Actress, Model. She parlayed marriage to a photographer into a brief but spectacular career in the pages of fashion magazines as well as into time on stage and screen, and in the process inspired the 1957 "Funny Face". Born Dorcas Marie Newell to an upper level servant family, she was orphaned at 12 and subsequently raised by her parents' employer. While working at a series of clerical jobs she met Richard Avedon who was then beginning his career as a high fashion photographer. After the pair married in 1944 her husband changed her name to "Doe" and began using her images for "Harper's Bazaar" and similar publications of the day; her exposure to the modelling world led her to pose for other photographers and brought her in contact with Leonard Gersche who would one day base Audrey Hepburn's character in "Funny Face" on her. Doe made her Broadway bow in 1948's "The Young and Fair" and the next year won a Theater World Award for her work, returned to the Great White Way in the comedic flop "My Name is Aquilon", and divorced Avedon to marry actor Dan Matthews. She had the recurrant role of Diane Walker in the early 1950s newspaper themed drama "Big Town" and kept performing after Matthews was killed in a motor vehicle accident. Doe appeared on the silver screen in 1954's "The High and the Mighty" and portrayed the wife of composer Sigmund Romberg in "Deep in My Heart" (also 1954) and was seen in such small screen fare of the time as "The Ford Television Theatre" and "Alcoa Theatre". Following her 1957 marriage to director Don Siegel (divorced 1970s) she essentially left show business to raise her eventual four children. Doe was Mrs. Doe Avedon Siegel in private life, returned to the big screen once as Mrs. Kiner in the 1984 "Love Streams", lived out her days in Southern California, and died of pneumonia.
Actress, Model. She parlayed marriage to a photographer into a brief but spectacular career in the pages of fashion magazines as well as into time on stage and screen, and in the process inspired the 1957 "Funny Face". Born Dorcas Marie Newell to an upper level servant family, she was orphaned at 12 and subsequently raised by her parents' employer. While working at a series of clerical jobs she met Richard Avedon who was then beginning his career as a high fashion photographer. After the pair married in 1944 her husband changed her name to "Doe" and began using her images for "Harper's Bazaar" and similar publications of the day; her exposure to the modelling world led her to pose for other photographers and brought her in contact with Leonard Gersche who would one day base Audrey Hepburn's character in "Funny Face" on her. Doe made her Broadway bow in 1948's "The Young and Fair" and the next year won a Theater World Award for her work, returned to the Great White Way in the comedic flop "My Name is Aquilon", and divorced Avedon to marry actor Dan Matthews. She had the recurrant role of Diane Walker in the early 1950s newspaper themed drama "Big Town" and kept performing after Matthews was killed in a motor vehicle accident. Doe appeared on the silver screen in 1954's "The High and the Mighty" and portrayed the wife of composer Sigmund Romberg in "Deep in My Heart" (also 1954) and was seen in such small screen fare of the time as "The Ford Television Theatre" and "Alcoa Theatre". Following her 1957 marriage to director Don Siegel (divorced 1970s) she essentially left show business to raise her eventual four children. Doe was Mrs. Doe Avedon Siegel in private life, returned to the big screen once as Mrs. Kiner in the 1984 "Love Streams", lived out her days in Southern California, and died of pneumonia.
Bio by: Bob Hufford
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Beloved Mother, Wife, Companion And Friend
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