Constance Dowling was an American model turned actress of the 1940s and 1950s.
Early life and career
Born in New York City, Dowling was a model and chorus girl before moving to California in 1943. She had two brothers, Richard Dowling and Robert Smith Dowling, and was the elder sister of actress Doris Dowling. She attended Wadleigh High School for Girls in New York City. Dowling was a dancer at the Paradise nightclub in New York City, a job that she obtained by lying about her age to her employer and lying about the job to her mother.
Stage
Prior to her move to Hollywood, she appeared in several Broadway productions, including Quiet City, Liliom, Panama Hattie, Hold On To Your Hats, and The Strings, My Lord, Are False.
Film
Dowling—promoted by press agents of producer Samuel Goldwyn as three-dimensional —began her screen career appearing in Up in Arms for Samuel Goldwyn. At the time, newspaper columnistSheilah Graham reported that Danny Kaye "was hoping for a big movie name to star opposite him... but boss Sam Goldwyn thinks otherwise and has signed" Dowling. In the same year, she appeared opposite Nelson Eddy in Knickerbocker Holiday, In 1946, newspaper columnist Hedda Hopper reported that Dowling had signed a long-term contract with Eagle-Lion Films. Soon after having appeared in The Well-Groomed Bride and Black Angel, she was loaned to Columbia Pictures to appear in Boston Blackie and the Law. Dowling lived in Italy in 1947 through 1950 and appeared in several Italian films. Dowling returned to Hollywood in the 1950s and landed a part in the sci-fi filmGog, her last film.
Personal life
Dowling had been involved in a long affair with married director Elia Kazan in New York. He couldn't bring himself to leave his wife and the affair ended when Dowling went to Hollywood under contract to Goldwyn. She was later linked with Italian poet/novelist Cesare Pavese who committed suicide in 1950 after an almost lifelong depression aggravated by having been rejected by many women, including Dowling who, in Pavese's poetry, is often linked to spring. One of his last poems is entitled "Death will come and she'll have your eyes". In 1955, Dowling married film producerIvan Tors, writer and producer of her last film. She then retired from acting, going on to have three sons and a foster child with Tors: Steven, David, Peter and foster son Alfred Ndwego of Kenya.
