Claire Dodd (December 29, 1908 - November 23, 1973) was a successful American film actress.
Born Dorothy Anne Dodd in Des Moines, Iowa, Dodd's father was a doctor who abandoned her and her mother before she was ten years old. Her mother suffered from tuberculosis and was forced to support her, so young Dorothy moved to New York City at the age of 15 and joined the Ziegfeld Follies where she was eventually discovered by Darryl F. Zanuck.
She went on to work for Warner Brothers, Parmount and Universal studios. Her films included Ex-Lady (1933), The Personality Kid (1934), The Glass Key (1935), Three Loves Has Nancy (1938), and The Black Cat (1941). She twice played secretary Della Street to Perry Mason as played by Warren William, in 1935 and 1936.
She worked in almost sixty films in twelve years from 1930 to 1942. She quit films and married H. Brand Cooper to whom she gave and raised four children (she had one child from a previous marriage, Jon Michael Strauss, b. 1936), giving birth to her last child at the age of forty-seven.
She died at home in Beverly Hills, California from cancer, aged 64.
She was born on December 29, 1908 in Des Moines, Iowa where her mother was on a trip. This did not appeal to her so she said she was born in Little Rock Arkansas where she was raised. Her father was a doctor who abandoned her and her mother before she was ten years old. Her mother suffered from tuberculosis and Dorothy was forced to support her. She went to New York at the age of fifteen, lied about her age, and joined the Zeigfeild Follies where she was eventually discovered by Darryl F. Zanuck. He brought her to Hollywood and shepherded her throughout most of her career. She worked for Warner Brothers, Paramount, and Universal. She played the "other" woman and could not be cast as a "dumb blond" because of her cerebral nature and demeanor. Good friends with 'Betty Davis' with whom she worked in "Ex-Lady", she worked with everyone from Bogart and Flynn to Stanwyk, and Cagney. She played "Della Street" in one of the original Perry Mason thrillers "The case of the Velvet Claw" where she was the only Della Street to marry a Perry Mason. She played the female lead in "In the Navy" against Dick Powell (I) but received lesser billing, which she claimed was a standard procedure practised on her in recompense for her aloofness. In fact, her nickname was "Ice Bucket". She worked in almost sixty films in twelve years from 1930 to 1942. She quit films and married H. Brand Cooper to whom she gave and raised four children. She undertook and completed this phase of her life after she was forty years old, giving bith to her last child at the age of forty-seven. She was to say the least a remarkable woman. She died in our family home from cancer on November 23, 1973.
