
Acting
Dona Drake
Born 1914-11-15 · Miami, Florida, USA
Dona Drake (born Eunice Westmoreland on November 15, 1914) was an African-American singer, dancer, and film actress active in the 1930s and 1940s. Despite her heritage, she often identified as Mexican or of Latin descent to navigate Hollywood’s racial landscape. Over her career, she was frequently cast in ethnic roles, portraying Hispanic, Middle Eastern, and European characters. She performed under various stage names, including Una Novella, Rita Novella, and Rita Rio. In the early 1940s, she led an all-girl orchestra and gained recognition for her musical and dance performances. She appeared in films such as Kansas City Confidential (1952), Louisiana Purchase (1941), and Road to Morocco (1942). Despite her talents, she remained a supporting actress rather than a leading star. Dona Drake passed away on June 20, 1989, due to pneumonia and respiratory failure. Her ashes were scattered at sea near Point Fermin in California.
Acting credits
7.0An ex-convict sets out to uncover who framed him for an armored car robbery.
Kansas City Confidential
1952
6.7A bumbling senator investigating graft in Louisiana is the target of a scheme involving a Viennese beauty.
Louisiana Purchase
1941
7.3When he unwittingly sends some of his men into a trap, pirate Captain Peter Blood decides to rescue them. They've been taken prisoner by the Spanish Marquis de Riconete who is now using them as slave labor harvesting pearls from the sea.
Fortunes of Captain Blood
1950
7.3Shalimar, an Egyptian princess, striving to rid her country of its Bedouin conquerors, forms an alliance with Prince Haidi, son of the Caliph of Bagdad. She practices her intrigues both at the court and, disguised as a dancing girl, in the market place.
Princess of the Nile
1954
6.3Kit Madden is traveling to Hollywood, where her best-selling novel is to be filmed. Aboard the train, she encounters Marines Rusty and Dink, who don't know she is the author of the famous book, and who don't think much of the ideas it proposes. She and Rusty are greatly attracted, but she doesn't know how to deal with his disdain for the book's author.
Without Reservations
1946
6.9Two carefree castaways on a desert shore find an Arabian Nights city, where they compete for the luscious Princess Shalmar.
Road to Morocco
1942
4.3Italian immigrant Rudolph Valentino makes it big in silent Hollywood, but he ends up struggling between his career and the woman he loves.
Valentino
1951
6.2Pop, a security guard at Paramount has told his son that he's the head of the studio. When his son arrives in Hollywood on shore leave with his buddies, Pop enlists the aid of the studio's dizzy switchboard operator in pulling off the charade. Things get more complicated when Pop agrees to put together a show for the Navy starring Paramount's top contract players.
Star Spangled Rhythm
1942
7.8This 'prequel' to The Little Foxes tells how the ruthless members of the old-South Hubbard family got that way.
Another Part of the Forest
1948
6.6Meek Eddie Pink becomes manager of an amusement park beset by mobsters.
Strike Me Pink
1936
5.6A girl is desperate to get to Washington D.C. to be with her lonesome brother, a wounded G.I. She persuades Bing Crosby to let her join his caravan.
Hollywood Victory Caravan
1945
6.8When the Daltons are killed at Coffeyville, gang member Bill Doolin, arriving late, escapes but kills a man. Now wanted for murder, he becomes the leader of the Doolin gang. He eventually leaves the gang and tries to start a new life under a new name, but the old gang members appear and his true identity becomes known. Once again he becomes an outlaw trying to escape from the law.
The Doolins of Oklahoma
1949
5.4A soldier stationed on an army base and his fiancé, who runs a women's "fat farm" nearby, want to get married but don't have enough money. Three customers of the "fat farm" scheme to get back at their philandering husbands by hiring the soldier and two of his buddies as "escorts" for the weekend. Complications ensue when the husbands show up unexpectedly.
Let's Face It
1943
6.7A small town man inherits a significant fortune and takes his family to New York City whereupon they are continually shocked at the alien culture of the Big Apple.
So This Is New York
1948
6.7Rosa, the self-serving wife of a small-town doctor, gets a better offer when a wealthy big-city man insists she get a divorce and marry him instead. Soon she demonstrates she is capable of rather deplorable acts -- including murder.
Beyond the Forest
1949
Dona Drake (as Rita Rio) and her all-girl band work in a ritzy setting, and perform some hot melodies, with Rita singing and dancing. Several feature acts are introduced; the first---The Four Norsemen---is a singing male quartet. Then come the Four Specs, a colored aggregation who do some amazing stepping. The finales has Rita in combination with Anita Jacobi, an acrobatic tap dancer.
Sweet Shoe
1938
7.0Rex Allen against diamond smugglers down Laredo way
Down Laredo Way
1953
6.4Siamese twins separated at birth retain a psychic link; each feels the other's pain and happiness.
The Bandits of Corsica
1953
5.4Eight strangers meet in Shanghai to stake claims to the fortune of a late shipping magnate, then must evade a murderer in their midst.
Dangerous Millions
1946
5.5Jimmy O'Brien (Robert Lowery)and Sammy Rubin (Sidney Miller), write jingle commercials for radio, and meet Mary Adams (Dona Drake), who wants to break into radio as a soloist for a band.
Hot Rhythm
1944
NRA Soundie featuring Rita Rio with Allan Baldwin and Theodore.
Pan-Americonga
1941
7.0A young South Seas native boy is sent to the U.S. for his education and returns to his island after his father dies to try to stop a revolution.
Aloma of the South Seas
1941
5.5Glamour artist Bob Randolph is world famous for his paintings of a stunning beauty dubbed "The Randolph Girl". What the world doesn't know is that his pin-up creation is really a composite of parts of the anatomy of 12 different models. In an effort to find one girl who possesses all the proper physical attributes, Randolph and PR man Chuck Donovan pursue Ruth Wilson, a beauteous schoolteacher who prefers to be admired for her brain rather than her curves. Ruth changes her tune, however, when a published photo of her in a swimsuit causes her to be fired by the uptight schoolboard. She sues for reinstatement and in the process learns that swimsuits and sex appeal do have a place in her world, after all. Written by Dan Navarro
The Girl from Jones Beach
1949
7.0The son of the notorious female bandit Belle Starr wants to live an honest life, but finds himself getting drawn into his mother's old profession.
Son of Belle Starr
1953