Doris Dowling

Actress appeared in Billy Wilder ' s ' Lost Weekend; ' 81

Doris Dowling, the brunette actress who made her screen debut as the hooker in Billy Wilder ' s classic 1945 drama " The Lost Weekend, " has died at age 81, her husband said.

Ms. Dowling, who had been in deteriorating health since a heart attack five years ago, died Friday at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, her husband Leonard B. Kaufman told The Associated Press.

The Detroit-born actress started her career on the stage, then came to Hollywood with her sister, the late actress Constance Dowling.

Doris Dowling made a splash in " The Lost Weekend, " starring Ray Milland as an alcoholic who attracts the attention of the prostitute Gloria. The movie won Academy Awards for best picture, lead actor, director and screenplay.

In her next movie, the Raymond Chandler-scripted " The Blue Dahlia, " she played the murder victim in a mystery that starred Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake.

When her Hollywood career began to wane, she and her sister moved to Rome and spent several years working in Italian films.

Director Giuseppe de Santis was impressed by the younger Dowling ' s dark hair, soulful eyes, alabaster complexion and deep voice, which colleagues saw as " the face of Italy. " If she brushed up on her Italian, de Santis told her, she could become the star of his new film " Bitter Rice, " playing a jewelry thief hiding among Northern Italy ' s female rice workers.

The highly lauded, low-budget picture, along with " Open City " and a handful of others that showed the realities of Italian life after World War II, helped rebuild the country ' s film industry and secure its place internationally.

After " Bitter Rice, " Ms. Dowling made five other films in Italy and France, including one in English, Orson Welles ' " Othello. "

In her later years, she did guest appearances on more than 100 television shows, from the live " Playhouse 90 " to such series as " Bonanza, " " Barnaby Jones " and " The Dukes of Hazzard. " She also served on the board of directors of Los Angeles ' Theater East.

Ms. Dowling married three times. She was the seventh wife of bandleader Artie Shaw, whom she married in 1952 and divorced in 1956. She was married to United Artists executive Robert F. Blumofe from 1956 until their divorce in 1959.

In 1960, she married producer Leonard B. Kaufman, who survives her. She also is survived by a son, Jonathan Shaw.