- Born
- Died
- Birth nameMarjorie Elizabeth Millsap
- Nicknames
- Dottie
- Midge
- Height5′ (1.52 m)
- After finishing high school, Dorothy Lee went to vaudeville, sang with Fred Waring and His Pennsylvaninans and made her film debut in Syncopation (1929). In Rio Rita (1929) she was teamed with Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey and appeared in almost all of their movies, like Margaret Dumont in The Marx Brothers' films. She had a short marriage to Hollywood gossip columnist Jimmy Fidler in 1931. After the Wheeler and Woolsey team split up, her career drifted away and she left the film business in 1939. She returned for a few more films in the early '40s, but then permanently retired after that.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Stephan Eichenberg <eichenbe@fak-cbg.tu-muenchen.de>
- Dorothy Lee was born Marjorie Elizabeth Millsap in Los Angeles, California. At the age of sixteen she married Robert Booth, a dancer, but they divorced two years later. After winning a contest Dorothy moved to New York City and started singing with Fred Waring and his band. She and Fred were engaged for a brief time. In 1929 she appeared in the movie Rio and Rita with the comedy team Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey. It was a huge success and she would star in more than a dozen more Wheeler and Woolsey comedies. Audiences loved Dorothy's bubbly personality and beautiful singing voice. She married gossip columnist Jimmy Fiddler in 1931. Their marriage lasted only seven months. While making the 1932 film Girl Crazy she had a dispute with producer David O'Selnick. Dorothy was so upset that she quit the Wheeler and Woosley comedies. She appeared in a few more movies but her acting career stalled.
During the 1930s Dorothy has two more short lived marriages. In 1939 she adopted a three year old son. She married her fifth husband, businessman Frank John Bersbach Jr, in 1941 and stopped acting. Her final film was Too Many Blondes with Rudy Vallee. She briefly toured in vaudeville with her friend Bert Wheeler. Dorothy and Frank had four children together. They divorced and she married attorney Charles Calderini in 1960. The couple had homes in Chicago and San Diego. Dorothy spent her free time playing golf and learning how to fly a plane. She and Charles remained happily married until his death in 1985. Dorothy died from respiratory failure on June 24, 1999 at the age of eighty-eight. She is buried at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Illinois.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Elizabeth Ann
- SpousesCharles Calderini(August 9, 1960 - August 1985) (his death)John Bersbach(December 9, 1941 - 1960) (divorced, 4 children)A.G. Atwater(March 7, 1936 - 1939) (divorced)Marshall Duffield(September 3, 1933 - November 1935) (divorced)Jimmy Fidler(1931 - 1931) (divorced)Robert Booth(November 18, 1927 - 1929) (divorced)
- In the course of making Hips, Hips, Hooray! (1934), she was dropped during a dance number, injuring her spine. This would cause her pain for the rest of her life.
- In January 1931 RKO Radio announced that Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey and their frequent co-star Dorothy Lee would each appear in solo films without the others. The Dorothy Lee feature was to be called "Turned Loose In College" co-starring John Darrow. The Wheeler and the Woolsey features were made later in 1931 but the proposed Dorothy Lee movie was never made.
- Dorothy Lee was filming the movie "Silly Billies" at RKO Radio Pictures at the same time as "Follow the Fleet" was being filmed. Gag photos were taken of her with Randolph Scott on the set of "Follow the Fleet", intending to promote both movies. But because she dressed in a sailor outfit, people ever since have assumed erroneously from the photos that she appeared in "Follow the Fleet".
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