Dorothy Flood was born on September 10, 1912 in Brooklyn, New York. She attended the Children's Professional school in New York City. When she was a teenager she danced with the Metropolitan ballet company. The sixteen year old made her Broadway debut in Whoopee starring Ruby Keeler. She impressed the producers so much that she became Ruby's understudy.
Then she appeared on stage in The Midnight Frolic and Smile. Dorothy joined the cast of Ziegfeld Follies in 1931. That same year she made her film debut in the drama Resurrection. She also appeared in a Marx brothers film but her scenes were cut out. In 1932 she starred in the Broadway musical Hot-Cha! During the 1930s she worked as a model appearing in ads for Whitman's chocolates and make-up.
The beautiful brunette also posed nude for photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston. Dorothy starred in a 1937 stage production of The Curtain Rises.
She was briefly engaged to actor Charles "Buddy" Rogers who later married Mary Pickford. On December 31, 1940 she married Edward E. Bates.
Dorothy happily have up her career to become a housewife. Their only child, Wendy Ann, was born in 1952. The family lived in Manhattan where Edward ran the Bates Auto Rental Corporation. She and Edward remained together until his death in 1972. Later she moved to Jupiter, Florida. Dorothy died on August 21, 2005 at the age of ninety-two.