- Donna Maria Gordon was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia and moved to Texas where she lived until the age of 21. She moved to L.A. and took jobs as an exotic dancer, and landed a few cameo film roles (all uncredited), one in Mark L. Lester's "Truckstop Women" (starring Claudia Jennings) as a naked woman who witnesses an auto accident with her boyfriend; and "The First Nudie Musical" as part of a very memorable and controversial dance number. She was primarily known as - and made her living as - an exotic dancer, and from this she was cast by John Cassavetes in the film "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie" as "Margo Donner", one of several strippers working for Ben Gazzara's character "Cosmo Vitelli". Cassavetes didn't want actresses playing strippers; he wanted realism - and got it. During promotion for the film, Donna and Gazzara appeared on "The Merv Griffin Show"; her genuine unbridled candor winning over the audience. And on an original promotional poster and billboard, under the title of the film is an image of Donna alone, dancing with her arms reaching up - giving the impression of flying. During this time she continued dancing, and married actor Ted Bessell, best known for his role on the sit-com "That Girl". They were divorced in the eighties and she moved to Canada. Several years later, upon returning to L.A., she continued dancing until the early nineties. She went on to work in the insurance business. Gordon died on July 1, 2017.
- IMDb mini biography by: mrsophistication
- SpouseTed Bessell (divorced)
- Full Lips, Red Hair
- In all her roles, ranging from "Truck Stop Women", "The First Nudie Musical", "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie", "Tom Waits for No One", and others, as opposed to auditioning for these parts like other actresses, Donna was always sought-out because of her background as a dancer.
- Body model for the sexy cartoon dancing girl in Tom Waits 1979 animated video for "The One That Got Away".
- Ex-wife of Ted Bessell.
- She is the only character of all the strippers in "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie" to have a last name. Her character's full name is "Margo Donnar". The reason director John Cassavetes made her last name "Donnar" (which, when spoken, sounds like her real first name, Donna) is because in one scene Ben Gazzara refers to "Margo" as "Donna".
- Best remembered by John Cassavetes fans as the feisty and opinionated redheaded dancer, Margo, in Cassavetes's arguably best feature, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie.
- When in doubt shut your mouth. Better to keep your mouth shut and let others wonder if you knew than to open it and let them know you didn't.
- On the set of 'The Killing of a Chinese Bookie', I thought Timothy Carey was merely a friend of John Cassavetes and cast for that reason, I had no idea of all the movies he'd been in since the fifties, and that he had such a cult following. I didn't even know that John himself was a famous actor. And now that I've seen their performances in other films, especially 'Paths of Glory' and 'The Dirty Dozen', I feel even luckier to have worked with them. But at the time it was just a job.
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