Lillian Bohny (born Bertha Eugenie Bohny;[ – December 31, 1997), known professionally as Billie Dove, was an American actress.][
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Early life and career
Dove was born Bertha Eugenie Bohny in New York City in 1903 to Charles and Bertha (née Kagl) Bohny,
She married Irvin Willat, the director of her seventh film, in 1923. The two divorced in 1929. Dove had a legion of male fans, one of her more persistent was Howard Hughes. She had a three-year romance with Hughes and was engaged to marry him, but she ended the relationship.
Hughes cast her as a comedian in his film Cock of the Air (1932). She also appeared in his movie The Age for Love (1931).
Dove was also a pilot, poet, and painter.[
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Early retirement
Following her last film, Blondie of the Follies (1932), Dove retired from the screen to be with her family. She married wealthy oil executive Robert Alan Kenaston in 1935,[ Los Angeles Times: "Gail Adelson; Hostess, Home Designer to the Stars" by Myrna Oliver February 22, 1999] Billie Dove later had a brief third marriage, in 1973, to architect John Miller, which ended in divorce.
Last years
Aside from a cameo in Diamond Head (1963), Dove never returned to the movies. She spent her retirement years in Rancho Mirage, then moved to the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California where she died of pneumonia on New Year's Eve 1997, aged 94.[
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She is interred in the Freedom Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Glendale.
Legacy
Dove has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6351 Hollywood Blvd.
Jazz singer Billie Holiday took her professional pseudonym from Dove as an admirer of the actress.
Filmography
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| Lost film |
| Lost film |
Lost film
Trailer survives |
| A copy is held at the UCLA Film and Television Archive |
| Lost film |
Lost film
Uncredited |
| Lost film |
| Lost film |
| A copy is held at the George Eastman Museum |
| Lost film |
| Lost film |
| Lost film |
| A copy is held at the Library of Congress |
| Lost film |
Lost film
filmed in Technicolor |
| Lost film |
| A copy is held at the Czech Film Archive |
| An incomplete copy is held at the Library of Congress |
| Lost film |
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| A copy is preserved at the Museum of Modern Art |
| Lost film |
| Lost film |
| Filmed in Technicolor |
| A copy is held at the George Eastman Museum |
| An incomplete copy is held at the Library of Congress |
| A copy is held at the Library of Congress |
| Lost film |
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| Lost film |
| Lost film |
| Lost film |
| A copy is held at the BFI National Archive |
| A copy is held at the Cineteca Italiana |
| A copy is held at the Czech Film Archive |
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| Lost film; Vitaphone track survives |
| Lost film |
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| Lost film |
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| Cameo role |
External links
