Biography

Gloria Dickson

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Overview

Born
August 13, 1917 · Pocatello, Idaho, USA
Died
April 10, 1945 · Hollywood, California, USA (house fire)
Birth name
Thais Lelia Dickerson
Height
5′ 4″ (1.63 m)

Mini bio

Gloria Dickson was born Thais Alalia Dickerson on August 13, 1917, in Pocotello, Idaho. After her father died, her mother took Gloria and her sister to California. During high school she started acting in local theater productions. When she was nineteen a Warner Brothers talent scout saw one of her performances and offered her a contract. For her first film she was given the leading role in They Won't Forget (1937). Her performance got rave reviews and she was called the "luckiest girl in Hollywood". Gloria continued to get good roles in Gold Diggers in Paris (1938), They Made Me a Criminal (1938), and I Want a Divorce (1940). In 1938 she married makeup artist Perc Westmore. He wanted her to be more glamorous and persuaded her to have a nose job. After leaving MGM, Gloria's career stalled and she could only get small roles in B-movies like Lady of Burlesque (1943) and The Affairs of Jimmy Valentine (1942). Gloria divorced Perc and married director Ralph Murphy in 1941. Unfortunately, Ralph had a wandering eye, and their marriage only lasted two years. By 1944, Gloria was unemployed and overweight and was also struggling with a serious alcohol problem. She married former boxer William Fitzgerald and rented a house in West Hollywood. On April 10, 1945, Gloria was taking a nap when the house caught fire. She tried to escape but ended up trapped in a bathroom. Gloria suffered second-degree burns and died from asphyxiation. She was only 27 years old. Gloria is buried at Hollywood Forever cemetery with a tombstone reading "Thais A. Dickerson, My Baby".
- IMDb mini biography by: Elizabeth Ann

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Trivia

Ironically, in one of her final performances, The Crime Doctor's Strangest Case (1943), she played the wife of a man who habitually started accidental fires with carelessly discarded smoking materials. Two such scenes were featured in the movie. Just two short years later she died in a house fire suspected to have been caused by a carelessly discarded cigarette.
Her photograph was the first natural color photograph to be transmitted by International News Pictures from Hollywood to the East Coast.
She died of asphyxiation from inhalation of fumes. She was found face down in the bathroom with first- and second-degree burns covering her body. Police thought the flames started from an unextinguished cigarette that lit a chair on fire while Dickson was sleeping and that she tried to escape through a bathroom window, where it is estimated she waited for an hour before dying.
Her widower died on May 5, 1958, in the Nebraska State Penitentiary at age 47.
While traveling in 1940, she stopped in Utah to see a friend, actor-singer Cliff Edwards. Her husband, Perc Westmore, reported her missing, which made national newspaper headlines for several days. When she returned from her trip, a furious Dickson insisted to the press that her husband had known where she was the whole time. It was viewed in Hollywood as a publicity stunt.