Marion appeared in 10 Broadway shows between 1914 and 1920, including the "Ziegfeld Follies of 1916".
She was a top MGM star for 10 years, from 1924 to 1934.
When Charles A. Lindbergh visited Hollywood in 1927, he wanted to meet his favorite star: Marion Davies. Lindbergh visited Davies on the set of The Fair Co-Ed (1927). At the official MGM reception for Lindbergh, he was flanked by superstars Marion Davies and Mary Pickford.
She was famous for doing dead-on impersonations of celebrities at parties. In the film The Patsy (1928) she successfully did impersonations of silent screen stars Mae Murray, Lillian Gish, and Pola Negri.
Davies' all-time favorite movie was The Big Parade (1925). She became friends with its costar Renée Adorée and paid for her funeral in 1933. Davies also demanded the services of its director, King Vidor, for what is considered her own best film, Show People (1928).
Marion Davies made imprints of her hands and feet in cement at Grauman's Chinese Theater on May 13, 1929. She was the 13th star to do so. Her message read, "To Sid Grauman the genius of the theatre from your pal Marion Davies."
Starring in nearly four dozen films (30 silents and 16 talkies) between 1917 and 1937, Marion appeared with some of the all-time greats, including Clark Gable, Marie Dressler, Gary Cooper, William Powell, Norma Shearer, William Haines, Harrison Ford, Billie Dove, Robert Montgomery, Leslie Howard, Bing Crosby, Mary Astor, Ray Milland, Charles Chaplin, Forrest Stanley, Johnny Mack Brown, Joel McCrea, Conrad Nagel, Dick Powell, Marie Prevost, Claude Rains, Pat O'Brien, Jean Parker, Irene Rich, Lawrence Gray, and Jimmy Durante.
She was William Randolph Hearst's mistress for over 30 years. It was widely considered the "worst kept secret in Hollywood" that she lived with him in California while his wife Millicent resided in New York. His wife would not grant him a divorce so that he could marry Davies. Davies retired from the screen in the late 1930s so she could be with Hearst as his health was declining. When Hearst lay dying in 1951 at age 88, Davies was given a sedative by his lawyer. When she awoke several hours later, she discovered that Hearst had passed away and that his associates had removed his body as well as all his belongings and any trace that he had lived there with her. His family had a big formal funeral for him in San Francisco. Davies did not attend.
After the death of William Randolph Hearst in 1951, Marion Davies began to record notes for a planned autobiography. She never published these notes before her own death in 1961, but the tapes were eventually transcribed with notes and published as "The Times We Had" in 1975.
In November 1959, she funded the clinic at UCLA, which is still called the Marion Davies Children's Clinic.
She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6326 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.
As a long-time friend of Joseph P. Kennedy, Davies was invited to and attended the inauguration of John F. Kennedy on January 20, 1961. There are photographs of the inauguration that show her seated close to the President during his famous speech. Sadly, this was her last public appearance. She passed away eight months later.
In 1956, Davies had a stroke and although it was a minor one, doctors diagnosed her with cancer of the jaw, for which she had successful surgery. In the spring of 1961, she had surgery for malignant osteomyelitis. About two weeks later, she fell in her hospital room and broke her leg. By summer, her health was failing quickly, and she died on September 22, 1961.
Following her death, she was interred at Hollywood Memorial Cemetery (now Hollywood Forever Cemetery) in Los Angeles, California. Her tomb is often overlooked though it is an imposing structure. It is a miniature Greek temple on the east side of the lake very close to the grave of Tyrone Power. Her family name of Douras appears over the doorway.
In 2001, director Peter Bogdanovich's film The Cat's Meow debuted with 19-year-old Kirsten Dunst starring as Davies. Dunst's performance interpreted Davies as "a spoiled ingenue" who was the ambivalent "lover to two very different men". The film was based upon unsubstantiated rumors concerning the Thomas Ince scandal, which was dramatized in the play The Cat's Meow and then adapted into the movie. That same year, a documentary film Captured on Film: The True Story of Marion Davies (2001) premiered on Turner Classic Movies.
She has been portrayed on film by Virginia Madsen in The Hearst and Davies Affair (1985), by Heather McNair in Chaplin (1992), by Melanie Griffith in RKO 281 (1999), by Kirsten Dunst in The Cat's Meow (2001), and by Amanda Seyfried in Mank (2020). Seyfried was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
She was recently portrayed by Chloe Fineman in "Babylon" (2022).
Trivia items from IMDB
Listen to author Lara Gabrielle discuss her book "Captain of Her Soul: The Life of Marion Davies"
Episode 7 - HERE
Episode 8 - HERE
