Maxine Doyle (January 1, 1915 – May 7, 1973) was an American
film
A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...
actress
An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...
who appeared in almost 40 films between 1933 and 1946. Today's audiences may know Maxine Doyle from her appearance in the
Leon Errol musical short ''
Service with a Smile'' (1934), one of the first films in full
Technicolor, which was restored and revived by
Warner Bros.
Early years
Doyle had a sister, Adalaide, who was an actress known professionally as Eve March.
Career
By 1928, the 13-year-old Maxine Doyle was singing on radio station
KYA in San Francisco, California. A contemporary newspaper article described her as "the sweetheart of KYA".
She was a featured player at
Warner Bros., in such films as ''
Babbitt'' (1934) with
Aline MacMahon and
Guy Kibbee, and ''
6 Day Bike Rider'' (1934) with
Joe E. Brown.
She retired from the screen until 1943, when Witney needed an actress to play a minor role in his serial ''
G-Men vs. the Black Dragon''. Doyle played a nurse (and received high billing). This reactivated her career, and she continued to play incidental roles in Republic films for the next few years. Her last film was the serial ''
Daughter of Don Q'', released in 1946.
Personal life and Death
Doyle married
William Witney
William Nuelsen Witney (May 15, 1915 – March 17, 2002) was an American film director, film and television director. He is best remembered for the action films he made for Republic Pictures, particularly serial film, serials: ''Dick Tracy Return ...
, a film director, in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 5, 1938. They eloped there after having planned to be married in Los Angeles the following weekend. Known privately as Maxine Doyle Witney, she died at age 58 from complications from
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...
.
[Wagner, Laura. "And Don't Call Me Max", '' Films of the Golden Age''. October 2017]
Filmography
References
External links
*
Maxine Doyle's web page
1915 births
1973 deaths
Actresses from Los Angeles
American film actresses
Deaths from cancer in California
Actresses from San Francisco
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
20th-century American actresses
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