Kenyon, Doris (1897–1979)

American actress. Born in Syracuse, New York, on September 5, 1897; died in 1979; daughter of a clericpoet; spent two years in Europe studying withYvette Guilbert ; married Milton Sills (an actor), in 1926 (died); married twice more and divorced; married Bronislaw Mylnarski (a music expert who died in 1971); children: (first marriage) Kenyon Sills (1927–1971).

Born in Syracuse, New York, in 1897, Doris Kenyon made her stage debut at age 18. She moved on to silent films, starring as a flighty ingenue, then made a successful transition to more mature parts in talkies; along the way, she also continued her Broadway career. Kenyon's films include The Rack (1915), The Inn of the Blue Moon (1918), The Bandbox (1919), Shadows of the Sea (1922), Bright Lights of Broadway (1923), Men of Steel (1925), The Valley of the Giants (1927), Road to Singapore (1931), Whom the God's Destroy (1934), and Girls' School (1938). One reviewer noted that the screen "fairly sizzles during her love scenes with Rudolph Valentino" in 1924's Monsieur Beaucaire. With her cultured voice and aristocratic demeanor, Kenyon also took on biographical roles, appearing as Betsey Hamilton (Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton ) opposite George Arliss in Alexander Hamilton (1931), Madame w , once again opposite Arliss, in Voltaire (1933) and Queen Anne in The Man in theIron Mask (1939). Following her retirement from films, she sang and toured for the USO during World War II. Her fourth husband, music expert Bronislaw Mylnarski, and her son, Kenyon Sills, died in the same year, 1971.