Kay Francis adopted her mother's maiden name as her professional surname.
27 Facts About Kay Francis
2.
Kay Francis's mother had been born in Nova Scotia, Canada, and was a moderately successful actress and singer on a hardscrabble theatrical circuit under the stage name Katharine Clinton.
3.
Kay Francis attended Catholic schools when it was affordable, becoming a student at the Institute of the Holy Angels at age five.
4.
In 1922,17-year-old Kay was engaged to James Dwight Francis, a well-to-do man from Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
5.
Kay Francis made her Broadway debut as the Player Queen in a modern-dress version of Shakespeare's Hamlet in November 1925.
6.
Kay Francis often "borrowed" wardrobe for fashionable nights out in New York that were reported on by the day's press.
7.
Kay Francis claimed she got the part by "lying a lot, to the right people".
8.
Kay Francis soon found herself commuting between Dayton and Cincinnati, Ohio, and Indianapolis, Indiana.
9.
Kay Francis played wisecracking secretaries, saucy French floozies, walk-ons, bit parts, and heavies.
10.
Kay Francis appeared in only one other Broadway production, titled Elmer the Great in 1928.
11.
Kay Francis made Press and the Marx Brothers film The Cocoanuts at Paramount's Astoria Studios in Astoria, Queens, New York before moving to Hollywood.
12.
Kay Francis frequently co-starred with William Powell, first teaming in Street of Chance when David Selznick fought for the pairing after having seen Francis briefly in Behind the Make-up.
13.
Kay Francis appeared in George Cukor's "thrillingly amoral comedy" Girls About Town and 24 Hours.
14.
From 1932 through 1936, Kay Francis was the queen of the Warner Bros.
15.
From 1930 to 1937 Kay Francis appeared on the covers of 38 film magazines, second only to child sensation Shirley Temple's 138.
16.
In October 1937, Kay Francis met aviation businessman Raven Freiherr von Barnekow at a party of Countess Dorothy Dentice di Frasso's in Beverly Hills.
17.
In March 1938 Louella Parsons reported on their intended marriage and that Kay Francis would retire from films, but by October the two were traveling separately and Kay Francis was still acting; by December Barnekow had returned to Germany.
18.
Kay Francis had a supporting role to Lombard and Cary Grant, and it offered her an opportunity to engage in some serious acting.
19.
Kay Francis had one lead role at the end of the decade opposite Humphrey Bogart in the gangster film King of the Underworld, released in 1939.
20.
Kay Francis performed extensive war-zone touring, first chronicled in the book "Four Jills in a Jeep", written by fellow volunteer Carole Landis.
21.
Kay Francis signed a three-film contract with Poverty Row studio Monogram Pictures that gave her production credit as well as star billing.
22.
Kay Francis spent the remainder of the 1940s on the stage, appearing with some success in State of the Union and touring in various productions of plays, old and new, including Windy Hill, backed by former Warner Bros.
23.
Kay Francis recovered in an oxygen tent at the local hospital; soon retiring from acting and then, public life.
24.
Kay Francis married three times, to James Dwight Kay Francis ; William Gaston ; and Kenneth MacKenna.
25.
Kay Francis had affairs with Maurice Chevalier and Raven Freiherr von Barnekow.
26.
Kay Francis regularly socialized with gay men, one of whom, Anderson Lawler, was reportedly paid $10,000 by Warner Bros.
27.
In 1966, Kay Francis was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy, but the cancer had already spread.