Her work in that production caught the attention of a movie director at RKO Radio Pictures, leading to her being in Syncopation, which was being filmed in New York.

During her temporary retirement RKO replaced her with Mary Carlisle and then Betty Grable, but Lee returned in 1935 for two appearances.

Dorothy Lee resumed her film career in 1939, playing incidental roles for RKO, Republic, Monogram, and Universal, retiring permanently from the screen in 1941.

One such instance was in 1938, just after Robert Woolsey had died: Bert Wheeler was struggling to re-establish himself as a solo performer, and asked Dorothy Lee to tour with him in vaudeville.

Her marriages: Lee died on June 24, 1999, aged 88, in San Diego, California, from respiratory failure, and is buried in Prospect Hill Cemetery, Rice, Jo Daviess County, Illinois.