Angie Dickinson - an angel passes by

The screening of Don Siegel's <i>The Killers</i> during the Festival, shows the wonderful Angie Dickinson in one the major roles of her impressive career, alongside Lee Marvin and John Cassavetes.

Dickinson (born Angeline Brown in North Dakota in 1931) moved to California with her family as a girl.  She grew up in Burbank, close to Hollywood and the big studios.  She won a beauty contest and had her first small part, alongside Doris Day in the musical comedy Lucky Me (1954).

For the next four years, she made Westerns opposite the likes of Robert Mitchum (Man with the Gun, 1955) and Randolph Scott (Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend, 1957) before starring in Sam Fuller's 1957 film China Gate.  She also dubbed for Fuller the voice of Sarita Montiel in Run of the Arrow the same year.  She played her first major dramatic role in Andrew L. Stone's thriller Cry Terror! (1958).

She was truly launched before the public by Howard Hawks as the unforgettable Feathers in his film Rio Bravo (1959).  John Wayne recommended her for the part as the big-hearted girl, who under Hawks' direction became one of the finest characters seen in the history of Westerns.

Under contract to Warner Bros, she was also in Gordon Douglas' The Sins of Rachel Cade (1961) and Delmer Daves' Rome Adventure (1962).  She then partnered Lee Marvin in two classic thrillers, Don Siegel's The Killers (1964) and John Boorman's Point Blank (1967).

Details of the film

See IMDb entry

Dickinson on the set of The Killers © Universal Pictures; and with John Wayne in Rio Bravo © Warner Bros

Angie Dickinson

DR / Coll. Institut Lumière