Claire Dodd


Claire Dodd was an American film actress.

Early life

Dorothy Arlene Dodd was born on December 29, 1911, in Baxter, Iowa, to Walter Willard Dodd, a farmer whose family were early Jasper County pioneers, and his wife, Ethel Viola Dodd, daughter of Baxter postmaster Peter J. Cool. Her parents married on June 28, 1911. The family moved frequently while she was growing up, living in Denver, Kansas City, Phoenix, St. Louis, and Missoula, Montana, among other places. Her parents separated in Montana. Young Dorothy went to California around 1927 where she worked as a model in Los Angeles and auditioned for minor film roles.

Career

While working as a model in Los Angeles, she was cast in a small part in Eddie Cantor's movie Whoopee!, which was produced by Florenz Ziegfeld. Ziegfeld offered Dodd a part in his next Broadway musical, Smiles. She moved to New York City, where she studied singing and dancing. After Smiles ended, she signed a five-year contract with Paramount Pictures. After acting in bit parts in several films, she was signed to a Warner Bros. contract by Darryl F. Zanuck.
Some confusion has led to Dodd's birthplace being listed as Des Moines, Iowa. Early in her career, Dodd applied for a passport in preparation for a trip to Europe, and was reported as saying she only knew she was born in Iowa. Whether an attempted bit of publicity, she wound up with plenty in her home state. "My early childhood is just a blur to me," she once said. "I don't remember a thing about Iowa, I'm sorry to say. I was so small when I left there." Dodd had numerous relatives who still lived in and around Baxter when her apparent memory lapse was reported in the Register & Tribune's Iowa News Service on April 29, 1935. Locals were in an uproar for a time, spurred on by newspaper editorials taking the incident as an insult to a small town in rural Iowa. Deputy Jasper County Clerk John B. Norris quickly sent a copy of her birth certificate to Dodd by registered mail to end the question.
Dodd went on to work at Warner Brothers, Paramount and Universal studios in more than sixty films over a dozen years, from 1930-1942. Dodd was usually type-cast as the "other woman", a femme fatale, siren, seductress, mistress, blackmailer, or other kind of predator or schemer.
She also twice played secretary Della Street to Warren William's Perry Mason, in The Case of the Curious Bride, and The Case of the Velvet Claws. In the latter, Dodd's character was the only incarnation of Della Street to ever wed Mason. One of her last films was Abbott and Costello's In the Navy.

Personal life

Claire Dodd was Hollywood's "mystery girl" in the 1930s -- a label she acquired because she was good at keeping her personal and professional lives separate. In 1931, Dodd married John Milton Strauss, an investment banker. She gave birth to her first child, Jon Michael Strauss, which surprised many in Hollywood society who did not even know she was married. The couple divorced in 1938.
She retired from acting and married her second husband, Harry Brand Cooper, A member of the prominent Brand family in Glendale, in 1942. They had four children: a daughter ; and three sons.

Death

She died at her home in Beverly Hills, California, from cancer, aged 61. She is buried in the Brand Family Cemetery on the grounds of the Brand Library and Art Center in Glendale, California.

Partial filmography

  • Our Blushing Brides as A Mannequin
  • Whoopee! as Goldwyn Girl
  • Up Pops the Devil as Minor Role
  • The Lawyer's Secret as Party Guest
  • Confessions of a Co-Ed as Co-Ed in Chapel
  • The Secret Call as Maisie
  • An American Tragedy as Gaile Warren
  • The Road to Reno as Party Girl
  • Girls About Town as Dot, Party Girl
  • Working Girls as Jane
  • Under Eighteen as Babsy
  • Two Kinds of Women as Sheila Lavery
  • Alias the Doctor as Mrs. Beverly
  • The Broken Wing as Cecelia Cross
  • This Is the Night as Chou-Chou
  • Man Wanted as Ann Le Maire
  • Guilty as Hell as Ruth Tindal
  • The Crooner as Mrs. Constance Brown
  • Lawyer Man as Virginia St. Johns
  • The Match King as Ilse Wagner
  • Parachute Jumper as Mrs. Newberry
  • Hard to Handle as Marlene Reeves
  • Blondie Johnson as Gladys LaMann
  • Elmer, the Great as Evelyn Corey
  • Ex-Lady as Iris Van Hugh
  • Ann Carver's Profession as Carole Rodgers
  • Footlight Parade as Vivian Rich
  • My Woman as Muriel Bennett
  • Massacre as Norma
  • Gambling Lady as Sheila Aiken
  • Journal of a Crime as Odette Florey
  • Smarty as Anita
  • The Personality Kid as Patricia Merrill
  • I Sell Anything as Millicent
  • Secret of the Chateau as Julie Verlaine
  • Babbitt as Tanis Judique
  • Roberta as Sophie Teale
  • The Case of the Curious Bride as Della Street
  • The Glass Key as Janet Henry
  • Don't Bet on Blondes as Marilyn Youngblood
  • The Goose and the Gander as Connie
  • The Payoff as Maxine
  • Two Against the World as Cora Latimer
  • The Singing Kid as Dana Lawrence
  • Navy Born as Bernice Farrington
  • Murder by an Aristocrat as Janice Thatcher
  • The Case of the Velvet Claws as Della Street
  • The Women Men Marry as Claire Raeburn
  • Romance in the Dark as Countess Monica Foldesay
  • Fast Company as Julia Thorne
  • Three Loves Has Nancy as Vivian Herford
  • Charlie Chan in Honolulu as Mrs. Carol Wayne
  • Woman Doctor as Gail Patterson
  • Slightly Honorable as Alma Brehmer
  • If I Had My Way as Brenda Johnson
  • The Black Cat as Margaret Gordon
  • In the Navy as Dorothy Roberts
  • Don Winslow of the Navy as Mercedes Colby
  • The Mad Doctor of Market Street as Patricia Wentworth
  • Mississippi Gambler as Gladys La Verne
  • Daring Young Man as Marlene