Dorothy Jordan

Dorothy Jordan (August 9, 1906 – December 7, 1988) was an American actress born in Clarksville, Tennessee, whose career spanned both Broadway and film. She studied at what is now Rhodes College and at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts before establishing herself as a performer in New York.

Jordan's Broadway career ran from 1926 to 1928 and included appearances in four productions: the musicals Twinkle, Twinkle, Funny Face, and Treasure Girl, as well as the revue Garrick Gaieties. She transitioned to film in 1929, making her screen debut in The Taming of the Shrew. Over the following four years, Jordan appeared in 23 films, among them Min and Bill (1930), which starred Wallace Beery and Marie Dressler, and The Cabin in the Cotton (1932), featuring Bette Davis. Her film work during this period also brought her into productions alongside Ramon Novarro, Clark Gable, Lionel Barrymore, Walter Huston, and Jimmy Durante.

In 1933, Jordan left the film industry upon marrying filmmaker and screenwriter Merian C. Cooper, who had co-written, produced, and directed King Kong that same year. The couple had three children — one son and two daughters. Jordan briefly came out of retirement in 1937 to pursue the role of Melanie Hamilton in Gone with the Wind, though she did not ultimately take the part.

Cooper maintained a long professional relationship with Western director John Ford, and the two formed Argosy Productions in 1947. Jordan returned to the screen through this connection, taking a small role in Argosy's The Sun Shines Bright, directed by Ford in 1953. She appeared again in the 1956 Argosy production The Searchers, playing the sister-in-law of Ethan Edwards, and followed that with a small role in Ford's The Wings of Eagles in 1957, after which she retired permanently from acting.

Jordan and Cooper resided in Coronado, California, and remained married until his death from cancer on April 21, 1973. Jordan died of congestive heart failure on December 7, 1988, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 82. Her remains were cremated at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles, and her ashes were scattered at sea.