Famous Marriages

1. Gloria Swanson

Gloria Swanson was born Gloria May Josephine Svensson in Chicago, Illinois. She was destined to be perhaps one of the biggest stars of the silent movie era. Her personality and antics in private definitely made her a favorite with America's movie-going public. Gloria certainly didn't intend on ...

2. Wallace Beery

Actor | A Date with Judy

In 1902, 16-year-old Wallace Beery joined the Ringling Brothers Circus as an assistant to the elephant trainer. He left two years later after a leopard clawed his arm. Beery next went to New York, where he found work in musical variety shows. He became a leading man in musicals and appeared on ...

3. Louise Brooks

Actress | Die Büchse der Pandora

Mary Louise Brooks, also known by her childhood name of Brooksie, was born in the Midwestern town of Cherryvale, Kansas, on November 14, 1906. She began dancing at an early age with the Denishawn Dancers (which was how she left Kansas and went to New York) and then with George White's Scandals ...

4. A. Edward Sutherland

Director | Sky Devils

British-born A. Edward ("Eddie") Sutherland started in vaudeville and acted in films from 1914 at Keystone (he was one of the original Keystone Kops). He became a director in 1925, first with Paramount (1925-31), then at United Artists (1931-32), again with Paramount (1933, 1935-37), then Universal...

5. Alla Nazimova

Actress | Salomé

The grand, highly flamboyant Russian star Alla Nazimova of Hollywood silent films lived an equally grand, flamboyant life off-camera, though her legendary status has not held up as firmly as that of a Rudolph Valentino today.

Alla Nazimova was born Miriam Edez Adelaida Leventon in 1879, in Yalta, ...

6. Charles Bryant

Actor | Revelation

Charles Bryant was born on January 8, 1879 in Hartford, Cheshire, England, UK(undisclosed). He was an actor and writer, known for Revelation (1918), Stronger Than Death (1920) and Salomé (1922). He was married to Marjorie Gilhooley. He died on August 7, 1948 in Mount Kisco, New York, USA.

7. Theda Bara

Actress | A Fool There Was

Theda Bara was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, as Theodosia Goodman, on July 29, 1885. She was the daughter of a local tailor and his wife. As a teenager Theda was interested in the theatrical arts and once she finished high school, she dyed her blond hair black and went in pursuit of her dream. By 1908 ...

8. Charles Brabin

Director | While New York Sleeps

Charles Brabin was born on April 17, 1882 in Liverpool, England, UK. He was a director and writer, known for While New York Sleeps (1920), The Lights of New York (1922) and Breakers Ahead (1918). He was married to Theda Bara and Susie Jeanette Mosher. He died on November 3, 1957 in Santa Monica, ...

9. Norma Shearer

Actress | The Divorcee

She won a beauty contest at age fourteen. In 1920 her mother, Edith Shearer, took Norma and her sister Athole Shearer (Mrs. Howard Hawks) to New York. Ziegfeld rejected her for his "Follies," but she got work as an extra in several movies. She spent much money on eye doctor's services trying to ...

10. Irving Thalberg

Producer | The Tower of Lies

Irving Grant Thalberg was born in New York City, to Henrietta (Haymann) and William Thalberg, who were of German Jewish descent. He had a bad heart, having contracted rheumatic fever as a teenager and was plagued with other ailments all of his life. He was quite intelligent with a thirst for ...

11. Mary Pickford

Actress | Coquette

Mary Pickford was born Gladys Louise Smith in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to Elsie Charlotte (Hennessy) and John Charles Smith. She was of English and Irish descent. Pickford began in the theater at age seven. Then known as "Baby Gladys Smith", she toured with her family in a number of theater ...

12. Douglas Fairbanks

Actor | The Thief of Bagdad

Douglas Fairbanks was born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman in Denver, Colorado, to Ella Adelaide (nee Marsh) and Hezekiah Charles Ullman, an attorney and native of Pennsylvania, who was a captain for the Union forces during the Civil War. Fairbanks' paternal grandparents were German Jewish immigrants, ...

13. Mildred Davis

Actress | A Sailor-Made Man

Mildred Davis was born on February 22, 1898 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for A Sailor-Made Man (1921), Safety Last! (1923) and Dr. Jack (1922). She was married to Harold Lloyd. She died on August 18, 1969 in Santa Monica, California, USA.

14. Harold Lloyd

Actor | Safety Last!

Born in Burchard, Nebraska, USA to Elizabeth Fraser and J. Darcie 'Foxy' Lloyd who fought constantly and soon divorced (at the time a rare event), Harold Clayton Lloyd was nominally educated in Denver and San Diego high schools and received his stage training at the School of Dramatic Art (San ...

