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Dawn Addams Profile
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| (Victoria Dawn Addams) |
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| 9 / 21 September 30 | is born in Felixstowe, England. Her father is Captain James Ramage Addams. |
| ? | is raised in Calcutta, India |
| ? | after her mother’s death, she is raised by her grandparents |
| October 42 | her father marries actress Arline Judge in Montecito, California. They will divorce in July 1945. |
| ? | when she announces to her father that she wants to become an actress, she is packed off to Rio de Janeiro |
| ? | attends RADA |
| August 51 | is sent back to England to co-star with Peter Lawford in T for Terror |
| sails for England from New York aboard the liner Mauretania |
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| November 51 | her dates with Peter Lawford in London are studio-engineered |
| 52 | auditions for a role in Limelight. Although she doesn’t get the part (it goes to Claire Bloom), she becomes friends with Charlie and Oona Chaplin |
| April 52 | young actor Dick Anderson escorts her to Debbie Reynolds' Saturday night party |
| July 52 | is happy that Leland Rosenberg, popular guest player on the Argentine polo team, takes an apartment in Hollywood |
| August 52 | makes MGM worry about the risqué layout that was shot in New York for a national magazine. No studio representative sat in on the session. |
| October 52 | nights around with fashion designer Oleg Cassini |
| due to diet and a tight dress, she suffers a breakdown in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. She is revived in time to attend the premiere of Snows of Kilimanjaro. |
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| November 52 | attends the premiere of Plymouth Adventure at Radio City Music Hall |
| dumps water on Lance Reventlow, Barbara Hutton's son, and Leland Rosenberg, who try to ring her doorbell at 2:30 a.m. |
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| December 52 | will be Alan Young's leading lady in his new CBS television series |
| January 53 | is on a USO tour to entertain the troops in Korea together with Walter Pidgeon, Carlton Carpenter, Debbie Reynolds, and Keenan Wynn |
| bilingually films The Moon is Blue in Hollywood. She is the only player who appears in both versions because most of her dialog is on the telephone, thus it can easily be dubbed into German. |
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| April 53 | attends the premiere of House of Wax with her girlfriend, actress Shelley Winters |
| 2 April 53 | debuts on Broadway in Horses in Midstream. She's later replaced by Diana Lynn. |
| May 53 | flies to Paris when her Number 1 boyfriend, 49-year-old French actor Claude Dauphin, doesn't come to see her in Hollywood |
| is seen at Jack's at the Beach with actor Tab Hunter |
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| June 53 | is the gal pal of young actor Farley Granger and seen with him at the opening of Call Me Madam |
| tries to arrange a trip to Europe to see Dauphin |
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| July 53 | vocalizes with Tab Hunter at the keyboard at the Champagne Room in Hollywood |
| September 53 | her idyll with Dauphin seems to be over. She is in Rome; he is back in Hollywood to do The Phantom Ape for Warner Brothers. |
| ? | is invited to open the Castellana Hilton Hotel in Madrid, Spain |
| ? | goes to Portofino and Rome and meets Prince Massimo in Formia, Italy |
| November 53 | has to leave for Europe, so Marianna Lynn, "Miss Belgium" of 1951, does Dawn's added scenes in Return to Treasure Island |
| her marriage to Prince Massimo is held up by a religious obstacle; his first marriage was outside the church |
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| has a new romance with an actor in Italy |
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| considers Italian bombshell Silvana Pampanini "a little plump for the American taste" |
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| c. December 53 | Prince Massimo proposes marriage |
| December 53 | she and her fiancé have to skip Christmas together in Rome if she finishes Khyber Pass in time to get to Egypt and a role in Gregory Ratoff's Abdullah, the Great |
| January 54 | is good friends with fellow actresses Shelley Winters and Zsa Zsa Gabor |
| instructs her lawyers to get tough with the producers of her Italian film Mizar for failing to give her a chance to dub her own dialog in the English version |
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| claims that she and Prince Massimo aren't officially engaged |
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| 4 February 54 | she and Prince Massimo formally announce their engagement in London |
| February 54 | Tessa Prendergast denies that Dawn has made a conquest of her Prince Massimo |
| April 54 | becomes engaged to forty-two-year-old Vittorio Emanuele Massimo, Prince of Roccasecca de' Volsci |
| denies that her father is opposed to her upcoming marriage to Massimo |
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| 29 April 54 | marries Don Vittorio Massimo, Prince of Roccasecca de Volsci, in a Roman Catholic ceremony attended by high society and movie stars in Rome, Italy. He's 42; she's 23. Charlie and Oona Chaplin are among the guests. |
| she promises her husband she will refuse any film offer outside Italy |
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| she and her husband settle at his castle in Scorona, 20 miles outside Rome |
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| ? | shortly after their honeymoon, Diana Dors invites them to dinner, but they show up three hours late in a drunken state. The butler refuses to let them in, and they leave quarreling. |
