Biography

In 1931, Dorothy and Paul Kelly were married after he was released from prison. They returned to New York, but eventually moved back to California, where they raised her daughter Valerie Raymond as Mimi Kelly. Mimi would later have her own slight Broadway career.

Was killed one evening in January of 1940, at age 40, when the car she was driving skidded on a soft shoulder and rolled over three times, pinning her under the wheel in Northridge, California near her home.

Wrote a play, "Women in Prison," based on her own experiences, that became the film Ladies They Talk About (1933) starring Barbara Stanwyck. It was later remade by Warner Bros. as Lady Gangster (1942) with Faye Emerson.

In 1921 she met Ziegfeld Follies song-and-dance man Ray Raymond while performing in "Blue Eyes". Raymond left his wife for her. They had a daughter, Valerie.

In a classic romantic triangle, actor Paul Kelly and husband Ray Raymond squared off over the affections of Dorothy in a violent, alcohol-induced fight on April 16, 1927, in front of the Raymond's maid and daughter. Dorothy was out shopping at the time. Raymond, seriously beaten about the head and body, lingered for two days then succumbed to a brain hemorrhage. Kelly was sentenced to prison for manslaughter (he served a little over two years) and Dorothy too for concealing and distorting facts (she tried to convince police that Raymond had died of "natural causes"). She was released after 10 months.