Dorothy Tree

Dorothy Tree
Dorothy Tree, 1939
Born	Dorothy Estelle Triebitz May 21, 1906(1906-05-21) Brooklyn, New York, USA
Died	February 13, 1992 (aged 85) Englewood, New Jersey, USA
Other name(s)	Dorothy Uris
Occupation	Actress Voice teacher
Years active	1927 to 1951
Spouse(s)	Michael Uris

Dorothy Tree (May 21, 1906 – February 13, 1992) was an American actress, voice teacher and writer. She appeared in a wide range of character roles in at least 49 motion pictures between 1927 and 1951.

Her best-known roles were probably as Martha, mother of Knute Rockne, in Knute Rockne, All American and as May Emmerich, invalid wife of Louis Calhern, in The Asphalt Jungle.

After being blacklisted as a communist because of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings, she began a second career as a voice teacher in New York. Emphasizing good diction and clarity, and the subtleties of intonation, she published four books on the subject.

Early life and stage career

She was born in Brooklyn, New York, the eldest of three daughters of Herman Triebitz (1877–1943) and Bertha Hert (1885–1967). Her sisters were Sylvia Triebitz (1911–1949) and Mildred "Mimi" Triebitz (1918–?) Her parents were born in Austria, and immigrated to the United States.^[1][2] Their native language was Yiddish. He was the proprietor of a shoe store in Brooklyn, and later sold shoes wholesale.^[3]

Dorothy attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Taking the stage name Dorothy Tree, she began her acting career on the stage in 1926.^[4] She appeared in six plays on Broadway, including her role as Jessica (Shylock's daughter) in The Merchant of Venice (1930).

Movie career

Tree made her motion picture debut playing a department store employee in the Famous Players-Lasky/Paramount Pictures silent era romantic comedy It (1927) starring Clara Bow and Antonio Moreno. Tree next played a wife of Bela Lugosi's Dracula (1931); she also played a bride of Dracula in the Spanish language version of the same title, which was shot at night with a different cast using the same sets at Universal.

She married screenwriter and editor Michael Uris (March 25, 1902–July 17, 1967).^[5] They had one son, Joseph M. Uris (born October 25, 1943).^[6]

Tree attracted attention as a feminine menace on the screen as the hairdresser-spy, Hilda Kleinhauer, in the Warner Bros. drama Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) starring Edward G. Robinson, which won the National Board of Review Award for Best Film – English Language. Her performance immediately won her the role as Reni Vonich, head of a spy ring attempting to steal the latest in technology, in Paramount's sci-fi drama Television Spy (1939). She was signed by RKO to portray the important role as Elizabeth Edwards, Mary Todd's sister, in Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940) starring Raymond Massey.^[7]

She portrayed Martha Rockne in the Warners biopic Knute Rockne, All American, the mother of the famous football coach played by Pat O'Brien. The movie also stars Ronald Reagan and Gale Page. In MGM's film noir crime/drama The Asphalt Jungle Tree played May Emmerich, a bedridden woman who is the very ingenuous and frustrated wife of Alonzo Emmerich (played by Louis Calhern), a crooked lawyer and double-crosser who, although he truly loves May, is having an adulterous affair with the character played by Marilyn Monroe.

Tree also appeared as Aunt Martha Dale in a teleplay of the live television anthology series The Silver Theatre (1950), which was titled Minor Incident. Her last role on the theater screen was as Marie Elsner in Columbia's crime/drama The Family Secret (1951) starring John Derek and Lee J. Cobb.

Blacklist and new career

In 1952, Tree and her husband, Michael Uris, including actress Gale Sondergaard, were branded as communists and blacklisted because of the HUAC testimony of playwright and screenwriter Bernard C. Schoenfeld, who named names.^[8]

She then began a second career teaching voice and diction in New York. She specialized in singing in English at the Metropolitan Opera and the Mannes College of Music,^[9] and also taught at the Manhattan School of Music, using her married name, Uris. She is quoted as saying, "I left Dorothy Tree in Hollywood."

On November 4, 1956, an article written by Uris about English singing with good diction and its aiding a singer to clarify words for the listener was published in The New York Times.^[10] She published four books, Everybody's Book of Better Speaking (1960), To Sing in English, a Guide to Improved Diction (1971), A Woman's Voice: A Handbook to Successful Private and Public Speaking (1975) and Say it Again: Dorothy Uris' Personal Collection of Quotes, Comment & Anecdotes (1979).

Dorothy Tree Uris died at age 85 of heart failure at the Actors Fund of America Nursing Home in Englewood, New Jersey.^[11][12]

Selected filmography

References

External links

• Dorothy Tree at the Internet Broadway Database
• Dorothy Tree at the Internet Movie Database
• Dorothy Tree at Allmovie