--- name: "Dolores Costello" canonical: "https://film.one/person/dolores-costello" roles: ["Actor"] born: "17 September 1903" died: "1 March 1979" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "actor" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-20T00:44:03.295668+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Dolores Costello Actor. Born 17 September 1903 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Died 1 March 1979. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 17 September 1903, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA - **Died:** 1 March 1979 - **Also known as:** Dolores Costello Barrymore - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolores_Costello, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q155279, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0182537/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/14515 ## Fi1m on Dolores Costello > Dolores Costello did less on screen than almost anyone she shared it with, and for most of her career nobody asked for more. Orson Welles was the one director who saw what that stillness was for, and used it. Watch Isabel Amberson Minafer take her first look at Eugene Morgan in *The Magnificent Ambersons* (1942), twenty years after she turned him down and married a duller man. Nothing happens on Dolores Costello's face that you could put a name to. Joseph Cotten does the talking; she does the not-quite-listening. Yet we came away certain she had never stopped wanting him, and we were moved by how little it took to tell us. That is the whole of her method, and it was formed early. She was a child in her father Maurice Costello's Vitagraph films from around 1909 to 1915, then modelled and worked on the stage before Warner Bros. signed her in the mid-1920s. *The Sea Beast* (1926), opposite John Barrymore, made her a leading lady, and the studio kept casting her as patrician women subdued by love, or as innocents. What set her apart from the silent style around her was calm: she did not gesture, she waited, and the camera came to her. Michael Curtiz directed her twice. She left the screen in the early 1930s and came back only occasionally, for *Little Lord Fauntleroy* (1936) as Dearest Erroll, for *Ambersons*, and last of all for *This Is the Army* (1943). The trouble with a career built on serenity is that very few parts test it. Almost nothing she was given made real demands on her as an actress; she was cast for how she looked, and the arrival of sound did not help, since a lisp had to be coached out of her before she could speak on screen. She was frank about the result. "I never was completely happy, or fulfilled, when I was devoting all my life and energies to acting," she said in one of her rare interviews, adding that she had never had much confidence in her ability. In *Ambersons* we found her a little faint next to Agnes Moorehead and Tim Holt, and we stand by that. But faintness is what the part needs. Isabel is a woman the town, her son and her own good manners have slowly worn down, and Costello plays her as someone who seems already half gone. Welles wanted exactly that, and the ball sequence, with Isabel gliding through it while everyone else pushes, shows why. The film is the one to see, and the last reel, which is not Welles's, is not her fault either. The silents made her name and *The Sea Beast* is where they made it, but the fuller argument for her is a Welles picture from her forties. She spent a career doubting she had much to offer. For once a director wanted precisely the thing she thought she lacked. ## Biography Dolores Costello was an American actress whose career spanned the silent and early sound eras. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she began as a child performer in films with her father, the actor Maurice Costello, and later appeared on Broadway with her sister Helene before signing with Warner Bros. She achieved prominence in the 1920s as a leading lady in silent films, including *The Sea Beast* (1926) opposite John Barrymore, whom she married in 1928. Her later credits include *Little Lord Fauntleroy* (1936) and the role of Isabel Amberson Minafer in *The Magnificent Ambersons* (1942). She was named a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1926. *Sources: imdb.com, en.wikipedia.org.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *The Magnificent Ambersons* (1942), Fi1m 89, as Isabel Amberson Minafer — [page](https://film.one/film/the-magnificent-ambersons.md) ## Complete filmography (69) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To* (1990), as (archive footage) - *Magic Movie Moments* (1953), Actor - *This Is the Army* (1943), as Mrs. Davidson - *The Magnificent Ambersons* (1942), as Isabel Amberson Minafer — Fi1m 89, [page](https://film.one/film/the-magnificent-ambersons.md) - *Outside These Walls* (1939), as Margaret Bronson - *Whispering Enemies* (1939), as Laura Crandall - *King of the Turf* (1939), as Eve Barnes - *Breaking the Ice* (1938), as Martha Martin - *The Beloved Brat* (1938), as Helen Cosgrove - *Yours for the Asking* (1936), as Lucille Sutton - *Little Lord Fauntleroy* (1936), as 'Dearest' Erroll - *Expensive Women* (1931), as Constance 'Connie' Newton - *Second Choice* (1930), as Vallery Grove - *The Show of Shows* (1929), as Performer in 'Meet My Sister' Number - *Hearts in Exile* (1929), as Vera Zuanova - *Madonna of Avenue A* (1929), as Maria Morton - *Glad Rag Doll* (1929), as Annabel Lee - *The Redeeming Sin* (1929), as Joan Billaire - *Noah's Ark* (1928), as Marie / Miriam - *Glorious Betsy* (1928), as Betsy