They Won't Forget, They Made Me a Criminal, Lady of Burlesque, Gold Diggers in Paris, The Affairs of Jimmy Valentine, Power of the Press, Racket Busters, Heart of the North, King of the Lumberjacks, Tear Gas Squad, The Cowboy Quarterback, Secrets of an Actress, Private Detective, Mercy Island, Water...
Loved fishing, especially around Catalina Island, and even caught a 632-pound shark in August, 1938.
2
Her widower died on May 5, 1958, in the Nebraska State Penitentiary at age 47.
3
She died of asphyxiation from inhalation of fumes. She was found face down in the bathroom with first and second degree burns covering her body. Police thought the flames started from an unextinguished cigarette that lit a chair on fire while Dickson was sleeping. It is thought she went to the bathroom to try to escape through the window and is estimated she waited there for an hour before dying.
4
Her pet boxer also died in the fire that killed her.
5
Her last husband was a former bodyguard to Jean Harlow. He had been a middleweight boxer.
6
She separated from Ralph Murphy in February 1943. She divorced him on grounds of mental cruelty.
7
She first married her second husband Ralph Murphy, but they had to remarry in 1941 when it was found that her divorce was not final when they originally wed.
8
She separated from her first husband in June, 1940.
9
While traveling in 1940, she stopped in Utah to see a friend, actor-singer Cliff Edwards. Her husband, Perc Westmore, reported her missing and she made national newspaper headlines for several days. When she returned from her trip, a furious Dickson insisted to the press that her husband had known where she was the whole time. It was viewed in Hollywood as a publicity stunt.
10
She divorced her first husband due to his extramarital affairs, jealousy, controlling nature, and drinking. She resented his interference in her career.
11
Her photograph was the first natural color photograph to be transmitted by International News Pictures from Hollywood to the East Coast.
12
She auditioned at the Mason Opera House in Los Angeles, resulting in being cast in the lead in Seventh Heaven. She also had the leads in Smilin' Through and The Devil Passes. It was here that Warner Bros. talent scout Irving Kumin saw her perform and left her his card backstage.
13
She was a member of the Hart Players, a tent show troupe.
14
She grew up in Idaho, but moved to Long Beach, CA in 1930.
15
Her father died suddenly in 1929.
16
She had an older sister, Doris.
17
Ironically, in one of her final performances, The Crime Doctor's Strangest Case (1943), she played the wife of a man who habitually started accidental fires with carelessly discarded smoking materials. Two such scenes were featured in the movie. It was just two short years later she died in a house fire suspected to have been caused by a carelessly discarded cigarette.
18
Contracted to Warner Brothers during her brief Hollywood tenure.
19
Stage actress.
Actress
Title
Year
Status
Character
Rationing
1944
Miss McCue
The Crime Doctor's Strangest Case
1943
Mrs. Keppler / Evelyn Fenton Cartwright
Lady of Burlesque
1943
Dolly Baxter
Power of the Press
1943
Edwina Stephens
The Affairs of Jimmy Valentine
1942
Cleo Arden
Mercy Island
1941
Leslie Ramsey
The Big Boss
1941
Sue Peters
This Thing Called Love
1940
Florence Bertrand
I Want a Divorce
1940
Wanda Holland
Tear Gas Squad
1940
Jerry Sullivan
King of the Lumberjacks
1940
Tina Martin Deribault
Private Detective
1939
Mona Lannon
On Your Toes
1939
Peggy Porterfield
No Place to Go
1939
Gertrude Plummer
The Cowboy Quarterback
1939
Evelyn Corey
Waterfront
1939
Ann Stacey
They Made Me a Criminal
1939
Peggy
Heart of the North
1938
Joyce MacMillan
Secrets of an Actress
1938
Carla Orr
Racket Busters
1938
Nora Jordan
Gold Diggers in Paris
1938
Mona Verdivere
Talent Scout
1937
Blonde on Bus (uncredited)
They Won't Forget
1937
Sybil Hale
Soundtrack
Title
Year
Status
Character
King of the Lumberjacks
1940
performer: "They Say" 1940
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 2
1941
Documentary short
Herself - at Mocambo (uncredited)
Screen Snapshots Series 19, No. 5: Art and Artists
$1.9 Million
