Quick Facts
ScorpioBiography
Rachel Rice Dooley (October 30, c. 1888 – January 28, 1984) was a vaudeville performer under the name Ray Dooley.
Biography
Dooley is believed to have been born on October 30, 1888 in Glasgow, Scotland to Robert Rogers Dooley, an Irish-born circus clown. Her brothers were Gordon and Johnny Dooley.
She made her performing debut in a minstrel show in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She played "babies and brats" in the Ziegfeld Follies after World War I with W. C. Fields, Will Rogers, and Fannie Brice, among others. From there she moved to musical stage performances.
She eloped with Eddie Dowling when she was 15. They had a son, Jack Dowling, and a daughter, Mary Maxine Dowling (later Mrs. Clark). From 1919-34, Dooley teamed with Dowling for Ziegfeld Follies and in Thumbs Up in 1934, after which she retired. She came out of retirement in 1948 to appear in Hope's the Thing and Home Life of a Buffalo.
She died on January 28, 1984 at her home in East Hampton, New York.