Dorothy Ford was born on April 4, 1922, in San Francisco, California, and spent her childhood in Santa Barbara, California, and Tucson, Arizona. She began her career as a model, standing at an impressive 6'2" with measurements of 38-26-38-1/2, making her a natural fit for photographic work.
Her first job was in San Francisco, where she was cast in Billy Rose's "Aquacade" alongside Johnny Weissmuller, and later became an Earl Carroll showgirl, appearing in various revues including "Something to Shout About" and "Star Spangled Glamour".
Ford's talent caught the attention of casting agents, and she made her screen debut as a model in Lady in the Dark (1944). MGM soon put her under contract, casting her in two musicals, Thousands Cheer (1943) and Broadway Rhythm (1944). She also appeared in Two Girls and a Sailor (1944),Meet the People (1944),Bathing Beauty (1944),and The Thin Man Goes Home (1944).
Dorothy studied at the Actors' Lab, the West Coast version of New York City's Group Theater, and had a much fuller role in her Universal Pictures' debut with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Here Come the Co-eds (1945). She briefly returned to modeling in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as part of South America's first post-war fashion show, where she met Gen. Mark W. Clark, who testified that "this is the first girl I've ever seen who could go bear hunting armed with a switch".
In 1946, Ford returned to MGM and appeared in Love Laughs at Andy Hardy (1946),playing a co-ed who doesn't have a date for the college dance and is unexpectedly matched up with Mickey Rooney. This was her first major role to play off her height; she wore four-inch heels and publicity stills from the studio listed her height as 6'6".
During the 1940s, Ford was regarded as one of the most striking women in Hollywood, standing at 6'2" and 145 pounds. She appeared in a New York stage production of "The Big People" and in 1948, she was back in Hollywood in an unusual independently-made anthology film, On Our Merry Way (1948).
In 1949, Ford was cast in John Ford's 3 Godfathers (1948) playing the potential love interest of John Wayne. That same year she married James Sterling in Las Vegas, but just over a month later she obtained an annulment in Ventura, California on the grounds that they were both drunk at the time.
As the 1950s began, Ford's career slowed down, and her biggest role of the decade came in the Abbott & Costello fantasy-comedy, Jack and the Beanstalk (1952). She made various television appearances throughout the 1950s, including "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" and "The Red Skelton Show".
In April 1952, aged 30, Ford married Thomas B. Chambers, an automobile sales manager and tennis star. In 1953, she became pregnant, but was hospitalized after losing the baby. She and Chambers divorced the following year.
After an appearance in The Bowery Boys vehicle Feudin' Fools (1952),Ford's screen career started to wind down, but her remaining roles were in some surprisingly high-visibility films. John Wayne cast her in a small role in The High and the Mighty (1954) as a glamour girl with her hooks into 'Phil Harris', and Billy Wilder used her in the opening segment of The Seven Year Itch (1955).
Dorothy appeared in several lower-budget films over the next few years, then faded out of movies in 1962. She remained involved with the movie business even after giving up acting, joining MGM as a technician in the studio's film lab in 1965. She was married for 30 years to actor Mike Ragan (born Hollis Alan Bane) until his death in 1995. She died in Canoga Park, California on October 15, 2010, at the age of 88.