15. Vilma Bánky

Actress | The Son of the Sheik

Vilma Bánky appeared in Hungarian, Austrian and French movies between 1920 and 1925, the year in which Samuel Goldwyn signed her, in Budapest, to a Hollywood contract. In Hollywood she was billed as the "The Hungarian Rhapsody". In the mid and late 1920s she was Goldwyn's biggest money maker, ...

16. Rod La Rocque

Actor | The Locked Door

Rod La Rocque was born Roderick Ross LaRocque on November 29, 1898 in Chicago to a French father and an Irish mother. Stage-struck in his early teen years, he spent his summers with local stock companies, playing juvenile roles for $1.00 per performance. By the time he was 16, while he was ...

17. Marion Davies

Actress | Little Old New York

Marion Davies was one of the great comedic actresses of the silent era and into the 1930s.

Marion Cecelia Douras was born in the borough of Brooklyn, New York on January 3, 1897, the daughter of Rose (Reilly) and Bernard J. Douras, a lawyer and judge. Her parents were both of Irish descent. Marion ...

18. William Randolph Hearst

Zander the Great

William Randolph Hearst was the greatest newspaper baron in the history of the United States and is the person whom Citizen Kane (1941), widely regarded as the greatest film ever made, is primarily based on. While there are many similarities between Charles Foster Kane, as limned by the great Orson...

19. Florence Vidor

Actress | Main Street

Houston-born-and-bred Florence Vidor was one of the great beauties of early Hollywood. But while her photogenic looks went a long way, audiences would not get to enjoy or really experience her voice as she abruptly left the silver screen after her first disastrous attempt at a talking picture.

Born ...

20. King Vidor

Director | War and Peace

King Vidor was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter of Hungarian descent. He was born in Galveston, Texas to lumberman Charles Shelton Vidor and his wife Kate Wallis. King's paternal grandfather Károly (Charles) Vidor had fled Hungary as a refugee following the failed ...

21. Blanche Sweet

Actress | Anna Christie

Born into a family of show people, Blanche Sweet first appeared on the stage when she was 18 months old. She was a dancer by the time she was four and a talented actress by 1909 when she started work at the Biograph with D.W. Griffith. By 1910, aged 14, she was four years younger than Mary Pickford...

22. Marshall Neilan

Actor | Daddy-Long-Legs

In the early days of silent pictures, Marshall Neilan was a top director for Goldwyn Pictures. He had also directed a small number of Louis B. Mayer's independently produced melodramas, but there was a mutual dislike between the two men. During the festivities inaugurating the merger of Metro and ...

23. Alice Terry

Actress | The Conquering Power

Alice started as an extra in films at age 15. She worked in "Inceville" and would appear as several characters in 'Civilization (1916)'. In 1917, she would meet director Rex Ingram and they would marry in 1921. It was also in 1921 that Alice would gain acclaim as Marguerite in 'The Four Horsemen of...

24. Rex Ingram

Director | The Great Problem

Renowned director Rex Ingram started his film career as a set designer and painter. His directorial debut was The Great Problem (1916). A true master of the medium, Ingram despised the business haggling required in the Hollywood system. He was also unhappy with the level of writing he found in ...

25. Eleanor Boardman

Actress | Souls for Sale

Philadelphia-born Eleanor Boardman had always wanted to be an actress, and as soon as she graduated high school she headed for New York to conquer Broadway. When Broadway proved not quite ready to be conquered yet, she took whatever jobs she could find, including one as an artist's model. In that ...

26. Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast

Director | Laughter

Harry d'Arrast's entry into the movie industry was somewhat unusual--he was wounded while serving in the French army during WW I, and while recuperating in a military hospital met French-born American film director George Fitzmaurice, who invited him to come to Hollywood after he had recovered. He ...

27. Dolores Costello

Actress | The Sea Beast

Dolores Costello was once known as the Goddess of the Silent Screen but is probably best remembered today as Drew Barrymore's grandmother. She was born in 1905 to actors Maurice Costello and Mae Costello. Her father began his film career in 1908 and soon became the most popular matinée idol of his ...

28. John Barrymore

Actor | Twentieth Century

John Barrymore was born John Sidney Blyth on February 15, 1882 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. An American stage and screen actor whose rise to superstardom and subsequent decline is one of the legendary tragedies of Hollywood. A member of the most famous generation of the most famous theatrical ...

29. Alice Guy

Director | The Woman of Mystery

The world's first female filmmaker, French-born Alice Guy entered the film business in 1896 as a secretary at Gaumont, a manufacturer of movie cameras and projectors who had purchased a "cinématographer" from its inventors, the Lumiere brothers. The next year Gaumont became the world's first motion...

30. Herbert Blaché

Director | The Song of the Wage Slave

Herbert Blaché was born on October 5, 1882 in London, England, UK. He was a director and producer, known for The Song of the Wage Slave (1915), A Prisoner in the Harem (1913) and The Million Dollar Robbery (1914). He was married to Alice Guy. He died on October 23, 1953 in Santa Monica, California,...

