Billie Dove was born Lillian Bohny in New York City in 1903. She began modeling as a teenager to help support her family and was featured in a billboard ad for coconut oil that caught the eye of Florenz Ziegfeld. She was hired as a Ziegfeld girl in 1917 and appeared in various Ziegfeld Follies productions over the next two years, by that point billing herself as Billie Dove. Dove’s ambition was to act in films, and she began working as a film extra while still employed by Ziegfeld. She started appearing in more significant film roles in 1921, including the lead part in AT THE STAGE DOOR (1921), and within a year she moved to Hollywood with her mother.

Dove was a popular screen ingenue, and she appeared in nearly three dozen films during the silent era, including THE BLACK PIRATE (1926), KID BOOTS (1926), and AN AMERICAN BEAUTY (1927). In 1923 she married filmmaker Irving Willat, who had directed her in ALL THE BROTHERS WERE VALIANT (1923). They divorced circa 1930. At the time of the divorce, Howard Hughes bought out Dove’s contract with First National Pictures and the two began a relationship. They remained together for three years, during which time Dove starred in THE AGE FOR LOVE (1931) and COCK OF THE AIR (1932) for the Caddo Company, Hughes’ film production company. Though Dove appeared in close to a dozen sound films, none achieved the popularity of her silent works. She decided to retire following BLONDIE OF THE FOLLIES (1932) so she could begin a family with her second husband, Robert Kenaston, whom she married circa 1933. The couple had a son, Robert Alan Kenaston, Jr., and later adopted a daughter, Gail. Apart from a cameo in DIAMOND HEAD (1963), Dove never appeared on screen again. She spent her time painting and writing poetry until her death in 1997.