Dorothy Malone, the beautiful and accomplished star of both the big and small screen, and the winner of the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Written on the Wind, died on Friday morning in Dallas of natural causes. She was 92.
As a young teenager, I had a crush on Malone, which was strikingly beautiful, exuding strong erotic appeal.
Her best known work is her Oscar role in Douglas Sirk’s stylish melodrama “Written on the Wind,” in 1956, in which she co-starred in with Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall and Robert Stack (who also won Supporting Actor Oscar for this film).
Photo: Last image (deliberately phallic) in Douglas Sirk’s Written on the Wind
Among her more notable early roles was the bookshop proprietress in “The Big Sleep,” opposite Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.
After years of smaller roles, the Oscar helped her secure roles in larger projects like “Too Much, Too Soon,” “Man of a Thousand Faces,” and “Warlock.”
She had worked with Rock Hudson twice more, in “The Tarnished Angels,” also directed by Sirk, and “The Last Sunset,” a Robert Aldrich Western starring Kirk Douglas and Carol Lynley.
Malone’s last on-screen appearance became also one of her most famous, playing a mother convicted of murdering her family in the scandalous 1992 erotic thriller, “Basic Instinct,” alongside Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone.
Dorothy Maloney was born in Chicago but grew up in Dallas, attending Southern Methodist University. She was discovered there by a talent scout while acting in a school play, and soon after was signed to a studio contract.
Malone was married and divorced three times, to actor Jacques Bergerac, Robert Tomarkin and Charles Huston Bell. She is survived by two daughters she had with Bergerac, Mimi and Diane.
