Frances Dade

Her big break came when Samuel Goldwyn spotted her as Lorelei Lee in a touring production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. He signed her to a contract, though she eventually went freelance. Her first film appearance was in 1928's The Constant Nymph, an uncredited part alongside Dorothy Boyd and Mabel Poulton. Over the next few years she appeared in Raffles (1930) and Seed (1931). In 1931 Dade landed the role that would define her career: Lucy Weston in Dracula, opposite Bela Lugosi and Helen Chandler. She became the first actress to ever play the character Lucy in a motion picture. That performance made her one of thirteen WAMPAS Baby Stars that same year, alongside Marian Marsh, Karen Morley, and Marion Shilling.

After Dracula, offers dwindled. She made six films in 1931, three of them horror, but by 1932 she was in just one feature (Big Town) and appeared on Broadway in Collision. She retired from acting and, on August 12, 1932, married wealthy socialite Brock Van Every in Philadelphia. They had a daughter, but the marriage soured and ended in divorce in 1958. Dade returned to Philadelphia and trained as a nurse. In 1967 she was diagnosed with cancer and went to live with her daughter in Plainfield, New Jersey. She died the following year at the Birchwood Convalescent Center in Edison, New Jersey. She was 57.