Dorothy Dalton

Dorothy Dalton (September 22, 1893 – April 13, 1972) was an American actress born in Chicago, Illinois, who built a career spanning stock companies, vaudeville, silent film, and Broadway. Beginning in 1910, she performed with stock companies in Chicago, Terre Haute, Indiana, and Holyoke, Massachusetts, before joining the Keith-Albee-Orpheum vaudeville circuits. By 1914, she had transitioned to Hollywood.

Dalton made her film debut in 1914 in Pierre of the Plains, opposite Edgar Selwyn, and that same year took the lead role in Across the Pacific. In 1915, she appeared alongside William S. Hart in The Disciple, a production made while she was still at Triangle Film Corporation before being signed by Thomas Harper Ince Studios. Although Ince intended to cast her in mature roles, Dalton had preferred playing ingénues. Her performance in The Disciple, in which her character attracts a man who is not her husband, resulted in her being cast as a vamp. At Ince's studio, she appeared in The Price Mark and Love Letters, both co-starring William Conklin. Additional film credits include The Vagabond Prince (1916), The Flame of the Yukon (1917) with H.B. Warner, and Moran of the Lady Letty (1922) with Rudolph Valentino. Ince's company remained active from 1919 until his death in 1924.

Dalton's Broadway career brought her to the stage in 1919, and she appeared in Aphrodite, produced by Morris Gest, in which she played the role of Chrysis. For her contributions to the motion picture industry, she holds a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street.

In her personal life, Dalton was first married to actor Lew Cody in 1913. The couple divorced, remarried in 1914, and divorced again. In 1924, she married theatrical producer Arthur Hammerstein, son of impresario Oscar Hammerstein I and uncle of lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. The couple had a daughter, Carol Hammerstein. Following this marriage, Dalton retired from performing. Arthur Hammerstein died in 1955. Dorothy Dalton died on April 13, 1972, at her home in Scarsdale, New York, at the age of 78.