Doris Lasker

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Kenyon

Doris Kenyon (September 5, 1897 – September 1, 1979) was an American popular actress of motion pictures and television.

Youth

She grew up in Syracuse, New York, where her family had a home at 1805 Harrison Street. Her father, Dr. James B. Kenyon, was a Methodist Episcopal Church minister at University Church. Kenyon studied at Packer College Institute and later at Columbia University. She sang in the choirs of Grace Presbyterian and Bushwick Methodist Churches in Brooklyn, New York.

Her voice attracted the attention of Broadway theatrical scouts who enticed her to become a performer on the stage. She first appeared in the Victor Herbert operetta The Princess Pat.

Film career

In 1915 she made her first film, The Rack, with World Film Company of Fort Lee, New Jersey. One of the most remembered films of her early career is Monsieur Beaucaire (1924). In this production she starred opposite Rudolph Valentino.

She was with Paramount Pictures for the studio's first dramatic, all-talking movie, Intereference, in 1928.

Kenyon was cast opposite actor George Arliss in two films. These are Alexander Hamilton (1931) and Voltaire (1933). She participated in Counsellor at Law (1933) with John Barrymore. In the autumn of 1935 Doris appeared with Ramon Navarro in the play, A Royal Miscarriage, in London, England.

After sixty movies, Kenyon's picture career ended with a cameo in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939).

Television

Kenyon continued her acting career in television in the 1950s. She was cast in episodes of The Secret Storm (1954), Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, All Our Yesterdays (1958), and 77 Sunset Strip.

Following her film career she launched a singing career which she had first pursued as a girl. She gave this up to live in semi-retirement in Beverly Hills, California.

Marriages

Kenyon was married a number of times. Her first husband was the actor Milton Sills. He wed Kenyon in 1926. She was widowed in 1930. She had one son with Sills named Kenyon. She married prosperous New York real estate broker, Arthur Hopkins, in 1933. The two divorced the following year, citing incompatibility. In 1938 Doris married Albert D. Lasker, owner of Lord & Thomas, a prosperous advertising agency. They divorced in 1939. Her final marriage was to Bronislaw Mlynarski. He was the son of composer Emil Młynarski and the brother-in-law of Arthur Rubenstein.

Death

Doris Kenyon died in 1979 at her Beverly Hills home, of cardiac arrest, four days before her 82nd birthday.

In popular culture

In 1924 a newborn girl, Doris Kappelhoff, was named after Kenyon. Kappelhoff grew up to be singer and actress Doris Day. Many years later, Day would purchase a home in Beverly Hills that was "a few houses away from [her], on the very same street" from Kenyon's.

Filmography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Kenyon#Filmography

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=85470677&ref=wvr

• Updated from MyHeritage Match by SmartCopy: Sep 22 2014, 9:09:36 UTC

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• Doris' birth, biographical, and death information are available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Kenyon and at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/18295/doris-kenyon
• From https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/18295/doris-kenyon: "Actress. Born in Syracuse, New York, she was a stage performer when she made screen debut in the silent film "The Rack" (1915). A veteran of over 60 motion pictures, her credits included "A Girls Folly" (1917), "The Harvest Moon" (1920), "Born Rich" (1924), "The Valley of Giants" (1927), "The Bargain" (1931), "Voltaire" (1933), "Along Came Love" (1936) and "The Man in the Iron Mask" (1939). She was married to silent film actor Milton Sills." (Bio by: John "J-Cat" Griffith).
• Doris and Milton were married on 12 October 1926 in an outdoor setting at Silver Lake in the Town of Castile, Wyoming County, New York. Doris was given in marriage by her brother, Dr. R.T. Kenyon of Ausable Forks, New York. "Mr. Sills has been a friend of the Kenyon family for many years and the engagement of the screen stars was reported more than two years ago, when the actor's former wife, Mrs. Gladys Sills, brought divorce suit for desertion. After their honeymoon (motoring through the Adirondack Mountains and visiting Niagara Falls, Yellowstone Park, and the Grand Canyon), they would reside at Blackfield Heights near Hollywood, California. See The New York Times, Wednesday, October 13, 1926, page 21.
• Doris and Arthur became engaged on 15 April 1933. See The New York Times, Sunday, April 16, 1933, page 67.