Frances Dee

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title: "Frances Dee" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1909-births", "2004-deaths", "20th-century-american-actresses", "21st-century-american-actresses", "actresses-from-norwalk,-connecticut", "american-film-actresses", "university-of-chicago-alumni", "actresses-from-chicago", "actresses-from-los-angeles", "california-republicans"] description: "American actress (1909–2004)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Dee" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American actress (1909–2004) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
name	Frances Dee
image	Frances Dee ph636.jpg
caption	Dee in 1936
birthname	Frances Marion Dee
birth_date
birth_place	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
death_date
death_place	Norwalk, Connecticut. U.S.
spouse
occupation	Actress
yearsactive	1929–1954
children	3, including Jody McCrea
::

| name = Frances Dee | image = Frances Dee ph636.jpg | image_size = | caption = Dee in 1936 | birthname = Frances Marion Dee | birth_date = | birth_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = Norwalk, Connecticut. U.S. | spouse = | occupation = Actress | yearsactive = 1929–1954 | children = 3, including Jody McCrea

Frances Marion Dee (November 26, 1909 – March 6, 2004) was an American actress. Her first film was the musical Playboy of Paris (1930). She starred in films An American Tragedy (1931), Little Women (1933) and Becky Sharp (1935). She is also known for starring in the 1943 Val Lewton psychological horror film I Walked With a Zombie.

Early life

The younger daughter of Francis "Frank" Marion Dee and his wife, the former Henriette Putnam, Frances Marion Dee was born in Los Angeles, California, where her father worked as a civil service examiner.

When Dee was seven years old, her family moved to Chicago, Illinois. She attended Shakespeare Grammar School and Hyde Park High School, where she went by the nickname of Frankie Dee.

After graduating from Hyde Park High in 1927, of which she was vice president of her senior class, as well as voted Belle of the Year, she spent two years at the University of Chicago, where she participated in dramatic activities, then returned to California.

Career

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/FrancesDeeinBeckySharp.jpg" caption="Becky Sharp]]'' (1935)"] ::

Following her sophomore year in 1929, she went on summer vacation with her mother and older sister to visit family in the Los Angeles area. She began working as a movie extra as a lark. Her big break came when she was still an extra; she was offered the lead opposite Maurice Chevalier in Playboy of Paris.

The audience appeal established in two films opposite Paramount stars Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Richard Arlen led to the co-starring role of Sondra Finchley, opposite Phillips Holmes and Sylvia Sidney, in Paramount Pictures's prestigious and controversial production of An American Tragedy, directed by Josef von Sternberg.

Dee's additional screen credits included June Moon, Little Women, Of Human Bondage, Becky Sharp, and Payment on Demand. She co-starred with her husband Joel McCrea in the Western Four Faces West (1948). She retired after production of Gypsy Colt in 1953.

Personal life

Dee met actor Joel McCrea on the set of the 1933 film The Silver Cord. The couple married on October 20, 1933, after a whirlwind courtship, and remained married until McCrea's death in 1990. During their lifetime together, the McCreas lived, raised their children, and rode their horses on their ranch in what was then an unincorporated area of eastern Ventura County, California. They ultimately donated several hundred acres of their personal property to the newly formed Conejo Valley YMCA for the city of Thousand Oaks, California. Dee, like McCrea, was a Republican. Joel McCrea died on their 57th wedding anniversary.

Dee was honored at the 1998 Memphis Film Festival in Tennessee. In 2004, Frances Dee McCrea died in Norwalk, Connecticut due to complications from a stroke at the age of 94.

Filmography

::data[format=table]

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1929	Words and Music	Co-Ed	Uncredited
1930	True to the Navy	Girl at Table	Uncredited
A Man from Wyoming	Nurse	Uncredited
Manslaughter	Party Guest	Uncredited
Monte Carlo	Receptionist	Uncredited
Follow Thru	Woman in Ladies' Locker Room	Uncredited
Playboy of Paris	Yvonne Phillbert
Along Came Youth	Elinor Farrington
1931	June Moon	Edna Baker
An American Tragedy	Sondra Flinchley
Caught	Kate Winslow
Rich Man's Folly	Ann Trumbull
Nice Women	Jerry Girard
Working Girls	Louise Adams
1932	This Reckless Age	Lois Ingals
Sky Bride	Ruth's Friend	Uncredited
The Strange Case of Clara Deane	Nancy Deane
Love Is a Racket	Mary Wodehouse
The Night of June 13	Ginger Blake
If I Had a Million	Mary Wallace	Uncredited
1933	The Crime of the Century	Doris Brandt
King of the Jungle	Ann Rogers
The Silver Cord	Hester
Headline Shooter	Jane Mallory
One Man's Journey	Joan Stockton
Little Women	Margaret "Meg" March
Blood Money	Elaine Talbart
1934	Keep 'Em Rolling	Marjorie Deane
Coming Out Party	Joyce 'Joy' Stanhope
Finishing School	Virginia Radcliff
Of Human Bondage	Sally Altheny
1935	Becky Sharp	Amelia Sedley
The Gay Deception	Mirabel Miller
1936	Half Angel	Allison Lang
Come and Get It	Restaurant Patron	Uncredited
1937	Souls at Sea	Margaret Tarryton
Wells Fargo	Justine Pryor MacKay
1938	If I Were King	Katherine de Vaucelles
1939	Coast Guard	Nancy Bliss
1941	So Ends Our Night	Marie Steiner
A Man Betrayed	Sabra Cameron
1942	Meet the Stewarts	Candace Goodwin
1943	I Walked With a Zombie	Betsy Conell
Happy Land	Agnes March
1945	Patrick the Great	Lynn Andrews
1947	The Private Affairs of Bel Ami	Marie de Verenne
1948	Four Faces West	Fay Hollister
1951	Payment on Demand	Eileen Banson
Reunion in Reno	Mrs. Doris Linaker
1952	Because of You	Susan Arnold
1953	Mister Scoutmaster	Helen
1954	Gypsy Colt	Em MacWade
2006	Far as the Eye Can See	Grandma	Short
::

References

References

1. Her birth name is given as Frances Marion Dee in the ''California Birth Index, 1905-1995'', accessed via ancestry.com on January 13, 2011
2. Frank Dee's occupation is given in the 1910 U.S. Federal Census for Los Angeles, California, in which he is listed with his wife, Henriette, and daughters Margaret and Frances. In the 1920 U.S. Federal Census for Chicago, Illinois, Frank Dee is listed as an employment manager at a packing company. In the 1930 U.S. Federal Census for Indianapolis, Indiana, he was living as a lodger in a boarding house and working as a secretary at a public utility. All census records accessed on ancestry.com on January 13, 2011.
3. (June 17, 1934). "Frances Dee and Joel McCrea See Future Felicity and Freedom Upon Ranch When Studios Begin to Pall". Oakland Tribune.
4. (March 3, 1935). "Charming Frances Dee". Oakland Tribune.
5. Flans, Robyn. (February 7, 2018). "McCrea family's Hollywood legacy lives on at Conejo ranch". [[Ventura County Star]].
6. Critchlow, Donald T.. (October 21, 2013). "When Hollywood Was Right: How Movie Stars, Studio Moguls, and Big Business Remade American Politics". Cambridge University Press.
7. "Western Film Festival Photos--Gallery 9".
8. Bergan, Ronald. (March 10, 2004). "Obituary: Frances Dee". The Guardian.

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