Born in Philadelphia and living in Collingswood when discovered by MGM in 1936, DOROTHY SHORT appeared in local productions at the Camden Elks Home on Cooper Street, the Camden Moose Lodge and elsewhere before going to Hollywood. She will be forever remembered in cult film circles for her starring role as Mary Lane in the 1936 epic, Reefer Madness. She also had a major role in a film of a similar nature Assassin of Youth.

Her first screen appearance came in the 1934 production Student Tour, which starred Jimmy Durante, and also featured singer Nelson Eddy. She met actor Dave O'Brien, who appeared with her in her third film, She Married Her Boss in 1935, and in Reefer Madness the following year. The two married were soon married. Later in the 1930s, as "Dave 'Tex' O'Brien", he starred in a number of B-Westerns. The couple appeared in a number of these films together. In 1940 she appeared in Aloma of the South Seas with Jon Hall and Dorothy Lamour, and the following year saw her in Spooks Run Wild with Bela Lugosi, the East Side Kids (aka the Bowery Boys), and the amazing Angelo Rossitto.

In 1942, Dorothy Short and Dave O'Brien co-starred in the 1942 Columbia serial Captain Midnight. This would be her last feature film, however she appeared in nine shorts produced by Pete Smith at the MGM studios between 1946 and 1953, all but one of them opposite her husband.

Dorothy Short and Dave O'Brien had two daughters, Patty and Pam, The couple divorced in 1953, reportedly because he spent too much time indulging in his hobby -- yachting and sailing. Considering the two had co-starred in short films titled I Love My Husband, But! and  I Love My Wife But!, its not surprising that their divorce created a flurry of highly imaginative headlines at the time.

Apparently Dorothy Short then left show businesses. She passed away in Los Angeles CA on June 4, 1963.