Dorothy Revier

Silent screen vamp 'Dorothy Revier' (qv) (nee Velegra) was born in San Francisco, California on April 18, 1904, the daughter of a musician. As a result, Dorothy found herself leaning towards a career in music, finding work as a chorine and nightclub dancer in her teens. She broke into films at age 17 with _Life's Greatest Question (1921)_ (qv), billed then as Doris Velegra. The film's storyline was written by first husband 'Harry Revier' (qv), a sometime director and producer. He also directed Dorothy in her next film _The Broadway Madonna (1922)_ (qv), wherein she changed her stage moniker to reflect her married status. As 'Dorothy Revier' (qv), she proved a tempting blonde who specialized in femme fatale types, but inexplicably never hit top-flight stardom during her silent film reign. Typical alluring titles included _Dangerous Pleasure (1924)_ (qv), _The Fate of a Flirt (1925)_ (qv), _The Siren (1927)_ (qv) and _The Tigress (1927)_ (qv). A former 'Wampas Baby Star,' Dorothy's most notable effort was as the scheming beauty Milady de Winter in 'Douglas Fairbanks Sr'' _The Iron Mask (1929)_ (qv). She was able to make the transition to sound pictures comfortably enough but moved almost exclusively into "B"-level fare, eventually earning the dubious title "Queen of Poverty Row" working for inhabitants of Gower Gulch. Dorothy retired from films after co-starring in the 'Buck Jones' (qv)' western _The Cowboy and the Kid (1936)_ (qv), and turned to writing and painting. Divorced from Revier in 1926, she later married commercial artist William Pelayo. She died of natural causes in 1993.::Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net