Dorothy Granger
Dorothy Karolyn Granger was an American actress best known for her roles in short subject comedies in Hollywood.
Career
Granger, with her parents, two brothers, Richard and James, and their grandmother, Clara Granger, moved to Los Angeles during the late 1920s.
Granger got her start in the entertainment industry when she won a beauty contest at the age of 13 at Silver Beach Summer Resort near Houston. Her budding figure and confident stage presence were perfect for studios that made comedy shorts. In 1930, her father took her to producer Hal Roach, who was then testing talent for his upcoming comedy series, The Boy Friends.
Granger’s natural comedy timing got her the job immediately and she was placed under contract to Hal Roach Studios. She became a charter member of the two-reel-comedy community, appearing opposite many major comedians at Roach, Mack Sennett, Educational Pictures, Columbia Pictures, and RKO Radio Pictures. Among her famous credits are Hog Wild with Laurel & Hardy, The Dentist with W.C. Fields, Punch Drunks and Termites of 1938 with The Three Stooges. Granger also appeared with Andy Clyde, Charley Chase, Edgar Kennedy, Harry Langdon, Gus Schilling & Richard Lane, and Joe DeRita, as well as on live television with Abbott & Costello. Granger is best remembered as the sarcastic, suspicious wife in Leon Errol's series of two-reelers for RKO.
For her body of work in two-reelers, Granger was known as the "Queen of the Short Subject Films". However, she also appeared in about 100 feature films, including Frisco Jenny, Sunset in El Dorado, Kentucky Kernels, Dick Tracy vs. Cueball, Diamond Jim, and Show Boat.
Later years
Granger worked on a variety of television shows through the 1950s, including The Abbott and Costello Show, I Married Joan, Father Knows Best, Topper, Lassie, Death Valley Days and Wells Fargo. Her last television performance was a live show on Face The Facts in 1961. Granger left show business in 1963, calling it an “ulcer factory.”
Granger made her last public appearance in 1993 for the Screen Actors Guild’s 60th anniversary celebration. She was an honored guest at the celebration because she was one of SAG’s first members. In later years she helped her husband run an upholstery shop in Los Angeles.
She was the stepmother of film maker and former record producer Anthony J. Hilder.
Death
Granger died of cancer on January 4, 1995, aged 83, in Los Angeles, California.
Selected filmography
Words and Music as Bit Part The Sophomore as Co-Ed Dance Hall as Dancer Hog Wild as Tillie - The Hardys' Maid / Girl Lifting Her Skirt by Puddle The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case as Young Relative Noche de duendes as La mujer furiosa Garde la bombe Primrose Path as Rita JohnsonBehind Office Doors as Girl in Duneen's Apartment Goldie as Nanette, Girl in Cafe Politics as Newlywed Honeymoon Trio as The Newlywed WifeThe Tip-Off as Hatcheck Girl One Quiet Night One Good Turn as A Community Player Under Eighteen as Penthouse Party Guest Temptation's Workshop as Vi RantlerThe Fighting Fool as NinaKeep Laughing A Woman Commands as Party Girl The Beast of the City as Drunken Girl Singing at Party Night World as Bit Madison Square Garden as Vita-Life Rejuvenator Demonstrator Afraid to Talk as Kippie - Party Girl The Sign of the Cross The Dentist as Miss Peppitone - PatientThe Candid Camera as Mrs. Jack TowneFrisco Jenny as Hortense, Pickpocket Back Street Second Hand Wife as Bit He Learned About Women as Minor Role He Couldn't Take It as Grace ClariceLove, Honor, and Oh