Blonde leading 1920s starlet Mary Doran attended college at Columbia University. Originally planning on a teaching career, Doran instead became a professional tap dancer, working for Flo Ziegfeld on Broadway before she was signed to an MGM contract in 1928. During the first years of the talkies, Doran showed up in such major releases as Broadway Melody (1929), The Divorcee (1930), and Our Blushing Brides (1930), usually cast as a flirt or gold digger. After her MGM option lapsed, she freelanced at Universal, Columbia, and Paramount; though no longer appearing in major roles in A-pictures, she was afforded a worthwhile supporting part in Lubitsch's Love Me Tonight (1932) and a funny bit as a screen-test actress in Harold Lloyd's Movie Crazy (1932). Mary Doran left films after co-starring with George O'Brien and Polly Ann Young in the quickie Western Border Patrolman (1936).
by Hal Erickson
biography
