Doris Rankin

Doris Marie Rankin (August 24, 1887 – March 18, 1947) was an American actress who worked in both stage and film. Born in New York City, she was the daughter of actor McKee Rankin and Mabel Bert. Her father had two daughters from a prior marriage to Kitty Blanchard: Gladys Rankin, who married actor Sidney Drew, and Phyllis Rankin, who married Harry Davenport of the Davenport theatrical family.

Rankin began her performing career in productions with her father's company. Among her early roles was that of an Italian white slave in The White Slaver, a part for which she was particularly remembered. Before that engagement, she appeared in a series of sketches alongside her father and actor Lionel Barrymore. In 1904, when Rankin was sixteen and Barrymore was twenty-six, the two married. Both withdrew from the theater in 1906 and spent an extended period living in Paris, France, where Barrymore pursued studies in music and painting. The couple returned to the United States around 1910. They had two daughters, Ethel and Mary, both of whom died in infancy.

Rankin's Broadway career spanned from 1918 to 1931 and included appearances in several plays. Her credits encompassed Six Characters in Search of an Author, The Big Pond, The Garden of Eden, Seed of the Brute, and Chivalry, among other productions. The Copperhead had also been a successful stage production for Rankin and Barrymore before it was adapted to film.

Her screen debut came in the 1920 film adaptation of The Copperhead, in which she played Mrs. Shanks opposite her then-husband. She subsequently appeared in The Devil's Garden and The Great Adventure, both in 1920 and 1921 respectively, followed by Jim the Penman in 1921 and Lena Rivers in 1925. Rankin continued working in film through the transition from silent pictures to sound, with her final credited screen appearance in Society Smugglers in 1939.

Rankin received a divorce from Barrymore in December 1922. Barrymore married actress Irene Fenwick in Rome the following June. In 1923, Rankin married British author Roger Malcolm Mortimer in Frederick, Maryland, and the couple had two children together. They settled in Santa Monica, a location that kept Rankin in proximity to the film studios. In 1931, she underwent surgery for a thyroid ailment at Park East Hospital in New York City. Rankin died in Washington, D.C., on March 18, 1947, and is buried at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Suitland, Maryland, under her married name Doris Mortimer.