Baby! as Mrs. BrownOnly Yesterday as Sally Marriage on Approval as Hortense BaileyKing for a Night as DoraNana as Minor Role Hips, Hips, Hooray! as Miss Cole - Stenographer I'll Tell the World as Brown's Girlfriend - the DancerPunch Drunks as GirlThe Merry Widow as Maxim's Girl Kentucky Kernels as Ethel - Baxter's Secretary Two Heads on a Pillow Marriage on Approval Vanessa: Her Love Story as Herries Servant I've Been Around as GirlNaughty Marietta as Minor Role Manhattan Butterfly as Nina MaloneThe Affair of Susan as Girl in Candy Shop Diamond Jim as Chorine The Ex-Mrs. Bradford as Fill-in Receptionist Show Boat as New Year's Eve Cutie Romeo and Juliet as Minor Role Camille as Raucous Party Girl The Road Back as French Girl Prescription for Romance as Cashier Termites of 1938 as Mrs. Mabel Sturgeon The Shopworn Angel as Dancer Letter of Introduction as Woman at Barry's Party Dramatic School as Fat GirlThe Family Next Door as Heavy Girl Blue Montana Skies as Mrs. Millie PotterWhen Tomorrow Comes as Waitress New Moon as Bridesmaid When the Daltons Rode as NancyBack Street as Minor Role City of Missing Girls as Showgirl The Lady from Cheyenne as Myrtle Unfinished Business as Woman Honky Tonk as Pearl - Saloon Girl The Bugle Sounds as Woman with Cake North to the Klondike as Mayme CassidyPardon My Stripes as PeachesTake a Letter, Darling as Switchboard Operator In Old California as Girl in First Saloon Enemy Agents Meet Ellery Queen as Apartment Tenant The Old Homestead as Moll My Heart Belongs to Daddy as Yvonne Star Spangled Rhythm as Officer USS VD: Ship of Shame as Bar Woman toasting 'Chicken' The Amazing Mrs. Holliday as Maid Hi'ya, Chum as Babe Fredericks Cowboy in Manhattan as TommyA Lady Takes a Chance as Hot Dog Girl Fired Wife as Divorcee Sweet Rosie O'Grady as Flora - Singer Swingtime Johnny as Woman True to Life as Dance Extra The Woman of the Town as BelleChip Off the Old Block as Cab Driver Lady in the Dark as Autograph Hunter Shine On, Harvest Moon as Mitzie Menegue Knickerbocker Holiday as Barmaid Her Primitive Man as Hatcheck Girl Johnny Doesn't Live Here Any More as IreneIn Society as Hysterical Woman One Body Too Many as Mona RutherfordPractically Yours as Sponge Cake Lady Under Western Skies as MaybelleThe Jade Mask as Stella GrahamHere Come the Co-Eds as Woman in Ballroom On Stage Everybody as Marlow The Southerner as Party Girl Sunset in El Dorado as Maisie - Switchboard OperatorMarshal of Laredo as Suzanne Girls of the Big House as Woman Clerk Adventure as Cashier The Runaround as Hotel Desk Clerk / Switchboard Operator Shadows Over Chinatown as Joan MercerBlack Angel as Woman by Phone Booth Two Years Before the Mast as Girl in the Golden Lion Dick Tracy vs. Cueball as Leeds That Brennan Girl as Party Guest The Devil Thumbs a Ride as Pearl Backlash as O'Neil's Secretary Killer Dill as Millie GardnerThe Secret Life of Walter Mitty as Wrong Mrs. Follinsbee Louisiana Dangers of the Canadian Mounted as Skagway KateThe Walls of Jericho as Gossip Michael O'Halloran as Ward NurseThe Strange Mrs. Crane as Jeanette WoodsSealed Verdict as Edna Brown The Paleface as Attendant at Bathhouse Variety Time as Dorothy Errol Miss Mink of 1949 as Mrs. Maureen O'MulvaneyMighty Joe Young as Nightclub Patron Lonely Heart Bandits as Duchess BelleWestward the Women as Rejected Woman Footlight Varieties as Vivian Errol One Minute to Zero as First Nurse So Big as Mabel New York Confidential as Lupo's Secretary The Desperadoes Are in Town as Molly, Saloon GirlRaintree County as Madame Gaubert Dondi as Woman in Grape Hat