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Dorothy Coburn

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Dorothy Coburn
Dorothy Coburn in Hat Off! (1927)
Born
Dorothy Montana Coburn

(1905-06-08)June 8, 1905
DiedMay 15, 1978(1978-05-15) (aged 72)
Resting placeGrand View Memorial Park Cemetery
OccupationActress
Spouse(s)
Joseph Maier
(Death 1959)

Harry W. Heap
(m. 1973)
RelativesWalt Coburn (Uncle)

Dorothy Montana Coburn (June 8, 1905 – May 15, 1978) was an American film actress who appeared in a number of early Laurel and Hardy silents. She was a niece of author Walt Coburn and granddaughter of Robert Coburn Sr., founder of the Circle C Ranch in Montana.[1]

Early years

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Coburn was born to cowboy-poet and Western film producer Wallace Coburn and Ann Reifenrath Coburn in Great Falls, Montana but raised in Prescott, Arizona.[1]

Career

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Coburn played ingenue leads and comedic roles.[2] Her documented film repertoire consisted of 16 silent short subjects for the Hal Roach studios, and she appeared in scores of films as horseback-stuntwoman opposite such stars as Gary Cooper and Joel McCrea,[citation needed] and as a stand-in for Ginger Rogers in several of her dancing films with Fred Astaire.[1] Coburn retired from the movie business in the early 1930s. Coburn occasionally worked as a stunt performer in westerns.[citation needed]

Later years

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After leaving the movie business in 1936, she found employment as a receptionist for an insurance company. She was married twice. Coburn died in 1978, aged 72, from emphysema.[1] She is interred in Grand View Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.[3]

Her first husband, Joseph Maier, died in Santa Barbara on March 4, 1959.[4] In 1973 she married Harry W. Heap in Santa Barbara, California. Before Coburn's death in 1978, the couple lived in Rancho Palos Verdes.[citation needed]

Filmography

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d D'Ambrosio, Brian (2019). Montana Entertainers: Famous and Almost Forgotten. Chicago: Arcadia Publishing Inc. pp. 35–37. ISBN 9781439667330. OCLC 1107577282.
  2. ^ "New Faces Mark Line-up of Stern Brothers Comedies". Universal Weekly. June 9, 1928. p. 23. Retrieved June 30, 2024.
  3. ^ "Dorothy Heep". The Californian. May 18, 1978. p. 29.
  4. ^ "Actress: Dorothy Coburn". www.classicvideostreams.com. Retrieved February 15, 2021.
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