Dorothy Morris

Dorothy Ruth Morris (February 23, 1922 – November 20, 2011) was an American actress who worked in film, television, and on Broadway, and who became recognized for her "girl next door" persona. Born and raised in Hollywood, she attended Hollywood High School and trained at the Pasadena Playhouse before studying at Maria Ouspenskaya's School of Drama. She was the younger sister of Caren Marsh Doll, who became a dancer and stand-in for Judy Garland.

Morris made her Broadway appearance in 1922 in the musical Molly Darling. She subsequently pursued a screen career, signing a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941 after appearing in bit parts in several of the studio's productions. That same year she underwent a screen test for the female lead in The Courtship of Andy Hardy (1942), a role that ultimately went to Donna Reed. Among her early MGM credits was Cry 'Havoc' (1943), for which she adopted a British accent, followed by The Human Comedy, a drama headlined by Mickey Rooney, Frank Morgan, James Craig, and Marsha Hunt, in which Morris played Mary Arena, the girlfriend of Van Johnson's character. Additional screen roles during this period included Someone to Remember (1943), Pilot No. 5 (1943), None Shall Escape (1944), and Rationing (1944).

The peak of her film career came in 1945 when she was cast as Ingeborg Jensen in Our Vines Have Tender Grapes. That same year, MGM expanded one of her Crime Does Not Pay short subjects into the full-length feature Main Street After Dark, for which she received billing as Dorothy Ruth Morris. Morris was a frequent presence in MGM short subjects more broadly, appearing in the Pete Smith Specialties, The Passing Parade, and Crime Does Not Pay series. She later discussed her short-subjects work in the Turner Classic Movies documentary Added Attractions: The Hollywood Shorts Story, first broadcast in 2002.

Following her marriage in 1943 to Marvin Moofie, a mathematics teacher with the Los Angeles Unified School District, Morris stepped back from film work. The couple had two sons, Richard, born in 1947, and Robert, born in 1951. She returned to the screen in the late 1950s with two film appearances, Macabre and The Power of the Resurrection, both released in 1958, and made guest appearances on television series including The Untouchables, The Donna Reed Show, Rawhide, Casey Jones, and Wagon Train. Her final film role came in Seconds (1966), starring Rock Hudson, and her last television appearance was in a 1971 episode of Marcus Welby, M.D.

Morris lived in Palm Springs, California until her death on November 20, 2011, at the age of 89. Her body was donated to medical science at the University of California Riverside.