Frances Dee

She is perhaps also known for starring in the 1943 Val Lewton psychological horror film I Walked With a Zombie.

• Name — Frances Dee • Birth Name — Frances Marion Dee • Born — 26 November 1909 • Birthplace — Los Angeles, California, U.S. • Died — 6 March 2004 • Place of death — Norwalk, Connecticut. U.S. • Occupation — Actress • Years Active — 1929–1954 • Children — 3, including Jody McCrea

The younger daughter of Francis "Frank" Marion Dee and his wife, the former Henriette Putnam, Frances Marion Dee was born in Los Angeles, California, where her father worked as a civil service examiner. When Dee was seven years old, her family moved to Chicago, Illinois. She attended Shakespeare Grammar School and Hyde Park High School, where she went by the nickname of Frankie Dee. After graduating from Hyde Park High in 1927, of which she was vice president of her senior class, as well as voted Belle of the Year, she spent two years at the University of Chicago, where she participated in dramatic activities, then returned to California.

• Illustration — Dee in Becky Sharp (1935) Following her sophomore year in 1929, she went on summer vacation with her mother and older sister to visit family in the Los Angeles area. She began working as a movie extra as a lark. Her big break came when she was still an extra; she was offered the lead opposite Maurice Chevalier in Playboy of Paris. The audience appeal established in two films opposite Paramount stars Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Richard Arlen led to the co-starring role of Sondra Finchley, opposite Phillips Holmes and Sylvia Sidney, in Paramount Pictures's prestigious and controversial production of An American Tragedy, directed by Josef von Sternberg. Dee's additional screen credits included June Moon, Little Women, Of Human Bondage, Becky Sharp, and Payment on Demand. She co-starred with her husband Joel McCrea in the Western Four Faces West (1948). She retired after production of Gypsy Colt in 1953.

Dee met actor Joel McCrea on the set of the 1933 film The Silver Cord. The couple married on October 20, 1933, after a whirlwind courtship, and remained married until McCrea's death in 1990. During their lifetime together, the McCreas lived, raised their children, and rode their horses on their ranch in what was then an unincorporated area of eastern Ventura County, California. They ultimately donated several hundred acres of their personal property to the newly formed Conejo Valley YMCA for the city of Thousand Oaks, California. Dee, like McCrea, was a Republican. Joel McCrea died on their 57th wedding anniversary. Dee was honored at the 1998 Memphis Film Festival in Tennessee. In 2004, Frances Dee McCrea died in Norwalk, Connecticut due to complications from a stroke at the age of 94.

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1929 — Words and Music — Co-Ed — Uncredited • 1930 — True to the Navy — Girl at Table — Uncredited • A Man from Wyoming — Nurse — Uncredited • Manslaughter — Party Guest — Uncredited • Monte Carlo — Receptionist — Uncredited • Follow Thru — Woman in Ladies' Locker Room — Uncredited • Playboy of Paris — Yvonne Phillbert • Along Came Youth — Elinor Farrington • 1931 — June Moon — Edna Baker • An American Tragedy — Sondra Flinchley • Caught — Kate Winslow • Rich Man's Folly — Ann Trumbull • Nice Women — Jerry Girard • Working Girls — Louise Adams • 1932 — This Reckless Age — Lois Ingals • Sky Bride — Ruth's Friend — Uncredited • The Strange Case of Clara Deane — Nancy Deane • Love Is a Racket — Mary Wodehouse • The Night of June 13 — Ginger Blake • If I Had a Million — Mary Wallace — Uncredited • 1933 — The Crime of the Century — Doris Brandt • King of the Jungle — Ann Rogers • The Silver Cord — Hester • Headline Shooter — Jane Mallory • One Man's Journey — Joan Stockton • Little Women — Margaret "Meg" March • Blood Money — Elaine Talbart • 1934 — Keep 'Em Rolling — Marjorie Deane • Coming Out Party — Joyce 'Joy' Stanhope • Finishing School — Virginia Radcliff • Of Human Bondage — Sally Altheny • 1935 — Becky Sharp — Amelia Sedley • The Gay Deception — Mirabel Miller • 1936 — Half Angel — Allison Lang • Come and Get It — Restaurant Patron — Uncredited • 1937 — Souls at Sea — Margaret Tarryton • Wells Fargo — Justine Pryor MacKay • 1938 — If I Were King — Katherine de Vaucelles • 1939 — Coast Guard — Nancy Bliss • 1941 — So Ends Our Night — Marie Steiner • A Man Betrayed — Sabra Cameron • 1942 — Meet the Stewarts — Candace Goodwin • 1943 — I Walked With a Zombie — Betsy Conell • Happy Land — Agnes March • 1945 — Patrick the Great — Lynn Andrews • 1947 — The Private Affairs of Bel Ami — Marie de Verenne • 1948 — Four Faces West — Fay Hollister • 1951 — Payment on Demand — Eileen Banson • Reunion in Reno — Mrs. Doris Linaker • 1952 — Because of You — Susan Arnold • 1953 — Mister Scoutmaster — Helen • 1954 — Gypsy Colt — Em MacWade • 2006 — Far as the Eye Can See — Grandma — Short