Dorothy Arnold (actress)

She was born as Dorothy Arnoldine Olson in Duluth, Minnesota, of Norwegian heritage.[4] By the age of 12 she was performing on amateur nights at Duluth's Lyric Theater and with the local Salvation Army Band. She graduated from Denfeld High School in 1935. Her first theatrical job was with the Band Box Revue, traveling out of Chicago. She studied at Paramount School in New York and played bits in pictures as a dancer.

Arnold appeared in 15 films between 1937 and 1939. Her most memorable roles were as the imperiled heroine Jean Drew in The Phantom Creeps (with Bela Lugosi and Robert Kent) and Gloria DeVere in The House of Fear (with Irene Hervey and William Gargan).

A brief comeback in 1957 included her last film, MGM's Lizzie (with Eleanor Parker and Joan Blondell) and appearances on TV's The Adventures of Jim Bowie and Dragnet.

Arnold met DiMaggio in 1937 – she was 19, he was 23 – on the set of the film Manhattan Merry-Go-Round (released in 1937). DiMaggio had a minor speaking role in the film; Arnold had no lines.[5] The couple married on November 18, 1939 at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in San Francisco.[6]

Her second marriage was to stockbroker George Schuster in 1946. They divorced in 1950. Arnold's third marriage, on August 27, 1970, was to Ralph D. Peck (né Peckovich), to whom she remained married until her death on November 13, 1984.[7]

Arnold and her third husband lived in Cathedral City, California where they owned and operated a supper club called Charcoal Charley's, just outside Palm Springs. She performed at the club until her death from pancreatic cancer in 1984.[8]

Arnold's November 17, 1984, obituary in The Desert Sun newspaper stated Dorothy Arnold Peck had passed away at the La Gloria Clinic in Ensenada, Mexico.[1]

• Dorothy Arnold at IMDb
• Dorothy Arnold at AllMovie