| October 54 | will fly to England in December so her baby will be born a British citizen |
| September 54 | her husband debuts in a French telefilm of hers |
| ? | her husband is barred from the set of her next movie, Il Letto, a.k.a. The Bed |
| 10 January 55 | her son, Prince Stefano Massimo, is born. He will become a photographer. |
| January 55 | her publicity stills from The Bed will never hit the magazines; her husband ordered that they be destroyed. |
| her husband unsuccessfully tries to buy the sexy promo pictures used to publicize her recent movie, The Bed, from the film’s producer, the noble Marchese Biccolo Theodoli |
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| June 55 | in Italy her husband objects to her costume in The Bed and is barred from the set immediately |
| in Rome, she and her husband are the favorite friends of actress Gina Lollobrigida and her husband, Dr. Milko Skofic. They invariably celebrate New Year's Eve together in a nightclub and occasionally they make up a skiing foursome. |
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| December 55 | there are rumors that all's not well with her domestic life |
| March 56 | holds British citizenship despite her marriage to Massimo. Currently she films London ruft Nordpol, a.k.a. London Calling North Pole in Rome. |
| November 56 | has eyes popping at Sardi’s when she attends in a very low-cut gown with her spouse, Prince Massimo |
| c. 57 | returns to the States for Chaplin’s upcoming A King in New York |
| c. 57 | attends the Paris premiere of A King in New York with Charlie Chaplin |
| January 57 | attends a party at the casino in the Italian Alpine resort of St. Vincent with her husband |
| June 57 | attends the Irish Film Festival battling with Prince Massimo. The press wonders about a formal separation. |
| January 58 | will visit the States soon with her titled husband, Prince Massimo |
| July 58 | her husband wants her to quit movie making, but she'll do another |
| October 58 | her husband denies widely printed press reports that they are contemplating a legal separation |
| November 58 | is in seclusion at a private hospital pending hearings on a separation from her husband |
| announces she’ll seek a separation from Prince Massimo, referring to the "total incompatibility" of her marriage |
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| separates from Prince Massimo |
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| 59 | is one of the few foreign guests at the Moscow Film Festival |
| 59 | lives in Paris, France |
| February 59 | her dad, Group Captain James Addams, is ordered out of his bachelor quarters in the home mansion of Prince Massimo, now that her marriage to Massimo is over |
| May 59 | attends the Cannes Film Festival with somebody other than her husband |
| ? | buys an apartment in the Palazzo Massimo in Rome |
| 26 March 59 | attends the British Film Academy Awards reception at the Savoy Hotel, London. Other guests are actors Hardy Kruger and John Slater, actress Janette Scott, and bandleader Jack Hylton. |
| ? | poses at the fashionable automobile show at Engheen-les-Bains, near Paris, France |
| July 59 | attends a swell party at the Bel Air home of German actor Curd Jurgens and his wife, Simone Bicheron. Theodore Bickel, Helmut Dantine, Faith Domergue and her ex-husband, director Hugo Fregonese, are among the guests. |
| 18 July 59 | is shaken when her sports car goes into a ditch near Nice, France. She was on her way to the villa where she is staying during the shooting of a film there. |
| August 59 | seeks divorce from Prince Massimo in Paris, France, because there's no divorce in Italy. The hearing is set for September 21. |
| her estranged husband flies to New York to meet chanteuse Boni Dana. Boni currently appears at the Piccolo Club, 55th and Second Avenue, New York. |
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| October 59 | her estranged husband hits the news with his romance to 18-year-old Italian/British singer-actress Frances Dean |
| 27 November 59 | after a hearing in Rome, she meets her husband again when she goes to his villa at Scorano to visit their sick child, 4-year-old Stefano |
| January 60 | is expected to name a famous Italian actress as one of the "other women" in her battle with Prince Massimo |
| July 60 | her doctors fear she will have a nervous breakdown if she doesn't win custody of her 5-year-old son. The last time she visited him, she had to be given sedatives and carried to her car. |
| Christmas 60 | her estranged husband's goodwill gesture doesn't bring about a happy ending. He permits her to visit their son at his country estate in Italy, but harsh words ensue, and the Prince sends her packing, with instructions never to return. |
| January 61 | Prince Massimo rents his castle on the outskirts of Rome to American International Pictures for the site of their upcoming horror epic La maschera del demonio, a.k.a. Black Sunday |
| March 61 | the French governess to her 6-year-old son, Prince Massimo's chief witness in his suit against her, vanishes |
| 10 August 62 | takes her son to England for a holiday |
| September 62 | in London she seeks to have her 7-year-old son made a ward of the British court |
| her Italian property is impounded by a Rome court at the request of her estranged husband. The prince charges that she illegally took their 7-year-old son to England earlier in the month, violating a court order that the boy not leave Italy. Her property, including furniture, is valued at $9,600. |
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| opposes attempts to extradite her to Italy on charges of abducting her son and illegally taking him to London |
