Dottie Wesson

Dottie Wesson was born Dorothy Kerfoot on December 1, 1918, in New York, NY. From age 4, she grew up in an orphanage with her twin brother, Donald, older brother John, and sister Jessie. She began fencing in 1938 and won the women's foil championship at the World's Fair in 1939. She joined the Coast Guard (SPARS) in 1943 because her twin brother had been killed at sea. She was cast as a dancer and actress in the Coast Guard stage production "Tars and Spars", where she worked with Victor Mature and Sid Caesar. Along with the Mature and Caesar, she was heavily involved in advertising the show and she also appeared in a campaign for the Red Cross. Her brother John saw one of her Red Cross photos while his army unit was in Italy. After the war, she appeared in the film version of "Tars and Spars" and began working for Columbia Pictures. While at Columbia, she fenced with Cornel Wilde when he was playing Robin Hood in "The Bandit of Sherwood Forest". She had a four decade career in Hollywood, working at Columbia, Republic, and Universal Pictures, with actors such as Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, and Ronald Reagan.