Dorothy E. Shanahan; Retired Actress

Dorothy E. Shanahan, who acted on New York and Los Angeles stages and appeared in the hit 1920s comedy “Abie’s Irish Rose,” has died at a Tarzana hospital. She was 91. A longtime Northridge resident, Mrs. Shanahan died Saturday of heart failure, said her daughter, Marye Fitzgerald of Sherman Oaks. Born in New York City to a family of theater actors, she appeared under the name Dorothy Caughlin in various New York productions. She appeared as the title character in “Abie’s Irish Rose,” a play which opened on Broadway in 1922 and ran for 2,327 performances, then a record run. In the early 1940s she came to California, where she appeared on the Los Angeles stage in plays including “Arsenic and Old Lace” and “Anybody’s Girl.” She retired in the early 1950s to raise her family. She was a member of the Northridge Women’s Club. In addition to her daughter Marye, Mrs. Shanahan is survived by her daughter, Margaret Downey of Northridge, and two granddaughters. Her husband, James Shanahan, who acted under the name James Metcalfe, died in 1960. A funeral was held Wednesday with burial at San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills. Bastian & Perrott Mortuary in Northridge handled the arrangements.