Lois Moran

Lois Moran (1909-1990) was an American stage and film actress. She started her career as a dancer at the Paris Opera in France. Her film debut was in a French silent film after which she starred in French and American films till 1931. Her major claim to fame, however, was as F. Scott Fitzgerald's inspiration for the character of Rosemary in his classic novel 'Tender Is the Night'.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3833/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Fox.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5325. Photo: Fox.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3910/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Fox.

Dancing at the Paris Opera at 13

Lois Moran was born Lois Darlington Dowling in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1909. She was the only child of Roger and Gladys Evans Dowling. Her father died in a car accident when she was one year old. Her mother then married Dr Timothy Moran, from whom Lois derived her later stage name.

When Lois was nine years old, her stepfather, whom she regarded as the most important person in her life alongside her mother, died of influenza. Lois grew up in Pennsylvania and attended Seton Hill Academy in Greensburg.

Lois trained in dance and moved to Paris with her mother at the age of 10 to study seriously, with funding provided by Lois's great-aunt. They lived in France between 1921 and 1925. At the age of thirteen, Lois made her first small appearances as a singer and dancer at the Paris Opera.

She had a leading role in her film debut, the drama La galerie des monstres/The Gallery of Monsters (Jaque Catelain, 1924), set against the background of a circus in Spain. It was produced by Cinégraphic, the production company of Marcel L'Herbier and it was the second film to be directed by the actor Jaque Catelain, following the relative success of his previous film Le Marchand de plaisirs/The Merchant of Pleasures (1923).

In 1925, Moran was seen in a leading role in the French silent drama Feu Mathias Pascal/The Late Matthias Pascal (Marcel L'Herbier, 1925) starring Ivan Mozzukhin. It was the first film adaptation of Luigi Pirandello's novel 'Il fu Mattia Pascal'.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag / Amag, no. 5900. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox.


French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 293. Photo: Noël / Fox Film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4857/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Fox.

A monumental tearjerker

After her return to the United States, Lois Moran achieved greater fame in the same year with the role of Laurel Dallas, daughter of the title character, in the monumental tearjerker Stella Dallas (Henry King, 1925) starring Ronald Colman and Belle Bennett.

Film offers came flying her way and in 1926 she co-starred as the daughter of Lon Chaney in The Road to Mandalay (Tod Browning, 1926). In the following years, Lois Moran appeared as the leading actress in numerous silent films such as the drama The Music Master (Allan Dwan, 1927) opposite British actor Alec B. Francis.

In 1927, Moran had a short-lived relationship with the writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, who is said to have modelled the character of Rosemary Hoyt on her in his novel 'Tender is the Night'. She co-starred with Warner Baxter in the mystery film Behind That Curtain (Irving Cummings, 1929). It was the first Charlie Chan film to be made at Fox Studios. Moran played another major role in Mammy (Michael Curtiz, 1930) alongside Al Jolson.

However, like many other actors, she was unable to make a successful transition from silent to talkies. She moved to Broadway, where she appeared in the play 'This Is New York' (1930), the George Gershwin musical 'Of Thee I Sing' and its sequel 'Let 'Em Eat Cake' (1934). In 1935, she married Clarence M. Young, then assistant secretary of commerce, with whom she had a son, Timothy.

Moran stopped acting, but she made a comeback in the television series Waterfront (1954-1955) with Preston Foster. It ran for three seasons. In later years she settled in Sedona, Arizona with her husband, who died in 1972. She ran a weekly local column for a time. In 1974, Moran returned to the big screen for the last time. In Wim Wenders' road movie Alice in den Städten/Alice in the Cities (1974), she was seen in a small role as the Pan Am booking agent at the airport in New York. Lois Moran died of cancer in 1990 in a nursing home in Sedona, Arizona, at the age of 81. She was cremated and her ashes were scattered in Red Rock Country in Arizona.


Dutch postcard. Dorothy Burgess and Lois Moran in A Song of Kentucky (Lewis Seiler, 1929).


Dutch postcard, no. 549. Joseph Wagstaff and Lois Moran in A Song of Kentucky (Lewis Seiler, 1929).

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.