Doro Merande

Plain, angular Doro Merande was one of those delightful character actresses you couldn't take your eyes off of, no matter how minuscule the part. She excelled at playing older than she was -- doting aunts, inveterate gossips, curt secretaries and small-minded townspeople -- all topped with an amusing warble in her voice and bristly eccentric edge. Too bad then that she wasn't used more in films, but she preferred live theater and based herself for the most part on the East Coast. She was born Dora Matthews in Kansas in 1892 and orphaned as a child. Growing up in boarding schools, she headed to...