manhattan, Patrick became a fashion model with the famous John Robert Powers Agency. She was seen on the runways of the City's haute couture salons and as the wholesome face on popular fashion and entertainment magazines of the day.

Career

During her early career she was billed under her birth name, Dorothea Davis, until she married a New York Rangers hockey star, Lynn Patrick, and became Dorothy Patrick. Though she had one son in the marriage, the aspiring actress remained career-bound, not ready to co-star as a housefrau.

While appearing at dinner-club showcases in Jersey City, New Jersey, Patrick won Samuel Goldwyn's talent-search contest, MGM's coveted "Gateway to Hollywood." With a movie contract in hand, she moved to Hollywood with her mother and young son to live in Culver City, California and work at nearby MGM studios. The "Star System" cultivated in the era saw Dorothy training at the studio's repertory workshop along with stars like Judy Garland as one of the students. Dorothy first appeared as a Goldwyn Girl in Up in Arms starring Danny Kaye (1944). Her most noted MGM appearance was opposite Robert Walker in the Jerome Kern musical showcase and Technicolor dazzler, Till the Clouds Roll By (1946).

As a "Queen of the Bs," she continued to appear in films produced in the 1940s and 1950s, including High Wall (1947) with Robert Taylor; New Orleans (1947) with Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday; The Mighty McGurk (1947) with Wallace Beery; Follow Me Quietly (1949) with William Lundigan, and the Fritz Lang-directed noir classic, House by the River (1950). Apart from her film career, during the 1940s, she played several roles on Lux Radio Theatre.

In the early days of television, she made guest appearances on the locally produced TV game show, Mike Stokey's Pantomime Quiz. The Korean War-era saw her at celebrity appearances for USO and she was Miss Naval Air Force Recruiting 1951. At Columbia Pictures, Patrick co-starred with Preston Foster and Wayne Morris in an oil wild-catting yarn, The Big Gusher (1951), and in a modern-day western, Outlaw Stallion (1954), opposite Billy Gray with Phil Carey.

Dorothy co-starred or was supporting actress in a series of Republic programmers. The studio was best known releasing Saturday matinee serials, westerns, mysteries and crime dramas. Republic films she made include 711 Ocean Drive (1950) with Edmond O'Brien, Joanne Dru and Otto Kruger (caps with a slam-bang gun-chase scene at Hoover [Boulder] Dam); the "true life" crime drama Lonely Heart Bandits (1950) with John Eldredge; the genre western Thunder Pass (1954) with Dane Clark, John Carradine and Andy Devine, and a "Gringos go south-of-the-border" comedy, Belle of Old Mexico (1950).

In the world of Hollywood actress-survivors, Dorothy was a "trouper" in her career. Besides film and television, for several summer seasons Dorothy was also seen on stage at the La Jolla Playhouse. One summer she co-starred opposite Howard Duff in Anniversary Waltz; another season playing "Mrs. Miniver." There were also decorative walk-ons in noted film productions like The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) and Singin' in the Rain (1952). Her last movies were in 1955 as Dorothy Davis Patrick at 20th Century Fox: Violent Saturday (1955) as the wife of Victor Mature and The View from Pompey's Head (1955) with Richard Egan and Dana Wynter. That same year, Dorothy took a hiatus from Hollywood to raise her two adolescent sons back East in Short Hills, a New Jersey suburb of New York City. There she was also able to keep abreast of the Broadway scene as well as the local "off-Broadway" venue, the Papermill Playhouse in Short Hills.

Returning to Hollywood in 1961 and up for a few parts on television, she found her creative niche appearing with the Leontovich Theatre in West Hollywood for several seasons while a real estate agent in Beverly Hills. A working, lifelong SAG (Screen Actors Guild) actress, Dorothy appeared in more than 35 motion picture films and television productions.

Personal life

Her first husband was Lynn Patrick (February 3, 1912 – January 26, 1980) who became one of the most prominent and successful figures in American Ice hockey. Her son from this marriage was Lester Lee Patrick (1940–1996). Lester had a half-sister and three half-brothers. One of the brothers, Craig Patrick was noted assistant coach 1980 U.S Olympic Hockey team and former General Manager of the New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins respectively.

A few years into her film career, Dorothy married her second husband, noted Beverly Hills dentist-to-the-stars, Sterling Trevling "Doc" Bowen. Dr. Bowen's first son from his first marriage was the noted avant-garde artist Michael Bowen (d. 2009). Dorothy's marriage to Dr. Bowen had one son, Sterling Terrence "Terry" Bowen (b. 1944) a resident of Sacramento, California.

Death

Dorothy Patrick died in 1987 of a heart attack, three days before her 66th birthday. She is interred at the "columbarium-to-the-stars", Pierce Brothers Westwood in West Los Angeles, California. She is survived by one son, four grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.