[3] In March 1938, she was noticed by Charles Chaplin in Carmel, California when she was acting in a small playhouse alongside her love interest (and probable husband) at the time, Robert Meltzer.

In an April 1938 profile in the Oakland Tribune, she denied being his protégé and indicated that press reports had exaggerated the limited contact she had with him and one of his assistants, Tim Durant.

Through a friend at the Carmel theater, she obtained a Hollywood agent who got her a screen test, and from there she secured a contract with Warner Bros.

"[13] She had also canvassed door-to-door for actor and State Assembly hopeful Albert Dekker; worked with musician Lead Belly and singer Paul Robeson to desegregate whites-only USO clubs; signed on as a co-sponsor of the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee;[14][15] and promoted "union solidarity".

The media mogul so hated Dorothy's portrayal of his mistress, 44-year-old Marion Davies, that he used his chain of newspapers and radio stations to smear the young woman.

Hearst's columnists Hedda Hopper and Walter Winchell publicly accused Dorothy of belonging to the 'Party', in this case the Communist Party, and borrowed Orwellian 'newspeak' to malign her.

"[16] Comingore's supposed CPUSA connections harmed her in the highly publicized legal battle she waged against her ex-husband, screenwriter Richard J. Collins, for custody of their son and daughter.

[13] According to Peter Bogdanovich's DVD commentary on Citizen Kane, Comingore hindered her growth as an actress by refusing too many roles that she felt were uninteresting.

For example, she passed on the chance to star in an adaptation of the Damon Runyon story, "Little Pinks" (it was made instead with Lucille Ball in 1942 under the title The Big Street).

[21] She did appear in the film version of the Eugene O'Neill play The Hairy Ape (1944) with William Bendix, Susan Hayward, and John Loder.

'"[26] In exchange for having the solicitation charge dropped, she had to agree to be committed to Camarillo State Mental Hospital, where she was institutionalized for approximately two years.

[22] Although Comingore was mostly confined in her final years by arthritis and failing health, she was said to have found relative contentment during that time while living in seclusion in her seaside home with her husband John Crowe.

[19] In Guilty by Suspicion, Irwin Winkler's 1991 film set during the Hollywood blacklist, Comingore inspired the character of Dorothy Nolan, an actress who is harassed by the HUAC.