Patterson - *Tenderloin* (1928), as Rose Shannon - *The College Widow* (1927), as Jane Witherspoon - *Old San Francisco* (1927), as Dolores Vasquez - *When a Man Loves* (1927), as Manon Lescaut - *The Heart of Maryland* (1927), as Maryland Calvert - *A Million Bid* (1927), as Dorothy Gordon - *The Third Degree* (1926), as Annie Daly - *The Little Irish Girl* (1926), as Dot Walker - *Bride of the Storm* (1926), as Faith Fitzhugh - *The Sea Beast* (1926), as Esther Harper - *Mannequin* (1926), as Joan Herrick - *Bobbed Hair* (1925), as (uncredited) - *Greater Than a Crown* (1925), as Isabel Frances / Princess of Lividia - *Lawful Larceny* (1923), as Nora the maid - *The Glimpses of the Moon* (1923), as Secondary Role - *The Heart of Jim Brice* (1915), Actor - *The Evil Men Do* (1915), as David - as a Little Boy - *Too Much Burglar* (1914), Actor - *Etta of the Footlights* (1914), Actor - *Some Steamer Scooping* (1914), as The Little Stowaway - *Fellow Voyagers* (1913), as Little Dolores Gray - *In the Shadow* (1913), as Neighbor Girl - *The Hindoo Charm* (1913), as Dolores Tilbury - the Older Child - *A Birthday Gift* (1913), Actor - *Ida's Christmas* (1912), as Ida - the Little Smith Girl - *Song of the Shell* (1912), as Little Bess M. - *The Toymaker* (1912), as Little Dot Avery - *The Irony of Fate* (1912), as Fourth Child - *Bobby's Father* (1912), as Bobby Ramsay - *Captain Barnacle's Legacy* (1912), as Ruth - Barnacle's Adopted Daughter - *Her Grandchild* (1912), as Little Janet - the Grandchild - *Vultures and Doves* (1912), as Mrs. Hanley's Little Girl - *Wanted... a Grandmother* (1912), Actor - *A Juvenile Love Affair* (1912), as Jane - Alvin's Sweetheart - *The Money Kings* (1912), Actor - *The Troublesome Step-Daughters* (1912), Actor - *Lulu's Doctor* (1912), as Lulu - *She Never Knew* (1912), as Mr. Blinn's Granddaughter - *For the Honor of the Family* (1912), as Alice - the Child - *The Meeting of the Ways* (1912), as One of Tom's Children - *Captain Jenks' Dilemma* (1912), as One of Widow Brown's Children - *Some Good in All* (1911), as Betty Lane - John's Daughter - *A Reformed Santa Claus* (1911), as The Widow's 1st Child - *His Sister's Children* (1911), as Buster aka Budge - *The Child Crusoes* (1911), Actor - *The Geranium* (1911), Actor - *Consuming Love; or, St. Valentine's Day in Greenaway Land* (1911), Actor - *The Telephone* (1910), as Daughter - *A Midsummer Night's Dream* (1909), as Fairy ## Gallery - ![Dolores Costello](https://film.one/media/person/1232839/gallery-197e48b9a3dc.jpg) Dolores Costello — Bain News Service, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Delorescostello.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Dolores Costello in Little Lord Fauntleroy - cropped screenshot (1936)](https://film.one/media/person/1232839/gallery-3c569b2f4631.jpg) Dolores Costello in Little Lord Fauntleroy - cropped screenshot (1936) — DVD (Selznick Studio - United Artists), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Dolores_Costello_in_Little_Lord_Fauntleroy_%281936%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Dolores Costello during her time as a Ziegfeld girl (1922–24[1]), full length portrait, standing, right profile; wearing short dancing costume.](https://film.one/media/person/1232839/gallery-51397a3af246.jpg) Dolores Costello during her time as a Ziegfeld girl (1922–24[1]), full length portrait, standing, right profile; wearing short dancing costume. — Alfred Cheney Johnston, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Dolores_Costello%2C_Ziegfeld_girl%2C_by_Alfred_Cheney_Johnston%2C_ca._1923.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Still from the American drama film Glad Rag Doll (1929). Subjects (LCTGM): motion pictures, actresses, actors](https://film.one/media/person/1232839/gallery-c36bc374804a.jpg) Still from the American drama film Glad Rag Doll (1929). Subjects (LCTGM): motion pictures, actresses, actors — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7c/The_Glad_Rag_Doll_%28SAYRE_14167%29.jpg/1280px-The_Glad_Rag_Doll_%28SAYRE_14167%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Dolores Costello](https://film.one/media/person/1232839/gallery-e1a9d024d5d1.jpg) Dolores Costello — Image via TMDB - ![Dolores Costello](https://film.one/media/person/1232839/gallery-4c81805ec029.jpg) Dolores Costello — Image via TMDB - ![Dolores Costello](https://film.one/media/person/1232839/gallery-84910ce6099e.jpg) Dolores Costello — Image via TMDB - ![Still from the American drama film Madonna of Avenue A (1929). Subjects (LCTGM): motion pictures, actors, actresses](https://film.one/media/person/1232839/gallery-d9131e0ae1f6.jpg) Still from the American drama film Madonna of Avenue A (1929). Subjects (LCTGM): motion pictures, actors, actresses — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/The_Madonna_of_Avenue_A_%28SAYRE_14379%29.jpg/1280px-The_Madonna_of_Avenue_A_%28SAYRE_14379%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![w:Dolores Costello and w:Freddie Bartholomew in Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936)](https://film.one/media/person/1232839/gallery-8a9c3480fc71.jpg) w:Dolores Costello and w:Freddie Bartholomew in Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936) — Selznick International, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Little-Lord-Fauntleroy-1936.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Dolores Costello](https://film.one/media/person/1232839/gallery-2ebdbda1a805.jpg) Dolores Costello — Image via TMDB --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/dolores-costello