Frances Marion Dee (November 26 1909 - March 6 2004) was an American actress. She starred opposite Maurice Chevalier in the early talkie musical, The Playboy of Paris (1930). She starred in the film An American Tragedy (1931) in the role played by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1951 remake A Place in the Sun.

Brunette Frances Dee was born in Los Angeles, where her Army officer father was stationed, and grew up in Chicago after her dad was transferred there. In 1929, he was re-assigned to L.A., and, as a lark, Dee began working in motion pictures as an extra; her debut was in Words and Music (1929) with Lois Moran. After playing her breakthrough role in Playboy of Paris, The (1930) opposite Maurice Chevalier (I), she met Joel McCrea on the set of the 1933 film Silver Cord, The (1933); following a whirlwind courtship, the two were married later that year in Rye, New York. In 1970, she and McCrea were rumored to be worth between fifty and one hundred million dollars. (Their 57-year marriage ended in 1990, the year of his death.) Dee hasn't acted since the mid-'50s, and says she doesn't miss it. The nonagenarian actress was recently a huge hit at the 1998 Memphis Film Festival in Tunica, Mississippi.

Actress Frances Dee, hailed as one of the most beautiful women in motion pictures, was born Jane Dee in Los Angeles, on November 26, 1909 (some sources say 1907). An "Army brat", Dee was born in the City of Angels as her Army officer father was stationed there, but she grew up in Chicago when he was transferred to the City of Broad Shoulders. Her movie career was the result of her father's being re-assigned to L.A. in 1929. Back in the proximity of Tinsel Town, Dee began appearing in movies as an extra, making her uncredited debut in Words and Music (1929). Her good looks brought her attention, and she soon established herself in Playboy of Paris, The (1930) opposite Maurice Chevalier (I). She was 21 years old. By the next year, she would claim one of the female leads in Josef von Sternberg's prestigious adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's American Tragedy, An (1931)_, as the débutante whose lifestyle seduces a young man who commits murder to obtain it through her. Dee established herself as a movie actress by skillfully underplaying her roles in comedies, dramas and Westerns. In the early part of her career, she typically was cast as sensible, good-hearted women in support of larger-than-life female stars, including Katharine Hepburn in Little Women (1933), Bette Davis in Of Human Bondage (1934) and Miriam Hopkins in Becky Sharp (1935). Occasionally, she would assay a lead role in A-pictures, such as American Tragedy, An (1931) and Frank Lloyd (I)'s If I Were King (1938), opposite Ronald Colman. One of the more memorable roles of her early career (in the days before the adoption of the Production Code that imposed a stricter censorship on the movies in 1934) was Blood Money (1933). The movie began to be shown in the 1990s again, with the burgeoning interest in pre-Code films, and helped make Dee well-known again. Her biographer, Andrew Wentnik, said that, "When a friend recently admonished her for playing a prostitute in Blood Money (1933), she denied it saying, 'I played a masochistic nymphomania cal kleptomaniac, not a prostitute.'" She met the love of her life, Joel McCrea, on the set of the 1933 film Silver Cord, The (1933). They would also appear together in Wells Fargo (1937) and Four Faces West (1948). The couple married later that year and were together 57 years, until his death in 1990. Legendary film critic James Agee said that Dee was "one of the very few women in movies who really had a face...and always used this translucent face with delicate and exciting talent". Pauline Kael, believed a close-up of Dee in So Ends Our Night (1941) was comparable to Greta Garbo's famous close-up in Queen Christina (1933). Dee was in several films produced by or associated with David O. Selznick, but ironically, she lost her chance to be in Selznick's greatest picture, Gone with the Wind (1939), due to her beauty. Selznick considered casting Dee as Melanie Wilkes, but backed off when he thought that her beauty might overshadow newcomer Vivien Leigh. Olivia de Havilland got the role instead, won an Oscar nomination and went on to a highly successful career. Dee's career, in contrast, never reached its potential, though she remained a working actress in Hollywood for as long as she wanted. Among her most memorable films is I Walked with a Zombie (1943). Dee said she accepted the role in Jacques Tourneur's low-budget thriller because of the fee. She retired in 1953 to devote herself to her husband and to raising their sons after making Gypsy Colt (1954) and _Mister Scoutmaster (1953)_ (qv. Dee and McCrea, who retired from films in 1962 while still a star, devoted their time to cultivating their ranch in Thousand Oaks, California. Dee donated most of the 300 acres of the ranch to create a public refuge in 1995. One of the last of the Golden Age of Hollywood stars, Frances Dee died on March 6, 2004 at a hospital in Norwalk, Conn., near the home of one of her sons, from complications of a stroke. Her family listed her age as 94, though many biographical sources listed her as 96. She was survived by her three sons, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.