Dorothy McGuire
Motion Pictures Category Star
- Ceremony was on February 8, 1960
Dorothy Mcguire
actress, dies at 85
By Bob Thomas ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES - Dorothy McGuire, the lovely, soft-voiced actress who lent dignity and inner strength to such films as Gentlemen's Agreement and Friendly Persuasion, has died. She was 85.
The actress died Thursday night at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, her daughter, Topo Swope, said yesterday. She had broken her leg three weeks ago and then developed heart failure, Swope said.
From 1943 to the 1960s, the Omaha, Neb. -born actress was a favorite leading lady to such stars as Robert Young, Gregory Peck, Burt Lancaster, and Gary Cooper, often playing the gentle, understanding wife.
She became a star in her first film, Claudia, based on the Rose Franken play in which she had appeared on Broadway. In her later years, she moved gracefully into character roles in films, television and theater.
Ms. McGuire's controlled, well-crafted portrayals won critical praise but no Academy recognition until she was nominated as best actress for her role as Peck's wife in the 1947 film Gentleman's Agreement. The film, one of the first to attack antisemitism in America, won the Oscar as best picture.
Her other films included A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Spiral Staircase, the sequel Claudia and David, The Enchanted Cottage, Three Coins in the Fountain, Till the End of Time, Mister 880, Old Yeller, A Summer Place, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, Swiss Family Robinson, Susan Slade, and The Greatest Story Ever Told (as the Virgin Mary).
