- Born
- Died
- Birth nameDorothy Rothschild
- Nickname
- Dottie
- Height4′ 11″ (1.50 m)
- Dorothy Rothschild was born on August 22, 1893 into a family of comfortable financial means. Raised by her father and Stepmother after her mother's death, she was given an excellent education for the times. Highly intelligent, she pursued a career after her formal education and proved herself to be one of the early feminists. She started writing poems early and her witty remarks are still alive today. In 1917 she was asked to join the staff at Vanity Fair magazine and to marry Edward Pond Parker II, both of which she agreed to gladly. Eddie Parker soon was stationed overseas and Dorothy became one of the founding members of the Algonquin Hotel "Round Table". Eddie arrived back from the war with an unfortunate drinking problem, and Dorothy decided she loved her new life more than she did him. They were separated far more than together and divorced in 1928. She spent a very dramatic period of time in New York City, doing theater reviews, spending time with her Algonquin friends, drinking far too much. She published poems and short stories and in 1929 won the national O. Henry Prize for the short story "Big Blonde". This established her as a serious writer. She married Alan Campbell when she was forty and he was twenty-nine. He encouraged her to go Hollywood where they became a very successful screenwriting team. Beginning in 1933 they received screen credits for fifteen films, most notably A Star Is Born (1937) which was nominated for an Academy Award. The time spent in Hollywood were the most lucrative years of her career, yet she spent every dime of it. She divorced and remarried Alan Campbell and in 1963 he died. She spent her last years in New York City, in very poor health due to heavy drinking and making do on very little money. Often, she would have to call on friends like Lillian Hellman to help her financially. Dorothy Parker died in 1967 at seventy-three years old in her New York hotel room, all alone. Time magazine devoted an entire page to her obituary, which was considered an amazing tribute. Her estate was left in full to Martin Luther King and the NAACP.- IMDb mini biography by: Sheryl Reeder<sherry@reeder.com
- SpousesAlan Campbell(August 17, 1950 - June 14, 1963) (his death)Alan Campbell(October 1933 - 1947) (divorced)Edwin Pond Parker II(1917 - 1928) (divorced)
- ParentsEliza Annie RothschildJacob Henry Rothschild
- Sharp, sardonic wit
- Left most of her estate to Martin Luther King. Left her ashes to Lillian Hellman who never claimed them.
- One of the games Parker and her witty friends indulged in while sitting at The Algonquin Round Table was one requiring each of them to come up with facetious definitions for big words. Among Parker's best was her pun on "horticulture": You can lead a "horticulture," but you can't make her think.
- At a low point in her finances, a friend interceded with John Gilbert, who graciously sent $2,000. Then, when his career was on the wane, he inquired if it might be possible to collect on some of the loans he'd made. Dorothy sent a check and in return received red roses with a note, "Thank you, Miss Finland" (Finland was the only country that had paid its war debt to the U.S. after World War I).
- Attempted suicide many times during her life.
- She lived alone for the last four years of her life, having no family of her own. She believed herself to be penniless at the end of her life, but, after her death, it was discovered that she had about $20,000 in a savings account which she had completely forgotten about. She left all her money to a man she greatly admired but had never met - Martin Luther King Jr., who was murdered less than a year after her death.
- Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses.
- Once in her long-running feud with Clare Boothe Luce, Mrs. Luce held the door open for Mrs. Parker to walk through and said, "Age before beauty." Mrs. Parker walked through and said, "Pearls before swine." Another time, when told that Mrs. Luce was kind to her inferiors, she said, "And where does she find them?"
- If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end-to-end, I wouldn't be a bit surprised.
- Reviewing Katharine Hepburn on Broadway: "She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B."
- The only '-ism' Hollywood believes in is plagiarism.
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