Kathryn Adams Doty

American actress, psychologist, and writer

Actress
novelist
psychologist

Years active1939–1946 (acting career)Spouses

Hugh Beaumont

(m. 1941; div. 1974)

Fred Doty

(m. 1976; died 2011)

Children3

Kathryn Elizabeth Doty (née Hohn; July 15, 1920 – October 14, 2016), also known by her stage name Kathryn Adams or as Kathryn Adams Doty, was an American actress, novelist and psychologist.

Early years

The daughter of a Methodist minister, Dr. Chris G. Hohn,^[3] Doty was born in New Ulm, Minnesota. When she was six,^[4] the family moved to Warrenton, Missouri,^[3] where her father was chaplain and executive secretary at an orphans' home.^[4] After she developed lung problems, she spent two years at a camp in Minnesota. As early as age 13, she took her father's place in the pulpit when he was sick. In a 1939 newspaper article, she recalled: "It was quite a radical thing, in that small town, for a little girl to conduct the church services and preach the sermon, but the congregation understood and were very kind to me."^[4]

Doty was a student at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota, (where she sang in the a cappella choir)^[4] and worked as a catalog clerk at the headquarters of Montgomery Ward^[5] when an opportunity for an acting career arose. She competed in 1939 in the national finals of the Jesse L. Lasky radio contest Gateway to Hollywood, received a contract,^[4] and remained in California to begin a film career under the name of Kathryn Adams.

Film

Doty debuted on film in Fifth Avenue Girl (1939).^[4] One of her more notable roles was as Mrs. Brown, the young mother in Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur (1942).^[6] She co-starred in Sky Raiders (1941), a film serial from Universal Pictures, and had the leading lady role in three Western films in which Johnny Mack Brown starred.^[7]

Personal life

She married fellow actor Hugh Beaumont in an Easter wedding on April 13, 1941, at Hollywood Congregational Church.^[8]

She earned a master's degree in educational psychology and had a career as a psychologist, working at the Footlight's Child Guidance Clinic at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center and later in Minnesota after she moved back to her home state.^[7]

Writing

Writing as Kathryn Doty, she published short stories in Pocket, The Friend and various children's magazines.^[7]

Death

Adams died on October 14, 2016, aged 96, in an assisted living facility in Mankato, Minnesota.^[9]^[10]

Partial filmography

Fifth Avenue Girl (1939) - Katherine Borden
That's Right—You're Wrong (1939) - Mrs. Elizabeth Ralston (uncredited)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) - Fleur's Companion
Millionaire Playboy (1940) - Betty (uncredited)
If I Had My Way (1940) - Miss Corbett
Ski Patrol (1940) - Lissa Ryder
Love, Honor, and Oh-Baby! (1940) - Susan
Black Diamonds (1940) - Linda Connor
Argentine Nights (1940) - Carol
Spring Parade (1940) - Girl with Fortune Teller (uncredited)
The Invisible Woman (1940) - Peggy
Meet the Chump (1941) - Gloria Mitchell
Nice Girl? (1941) - Bride (uncredited)
Bury Me Not on the Prairie (1941) - Dorothy Walker
Sky Raiders (1941) - Mary Blake
Model Wife (1941) - Salesgirl (uncredited)
Bachelor Daddy (1941) - Eleanore Pierce, aka Jane Smith
Rawhide Rangers (1941) - Jo Ann Rawlings
Unfinished Business (1941) - Katy
Arizona Cyclone (1941) - Elsie
Hellzapoppin' (1941) - Girl (uncredited)
Junior G-Men of the Air (1942) - Grace - Bolt's Girl [Chs. 1, 7] (uncredited)
Saboteur (1942) - Young Mother
You're Telling Me (1942) - Girl (uncredited)
Blonde for a Day (1946) - Phyllis Hamilton (final film role)

References

^ Gelt, Jessica (October 22, 2016). "Kathryn Adams Doty, actress in Hitchcock's 'Saboteur,' dies at 96". Los Angeles Times.
^ Barnes, Mike (October 22, 2016). "Kathryn Adams, Actress in 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' and Hitchcock's 'Saboteur,' Dies at 96". The Hollywood Reporter. ISSN 0018-3660.
^ ^a ^b "Former Warrenton Girl in Movies". St. Clair Chronicle. Missouri, St. Clair. November 23, 1939. p. 1. Retrieved October 29, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Clark, W.K. (September 17, 1939). "Prepared for Screen Stardom in the Pulpit!". The Salt Lake Tribune. Utah, Salt Lake City. p. 77. Retrieved October 29, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
^ Othman, Frederick C. (April 15, 1940). "Hollywood Day By Day". The Danville Morning News. Pennsylvania, Danville. United Press. p. 2. Retrieved October 29, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
^ Fitzgerald, Mike. "Kathryn Adams Interview". Western Clippings. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c Fitzgerald, Michael G.; Magers, Boyd (2006). Ladies of the Western: Interviews with Fifty-One More Actresses from the Silent Era to the Television Westerns of the 1950s and 1960s. McFarland. pp. 9–13. ISBN 9780786426560. Retrieved October 30, 2016.
^ "News Briefs". The Daily Reporter. Indiana, Greenfield. International News Service. April 14, 1941. p. 4. Retrieved October 29, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
^ Gelt, Jessica (October 22, 2016). "Kathryn Adams Doty, actress in Hitchcock's 'Saboteur,' dies at 96". Los Angeles Times.
^ Barnes, Mike (October 22, 2016). "Kathryn Adams, Actress in 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' and Hitchcock's 'Saboteur,' Dies at 96". The Hollywood Reporter. ISSN 0018-3660.