In Hearst’s declining years, Davies provided financial as well as emotional support until his death in 1951. She retired from the screen in 1937, choosing to devote herself to Hearst and charitable work. But many commentators, including Citizen Kane writer/director Orson Welles himself, have defended Davies’ record as a gifted actress, to whom Hearst’s patronage did more harm than good. In the film Citizen Kane (1941), the title character’s second wife-an untalented singer whom he tries to promote-was widely assumed to be based on Davies.

Related: Check out “The Man With The Sawed-Off Leg And Other Tales Of A New York City Block” in Harlem book by Harlemite Dan Wakins. In particular, her name is linked with the 1924 scandal aboard Hearst’s yacht when one of his guests, film producer Thomas Ince, died. For this reason, Davies is often remembered today as Hearst’s mistress and the hostess of many lavish events for the Hollywood elite. Hearst preferred to see her in historical dramas, but her real talent was in comedy. He founded Cosmopolitan Pictures to produce her films. Hearst financed Davies’ pictures and promoted her heavily through his newspapers and Hearst Newsreels. Marion Cecilia Davies (née Douras, Janu– September 22, 1961) was an American film actress, producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist.ĭavies had appeared in several Broadway musicals and one film, Runaway Romany (1917) before newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, with whom she had begun a romantic relationship, took over management of her career.

The Times We Had by Marion Davies