Billie Dove American film actress, artist, poet and licensed pilot Country: USA

Biography of Billie Dove

Billie Dove was an American film actress, artist, poetess, and licensed pilot, best known for her beauty and feminine allure. She was born Bertha Bohny on May 14, 1903, in New York City, to Swiss immigrant parents Charles and Bertha Bohny. Growing up, she received a good education in private Manhattan schools.

At a young age, Dove began working as a model and assistant photographer to support her family. She made her first appearance in the Ziegfeld Follies Revue at the age of 15, despite not being able to sing or dance, thanks to her incredible beauty. In the early 1920s, she officially changed her name to Lillian Bohny and moved to Hollywood, where she started her career in silent films.

Dove's debut in the film industry was in 1921, and she quickly became one of the most popular actresses of the 1920s. She portrayed the dreamy princess saved by Douglas Fairbanks in the adventure film "The Black Pirate" in 1926 and starred in the musical "The Painted Angel" in 1929. Her performance in the film "The American Beauty" in 1927 earned her the nickname "The American Beauty" as she played a girl from the lower class striving to climb the social ladder.

Although Dove had a large following, her success was mainly attributed to her beauty rather than her acting talent. Her best films were those in which she had strong male partners or authoritative directors who guided her every move. One such director was Lois Weber, who worked on two of Dove's best films, "The Marriage Clause" in 1926 and "Sensation Seekers" in 1927.

In 1923, Dove married director Irvin Willat, whom she divorced in 1929. She had a significant number of admirers, one of whom was eccentric millionaire, industrialist, and Hollywood magnate Howard Hughes. They dated for three years, lived together, and were even engaged, but Dove abruptly ended their relationship, unable to tolerate Hughes' peculiarities and unexplained absences. Despite this, she admitted that Hughes was the only man she had ever loved. There were rumors that Hughes paid her first husband $35,000 for a divorce.

Dove's last film, and her 50th film in a career spanning 12 years, was the comedy "Blondie of the Follies" in which she starred alongside Marion Davies. However, much of Dove's role was cut from the film at the insistence of Davies, leaving her devastated. In 1933, Dove announced her retirement from acting to focus on her family. She married wealthy businessman, rancher, and oil industry executive Robert Kenaston, with whom she had two children, a son, and an adopted daughter. They divorced in 1970 after 37 years of marriage.

Dove was offered the role of Belle Watling in "Gone with the Wind" in 1939 but declined the opportunity. Apart from a cameo in the 1962 film "Diamond Head," Dove did not return to the film industry. She lived in Rancho Mirage, California, a small resort town, until she moved to the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. Dove passed away from pneumonia on December 31, 1997, at the age of 94.