Doris Kenyon

 ( Methodists From New York ) 

Doris Margaret Kenyon (September 5, 1897 – September 1, 1979) was an American actress of film and television.

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Early life She grew up in Syracuse, New York, where her family had a home at 1805 Harrison Street. Her father, Dr. James B. Kenyon, was a Methodist Episcopal Church minister at University Church. Kenyon studied at Packer College Institute and later at Columbia University. She sang in the choirs of Grace Presbyterian and Bushwick Methodist Churches in Brooklyn, New York. Her brother was a dentist and New York assemblyman Raymond T. Kenyon.

Her voice attracted the attention of Broadway theatre theatrical scouts who enticed her to become a performer on the stage. In 1915 she first appeared as a chorus girl in the Victor Herbert operetta The Princess Pat.

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Film career In 1915, she made her first film, The Rack, with World Film Company of Fort Lee, New Jersey. One of the most remembered films of her early career is Monsieur Beaucaire (1924). In this production, she starred opposite Rudolph Valentino. She and her husband, Milton Sills, starred in The Unguarded Hour for First National Pictures (1925). Laura Wood, a star swimmer and wife of Gaylord Wood, First National Pictures cinematographer, doubled for her swimming scenes because she couldn't swim.

Kenyon's first sound film was The Home Towners (1928). She also starred in Paramount Pictures' first talking film, Interference (1928).

Kenyon was cast opposite actor George Arliss in two films: Alexander Hamilton (1931) and Voltaire (1933). She participated in Counsellor at Law (1933) with John Barrymore. In the autumn of 1935, Doris appeared with Ramon Novarro in the play A Royal Miscarriage in London.

Kenyon's film career ended with a cameo in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939).

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Music Kenyon's performances as a singer grew out of an evening in New York when a manager of concert artists heard her sing at home for some friends. Afterward, he worked with her to arrange a tour. Singing eventually became an outlet for expressing her feelings after her first husband's death. A soprano, she performed in Detroit as part of the Town Hall Series and in Phoenix as part of the All-Star Artists Series, among others.

Kenyon's concerts featured more than vocal performances. Her "Lyrical Silhouettes" tour in 1933 included "characterizations presented in a half-dozen or more foreign languages and dialects." A variety of costumes supplemented the music in the program's segments.

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Radio Kenyon played Ann Cooper in the soap opera Crossroads on NBC in the 1940s.

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Television Kenyon continued her acting career in television in the 1950s. She was cast in episodes of The Secret Storm (1954), Schlitz Playhouse of Stars and 77 Sunset Strip.

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Marriages Kenyon was married four times.

• Her first husband was the actor Milton Sills. She wed Sills on October 12, 1926.
  (2026). 9780813127088, University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 9780813127088
  She was widowed in 1930. She had one son with Sills, Kenyon Clarence Sills, born in 1927.
• She married New York real estate broker Arthur Hopkins in 1933. The two divorced the following year, citing incompatibility.
• In 1938 Doris married Albert Lasker, owner of Lord & Thomas, an advertising agency. They divorced in 1939.
• Her final marriage was to musician Bronislaw Mlynarski in 1947. He was the son of composer Emil Młynarski and the brother-in-law of Arthur Rubinstein.

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Death Doris Kenyon died on September 1, 1979, at her home in Beverly Hills, California of cardiac arrest.

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In popular culture In 1922, a newborn girl, Doris Kappelhoff, was named after Kenyon. Kappelhoff grew up to be singer and actress Doris Day. Many years later, Day purchased a home in Beverly Hills that was "a few houses away from Kenyon's, on the very same street."

(2026). 9781409105695, Orion Publishing Group. . ISBN 9781409105695

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Filmography

Silent

Lost film

Lost film

A copy is held at the Czech Film Archive

Lost film

Short subject

Lost film

Lost film

Short subject Lost film

Uncredited A copy is held at the George Eastman House

Short subject

Pathe Exchange Lost film Serial

William L. Sherry / Film Clearing House A copy is held at the Museum of Modern Art

William L. Sherry / Film Clearing House

W.W. Hodkinson / Pathe Exchange

W.W. Hodkinson / Pathe Exchange

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Lost film

Selznick Pictures Lost film

United Artists A copy is held at Gosfilmofond

Mastodon Film Lost film

Mastodon Film

Goldwyn Pictures Lost film

Principal Distributing A copy is held at the Library of Congress

CC Burr Lost film

Vitagraph

CC Burr

CC Burr

Famous Players-Lasky

First National A copy is held at Deutsche Kinemathek

Ince / First National Lost film

First National Lost film

First National Lost film

First National Lost film

First National Lost film

First National Lost film

First National Lost film

First National Lost film

First National Lost film

First National Lost film

First National

First National

First National Lost film

Sound

Warner Bros. Lost film

Paramount Pictures

RKO Pictures

First National / Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

First National / Warner Bros.

Fox Film Corporation

Tiffany Pictures

Warner Bros.

RKO Pictures

Universal Pictures

Columbia Pictures

Universal Pictures

Paramount Pictures

Columbia Pictures

United Artists

Bibliography

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External links

• Doris Kenyon at Virtual History

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