THE MODERN PERFORMANCES: MOVIE


Voltaire (1933)

Production Line: Warner Bros.
Director: John G. Adolfi
Cinematographer: Tony Gaudio
File Editor: Owen Marks
Run Time: 72 minutes




Interpreters :

George Arliss: Voltaire
Doris Kenyon: Madame de Pompadour
Margaret Lindsay: Nanette Calas
Theodore Newton: Francois
Reginald Owen: King Louis XV
Alan Mowbray: Count de Sarnac
David Torrence: Doctor
Gordon Westcott : The Captain
Murray Kinnell: Emile
Doris Lloyd: Mme. Clairon
Ivan Simpson: Lekain
Douglas Trumbrille: Oriental King






Doris Kenyon (1897 - 1979)


Biography

American actress Doris Kenyon was the daughter of well-to-do writer and publisher James B. Kenyon, the editor of The Standard Dictionary and one-time protege of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. While attending an Authors Club meeting with her father, 16-year-old Doris was invited to sing; she so impressed one of the guests, composer Victor Herbert, that she was cast in Herbert's stage musical Princess Pat. In 1916, one year after her stage debut, Kenyon entered films with The Hidden Hand. A pretty ingenue who matriculated into an interesting if not outstanding actress, Kenyon did quite well in silent films, at one point costarring with Rudolph Valentino in Monsieur Beaucaire.

In 1927, she married Milton Sills, a major star with whom Kenyon had first appeared in The Rack (1916); Sills and his wife appeared together in seven films, all of them moneymakers. Kenyon was playing tennis with Milton in 1930 when he suddenly was felled by a fatal heart attack. She was disconsolate and planned retirement, but was talked out of it by actor George Arliss, who arranged for Kenyon to have strong co-starring roles in his films Alexander Hamilton (1931) and Voltaire (1933).

No longer a romantic leading lady, Kenyon had matured enough to convincingly play John Barrymore's truculent society-climbing wife in Counsellor at Law (1933). The actress yearned at this point to return to her singing career (she had, after all, appeared with the Metropolitan Opera at one point in the teens); while retraining her voice, she began writing magazine articles for women's magazines, a venture which proved successful. Rounding out her film career with Man in the Iron Mask (1939), Kenyon spent the war years singing with the USO and lecturing to women's clubs.

Doris Kenyon was almost completely retired the last quarter century of her life, appearing only in a handful of TV shows as favors to her show-business friends; one such friend was Efrem Zimbalist Jr., who in 1958 cast Kenyon as a Norma Desmond-type faded star desperate for a comeback on 77 Sunset Strip. Now that program REALLY required the delightfully non-desperate Doris Kenyon to put on an act! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide


 

Filmography (by Internet Movie Database)

Hollywood On Cayuga (1990) (archive footage)
       Prudence Martling-Great White Trail
Man in the Iron Mask, The (1939)  - Queen Anne
Girls' School (1938)  - Mrs. Simpson
Along Came Love (1936)  - Mrs. Gould
Human Side, The (1934)  - Vera Sheldon
Whom the Gods Destroy (1934)  - Margaret Forrester
Counsellor at Law (1933)  - Cora Simon
No Marriage Ties (1933)  - Adrienne Deane
       aka Public Be Sold, The (1933)
Voltaire (1933)  - Madame de Pompadour
Man Called Back, The (1932)  - Dianna St. Clair
Young America (1932)  - Edith Doray
       aka We Humans (1932) (UK)
Ruling Voice, The (1931)  - Mary Stanton
       aka Upper Underworld (1931)
Road to Singapore, The (1931)  - Phillippa Crosby 'Phil' March
Alexander Hamilton (1931)  - Mrs. Hamilton
Bargain, The (1931)  - Nancy
Beau Bandit (1930)  - Helen Wardell
Interference (1928)  - Faith Marlay
Home Towners, The (1928)  - Beth Calhoun
Hawk's Nest, The (1928)  - Madelon Arden
Burning Daylight (1928)  - The Virgin
Valley of the Giants, The (1927)  - Shirley Pennington
Blonde Saint, The (1926)  - Ghirlaine Bellamy
Ladies at Play (1926)  - Ann Harper
       aka Loose Ankles (1926)
Mismates (1926)  - Judy Winslow
Men of Steel (1926)  - Mary Berwick
Unguarded Hour, The (1925)  - Virginia Gilbert
Half-Way Girl, The (1925)  - Poppy La Rue
I Want My Man (1925)  - Vida
If I Marry Again (1925)  - Jocelyn Margot
Thief in Paradise, A (1925)  - Helen Saville
Idle Tongues (1924)  - Katherine Minot
Born Rich (1924)  - Frances Melrose
Monsieur Beaucaire (1924)  - Lady Mary
Lend Me Your Husband (1924)  - Aline Stackton
New School Teacher, The (1924)  - Diana
Love Bandit, The (1924)  - Amy Van Clayton
Restless Wives (1924)  - Polly Benson
Last Moment, The (1923)  - Alice Winthrop
You Are Guilty (1923)  - Alice Farrell
Bright Lights of Broadway (1923)  - Irene Marley
Sure-Fire Flint (1922)  - June De Lanni
Ruling Passion, The (1922)  - Angie Alden
Shadows of the Sea (1922)  - Dorothy Jordan
Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford (1921)  - Fannie Jasper
Conquest of Canaan, The (1921)  - Ariel Taber
Harvest Moon, The (1920)  - Dora Fullerton
Bandbox, The (1919)  - Eleanor Searle
Twilight (1919)  - Twilight
Wild Honey (1918)  - Wild Honey/Mrs. Holbrook
Inn of the Blue Moon, The (1918)  - Justine Druce/Dorothy Druce
Street of Seven Stars, The (1918)  - Harmony Wells
Jimmy Dale Alias the Great Seal (1917)
On Trial (1917) (uncredited)
Great White Trail (1917)  - Prudence Carrington
Empress, The (1917)  - Nedra
Girl's Folly, A (1917)  - Mary Baker
Man Who Forgot, The (1917)  - Edith Mallon
Rack, The (1916)  - Effie McKenzie
Traveling Salesman, The (1916)  - Beth Elliot
Ocean Waif, The (1916)  - Millie Jessup, the Ocean Waif
Man Who Stood Still, The (1916)  - Marie Krauss
Feast of Life, The (1916)  - Celida
Pawn of Fate (1916)  - Marcine Dufrene
 









 

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