I was the first movie star to plunge into night-time soap opera.

While performing at Southern Methodist University Dorothy Malone was spotted by an RKO talent agent and was signed to a studio contract making her film debut in 1943 in The Falcon and the Co-Eds. Much of Malone's early career was spent in supporting roles in B-movies many of them Westerns although on occasion Dorothy Malone played small but memorable roles such as the brainy lusty bespectacled bookstore clerk in The Big Sleep (1946) with Humphrey Bogart and the love interest of Dean Martin in the musical-comedy Artists and Models (1955). In her last screen appearance Dorothy Malone played a mother convicted of murdering her family in Basic Instinct (1992) with Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone.

Her film career reached its peak by the beginning of the 1960s and Dorothy Malone achieved later success with her television role as Constance MacKenzie on Peyton Place from 1964 to 1968. Her film career began in 1943 and in her early years Dorothy Malone played small roles mainly in B-movies. Dorothy Malone (born January 30 1925) is an American actress.