Dorothy Peterson

Bergetta "Dorothy" Peterson, born on December 25, 1897, in Hector, Minnesota, was an American actress whose career spanned Broadway and more than eighty Hollywood films. She died on October 3, 1979, and was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Zion, Illinois, where she had been raised. Her parents were Oscar Frank Peterson and Emily Johnson Peterson, and she had one brother, Buford. Peterson was of Swedish ancestry.

Her early education included study at a dramatic school, where she performed in adaptations of Greek plays, followed by attendance at the Chicago Musical College. She began her professional acting career under her birth name, appearing with a company in Icebound at the Montauk Theater in Brooklyn, New York, in September 1923. For two years she toured with Borgony Hammer's Ibsen Repertory Company before leaving to pursue work in New York City.

Peterson's Broadway career ran from 1924 to 1929 and encompassed a range of productions. Her earliest Broadway credits included Cobra and All God's Chillun Got Wings, both in 1924, followed by The Fall Guy in 1925. In 1926 she appeared in three productions: God Loves Us, Pomeroy's Past, and Find Daddy. Her later Broadway work included Dracula in 1927 and Subway Express in 1929.

Peterson transitioned to film with her screen debut in the 1930 domestic drama Mothers Cry, a role that required her to portray a character aging nearly three decades over the course of the film.