Patricia Boots Mallory was raised in Mobile, Alabama. She was discovered by Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., where she got her start in show biz. A tall, thin, natural blond teenager, she caught his keen eye. Her career began in the era of early talkies. In 1933 she married James Cagney's brother William. When Boots' younger sister, Viola "Bodie" (Mallory) Avinger, gave birth to identical twin boys Cleveland (Cleve) and Steven (Steve) Lewis on February 19, 1941, Boots Mallory Cagney wanted twins like her middle sister and so she adopted fraternal twins Jill and William shortly after that. Her youngest sister, Joan Mallory Seeley, was briefly in movies and later was a singer in some of the biggest night clubs in New York. A car accident cut short her time in movies. (Joan also served a brief stint in the Ziegfeld Follies). Boots Mallory was one of a large family in Mobile, AL. Boots Mallory was married a second time to British-born actor Herbert Marshall until her untimely death from lung cancer.