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| May 63 | is mad at her estranged husband for not giving her a divorce. "I am 32; he's 52. He may have had his life twice over, but I haven't! |
| November 63 | at a Hollywood party given by Alain Delon, she is heaved into the swimming pool fully clothed, together with actress Virna Lisi and director Christian Jacques |
| June 64 | stars in the language-lesson series "En France" |
| November 65 | is still in a swivel over her estranged husband's handling of their separation |
| Charlie Chaplin may sign her for his upcoming A Countess from Hong Kong |
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| 66 | is on stage with stars Michael Howard and Conrad Phillips in The Cat and The Canary, at the Leeds Grand Theatre |
| c. March 66 | her second son, Noel Shawn Patrick Addams, is born. She refuses to name the father. |
| ? | Prince Massimo takes court action to go on the record that he is not the father |
| 17 June 66 | thieves take $8,400 in gems from her apartment in Belgravia, London, while she is attending the Ascot Races |
| Early October 66 | announces in Glasgow, Scotland, that she has legally changed her name "for love" to Dawn Howard. As she talks to the reporters, her friend, comedian Michael Howard, stands by her side. He's 49; she's 36. |
| Mid-October 66 | agrees that her baby boy is her own and not adopted |
| Late October 66 | wealthy Turin, Italy, industrialist Vieri Calamal admits he is the father of her baby son and asks the British courts to place the child in his care |
| ? | says: "I am going to marry Michael Howard, and the baby has his name." |
| ? | is named correspondent in a successful divorce action by June Howard against actor Michael Howard. A lawyer representing Dawn says in court that she and Howard wish |
| 11 November 66 | her 6-month-old son Noel dies from bronchial pneumonia in Liverpool, England. An ambulance is called to her hotel early in the morning after the baby had an attack of convulsions. She rides with the baby to a hospital, but he is dead on arrival. She and Howard are on the Liverpool stage in the romantic comedy The Cat and the Canary. Following the oldest tradition in show business, she performs on stage only hours after her son's death. |
| July 67 | the French Line schedules Sleeping Partners, a play written by her and Michael Howard, to be performed aboard their liner France |
| 13 April 68 | is cleared of a fraud charge in Rome, Italy. The public prosecutor has asked a three-month sentence, claiming she sold $1,600 worth of furniture from her Rome apartment, knowing it to be impounded on behalf of a lawyer who claims she owes him for legal fees. The court throws out the charge. |
| October 70 | takes her earnings from The Vampire Lovers to the tax-happy island of Malta, buying a 15th-century mansion there |
| March 71 | files for an uncontested divorce from Prince Massimo in the London divorce court |
| 23 April 71 | her marriage to Prince Massimo is formally dissolved in London |
| ? | is the escort of the Maltese Nationalist Party opposition leader Borg Olivier at the fancy Guillereu Restaurant at St. Paul's Bay |
| July 73 | her 18-year-old son Stefano is about to become engaged to Atalanta Foxwell, daughter of film producer Ivan Foxwell. Dawn says: "Both families are meeting to discuss the engagement. I only arrived from my home in Malta this week and this is the first opportunity I've had to meet with Atalanta's parents. The children are very young, but they are in love, and that's what matters. |
| 73 | attends the marriage of her son, Stefano Massimo, to Atalanta Foxell, the daughter of Lady Edith Foxell, in Claxton Hall, London |
| c. April 74 | meets retired businessman Jimmy White at a dinner party in Malta, where they both have villas |
| 27 September 74 | marries White in London. He’s 65; she’s 44. The ceremony takes place at Caxton Hall, Westminster. Dawn is quoted as saying she hasn’t been so happy “for years and years.” |
| October 74 | she and her husband of a week, Jimmy White, go their separate ways after the ceremony in London. She flies to Vienna, Austria, for her month-long appearance in Candida. White is off to the Mediterranean to compete in a yacht race. |
| ? | the Whites live mostly in Malta |
| ? | stars opposite Dora Bryan in Fallen Angels at the Grand Theatre, Blackpool |
| 85 | travels to Florida for an alternative cancer treatment |
| Mid-April 85 | falls into a coma for three weeks in the United States |
| May 85 | regains consciousness and returns to London |
| 7 May 85 | dies at age 54 of cancer in a London hospital. Surviving are her second husband and a son by her first husband, Prince Vittorio Massimo of Italy. |
| ? | is cremated |
| Sources: The Monessen Daily Independent, Dixon Evening Telegraph, The Lethbridge Herald, The Era, The Great Bend Daily Tribune, Pottstown Mercury, The News, The Lowell Sun, The Daily Intelligencer, The Portsmouth Herald, Redlands, The Times Recorder, Walla Walla Union Bulletin, Nevada State Journal, The Lima News, Ironwood Daily Globe, The Hammond Times, The Coshocton Tribune, The Daily Gleaner, Lincoln Sunday Journal and Star, The Progress, The Palladium-Times, Two Rivers Reporter, The News-Herald, News Journal-Mansfield, The Sheboygan Press, The Complete Directory to Prime Time TV Stars by Tim Brooks, Modern Screen, Photoplay, The New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Tempo, Variety, Screen World, 66, Motion Picture Guide, For Adults Only by Diana Dors, Screen Portraits by John Walter Skinner, The Paramount Pretties by James Robert Parish, and Jim Simpson | |
| Recommended Books: | |
| Links: Filmography | |