Dorothy Hale

Dorothy married Gaillard Thomas, a millionaire stockbroker, in 1925; they divorced a few years later. In 1929, she married Gardner Hale, a successful painter. The couple had homes in Paris and New York. She became a popular socialite and was called one of the best dressed women in the country. Sadly, on December 28, 1931, Gardner was killed in a car accident. The following year, she met producer Samuel Goldwyn at a dinner party. He called her a "great movie find" and announced she would play the lead in Cynara. Unfortunately, she was replaced by Kay Francis and only had a bit part in the film. Then she appeared in the 1934 drama. Her friend Claire Booth Luce cast her in the play Abide By Me. The show was a flop, and her performance was panned. By 1937, her acting career was over, and she was nearly bankrupt.

Dorothy was devastated when her close friend Rosamond Pinchot committed suicide. During the spring of 1938, she started dating Harry Hopkins, an advisor to President Roosevelt. When he refused to marry her, she fell into a deep depression. On October 20, 1938, she had a small party in her Manhattan apartment and attended the theater with some friends. After returning home, she spent several hours writing farewell notes. Tragically, at 5:15 A.M. on October 21, she committed suicide by jumping from her sixteenth-floor window. The thirty-three-year-old was still wearing her black evening gown and a flower corsage. Dorothy was cremated, and her ashes were buried at Fresh Pond Crematory and Columbarium in Middle Village, New York. Artist Frida Kahlo later immortalized her in the painting "The Suicide of Dorothy Hale." She was married twice: first to Gaillard Thomas from 1925 to 1928, then to Gardner Hale from 1929 until his death in 1931. Her life was marked by both glamour and tragedy.