DONA DRAKE

Dona Drake (born Eunice Westmoreland in Miami, Florida) was an actress from the 1930s to the 1950s. She was sometimes described as Mexican, but we believe that is because she was three-quarters African-American, at a time when that would have made it hard for her to perform in many venues, so that would explain her being called Mexican. She did play many "ethnic" roles, including Hispanics and Middle-Eastern characters, but not black ones! At the start of her career, she was billed under the clever stage name of "Rita Rio" (the reversal of the famous movie of that name), and she appeared in singing and dancing roles, beginning with Eddie Cantor's "Strike Me Pink". When she later made movies she was billed as "Dona Drake", and some of her movies at this time include: Road to Morocco, Kansas City Confidential, and Beyond the Forest. In 1940, she toured (once again billed as "Rita Rio") with her "all girl orchestra" with other famous actresses raising money for polio and tuberculosis research. She passed away in 1989 at the age of 74.