Partner
Marie Dressler
Queer Places:
Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
Glendale, Los Angeles County, California, USA
Claire
Du Brey (born Clara Violet Dubreyvich, August 31, 1892 – August
1, 1993) was an American actress. She appeared in more than 200 films
between 1916 and 1959. Her name is sometimes rendered as
Claire Du Bray or as Claire Dubrey.[1]
According to two biographies of
Marie Dressler published in the late 1990s, Dressler and Du Brey had a
long-term romantic relationship.[3][2]
However other sources indicate that Du Brey, who had trained as a nurse,
was the elder actress's assistant and caregiver while Dressler was ill
with terminal cancer.[4]
Du Brey was born in Bonner's Ferry, Idaho,[1]
to an ethnic
Croat father from
Dalmatia
(who anglicized his name to Matthew Dubrey before his marriage), and an
Irish-American mother, Lilly Henry, later Mrs. Richard Fugitt.
Her parents married on November 9, 1891 in
Pocatello, Bannock County, Idaho. She was raised Catholic and attended
a convent school.[2]
Du Brey "had trained as a nurse".[3]
She related that in 1897 she traveled west from Idaho in a covered wagon
with her mother and her grandfather.[3]
Du Brey's screen career began with
Universal Studios and she played at one time or another with almost
all the larger companies. More notable films in which she appeared were
Anything Once (1917),
Social Briars (1918),
The Devil's Trail (1919),
What Every Woman Wants (1919) and
Dangerous Hours (1919). Other films include The Wishing Ring
Man, The Spite Bride, The World Aflame, and The Walk
Offs. Her career declined with the sound era and she later played
mostly small roles.
Du Brey was proficient in athletics, excelling in swimming, riding,
golfing, tennis and motoring. She was five feet seven inches high, weighed
130 pounds and had auburn hair and brown eyes, and took a lively interest
in horticulture.[4]
Du Brey married Los Angeles medical doctor Norman Gates, on November
25, 1911; the couple divorced sometime in the 1920s.[3]
On August 1, 1993, Du Brey died in Los Angeles, aged 100.[1]
My published books:
BACK TO HOME PAGE
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claire_Du_Brey
- Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood,
1910-1969, William J. Mann, 2001