Doris Dawson

Yet another demure starlet toiling away in low-budget silent comedies, raven-haired Doris Dawson was under contract to Al Christie when awarded the female lead opposite Harry Langdon in Heart Trouble (1928). The role earned her a 1929 WAMPAS Baby Star nod and the trade paper Variety thought she had "more sex appeal than a lot of peaches Harry has picked in the past." Alas, Langdon's career was waning and few liked this comedy about a German-American single-handedly capturing an enemy spy ring. Hardly anybody enjoyed her next film, Hot Stuff (1929), a college burlesque which was set in "a little village in the state of Coma." She survived a near-fatal car accident but her screen career suffered a severe setback with the advent of sound. After divorcing the son of Broadway hoofer Pat Rooney, Dawson returned for a final film, the low-budget disaster "epic" Silver Streak (1934), remarried and retired to run a dog kennel in Florida. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi