Dorothy Coonan Wellman

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Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dorothy Coonan Wellman (November 25, 1913 - September 16, 2009) was an American actress and dancer. Wellman was the widow of film director William Wellman, to whom she was married from 1934 until his death in 1975. Wellman cast her in several of his films. Her career as a dancer began at the age of 14 with Warner Brothers Studios. Her early film credits as an on-screen dancer and actress included small, uncredited parts in such early talkies as The Broadway Melody (1929), Whoopee! (1930), Kiki (1931) Palmy Days (1931), and The Kid from Spain (1932). Her best-known films were 42nd Street (1933) and Gold Diggers of 1933. Many of the films in which she appeared were choreographed by Busby Berkeley.

Film director William Wellman cast Coonan as "Sally" in his 1933 film, Wild Boys of the Road. This was the only role she played in which she was credited or had a character with a name. She makes an uncredited appearance in Wellman's The Story of G.I. Joe (1945) as an army nurse nicknamed Red who marries a soldier on the battlefield, only to be widowed shortly afterwards.