Dorothy West (actress)

For other people named Dorothy West, see Dorothy West (disambiguation)

Dorothy West (August 29, 1891 – December 11, 1980) was an American stage and film actress, as well as a radio performer.

Douglas Fairbanks with West in The Habit of Happiness (1916)

West and Henry B. Walthall in The House with Closed Shutters, a 1910 Civil War drama directed by D. W. Griffith

Early life

Dorothy West grew up in Huntsville, Alabama.^[1]

Career

West was a star in Biograph silent films in New York. She later relocated to Hollywood with a group of D. W. Griffith stars that included Mary Pickford, Marion Leonard, Florence Barker, and Mack Sennett in 1909.^[2][3] West, Pickford, Pickford's brother Jack, and Effie Johnson boarded together.^[3]

She joined a stock theatre company in Mount Vernon, Illinois^[1] then joined the Pitt Stock Players in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.^[4] She also performed in theatre in Halifax, Nova Scotia.^[1]

West returned to film several years later and received positive notice for her work in Griffith's His Mother's Scarf (1911)^[5] Swords and Hearts (1911)^[6] and The Eternal Grind (1916),^[7] then left films again to tour in theatre productions in Europe after World War I with the American Army of Occupation,^[1] including in Germany.^[8]

She also worked on Broadway^[9] and with a theatre company called The Triangle Players.^[10] She performed in the short play Sintram of Skaggerack by Sada Cowan in 1923.^[11]

She made her radio debut in 1928.^[1]

Selected filmography

• The Girl and the Outlaw (1908)
• The Guerrilla (1908)
• An Awful Moment (1908)
• One Touch of Nature (1909)
• Love Finds a Way (1909)
• Those Boys! (1909)
• The Girls and Daddy (1909)
• The Brahma Diamond (1909)
• His Wife's Mother (1909)
• The Roue's Heart (1909)
• I Did It (1909)
• The Deception (1909)
• A Burglar's Mistake (1909)
• The Cord of Life (1909)
• The Day After (1909)
• The Unchanging Sea (1910)
• In the Border States (1910)
• The House with Closed Shutters (1910)^[12]
• Heart Beats of Long Ago (1911)
• His Mother's Scarf (1911)
• Swords and Hearts (1911)
• The Habit of Happiness (1916)
• The Eternal Grind (1916)