31. Norma Talmadge

Actress | Camille

Norma Talmadge was born on May 26, 1895, in Jersey City, New Jersey. The daughter of an unemployed alcoholic and his wife, Norma did not have the idyllic childhood that most of us yearn for. Her father left the family on Christmas Day and his wife and three daughters had to fend for themselves. Her...

32. Joseph M. Schenck

Sherlock Jr.

People liked Joseph M. Schenck. Anyone who knew both him and his brother Nicholas Schenck would comment on how different they were. He came to New York in 1893 and, with his younger brother, built a drugstore business. They risked some profits and made more money in amusement parks. Marcus Loew ...

33. Florence Lawrence

Actress | Not Like Other Girls

Florence Lawrence was the first film player whose name was used to promote her films and the studio (Independent Moving Pictures Company [IMP]) for which she worked. Before her, actors and actresses worked anonymously, partly out of fear that stage managers would refuse to hire them if they were ...

34. Harry Solter

Actor | The Taming of the Shrew

Harry Solter was born on November 19, 1873 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He was a director and actor, known for The Taming of the Shrew (1908), The Romance of a Photograph (1914) and Blind Man's Bluff (1916). He was married to Florence Lawrence. He died on March 2, 1920 in El Paso, Texas, USA.

35. Dorothy Davenport

Actress | Human Wreckage

The Davenport family was well known in theatrical circles. Her aunt, Fanny Davenport was considered one of the greatest stage actresses of her time and her father, Harry Davenport, was a Broadway star before later venturing into movies. Her mother, Alice Davenport, was a respected Broadway and film...

36. Wallace Reid

Actor | Carmen

The son of writer-theater producer-director-actor Hal Reid, Wallace was on stage by the age of four in the act with his parents. He spent most of his early years, not on the stage, but in private schools where he excelled in music and athletics. In 1910, his father went to the Chicago studio of "...

37. Catherine Hessling

Actress | Nana

Catherine Hessling was born on June 22, 1900 in Moronvilliers, Marne, France. She was an actress, known for Nana (1926), Little Red Riding Hood (1930) and Whirlpool of Fate (1925). She was married to Jean Renoir. She died on September 28, 1979 in La-Celle-Saint-Cloud, Yvelines, France.

38. Jean Renoir

Writer | La règle du jeu

Son of the famous Impressionist painter Pierre Auguste, he had a happy childhood. Pierre Renoir was his brother, and Claude Renoir was his nephew. After the end of World War I, where he won the Croix de Guerre, he moved from scriptwriting to filmmaking. He married Catherine Hessling, for whom he ...

39. Asta Nielsen

Actress | Hamlet

Danish leading woman of German films who became one of the greatest stars of the silent era. A native of the Copenhagen suburb of Vesterbro, Nielsen was the daughter of a coppersmith and a washerwoman, both of whom died before Nielsen was fifteen. Her stage debut came as a child in the chorus of ...

40. Urban Gad

Director | Das Feuer

Urban Gad was born on February 12, 1879 in Korsør, Denmark. He was a director and writer, known for Das Feuer (1914), The Devil's Assistant (1913) and The Call of the Child (1914). He was married to Esther Burgert Westenhagen and Asta Nielsen. He died on December 26, 1947 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

41. Enid Bennett

Actress | The Red Lily

Australian-born Enid Bennett (her sisters, Catherine Bennett and Marjorie Bennett, were also actresses) started her career on stage in Sydney. She became a well-regarded stage actress there, and eventually made her way to New York to conquer Broadway. Broadway, however, wasn't particularly ...

42. Fred Niblo

The Artist

Fred Niblo entered films in 1917 after two decades as a touring actor in vaudeville and one-time manager of 'The Four Cohans' (he married Josephine Cohan, the sister of George M. Cohan). He made his film debut with two early Australian silent films in 1916. He worked for Thomas H. Ince from 1917 as ...

43. Olive Carey

Actress | The Searchers

Olive Carey was born Olive Fuller Golden on January 31, 1896. Olive was 18 when she appeared in her first motion picture, a silent entitled, Tess of the Storm Country (1914). After she made A Knight of the Range (1916), she retired from films. In 1916, she married actor Harry Carey who was eighteen...

44. Harry Carey

Actor | Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Born in New York City to a Judge of Special Sessions who was also president of a sewing machine company. Grew up on City Island, New York. Attended Hamilton Military Academy and turned down an appointment to West Point to attend New York Law School, where his law school classmates included future ...

45. Tsuru Aoki

Actress | The Dragon Painter

Born Tsuru Kawakami, Tsuru emigrated to the U.S. in 1903 with her aunt and uncle, who were in the theater business. She found work on stage before moving to film. She worked in L.A., then moved to San Francisco and New York before returning to California. At a time when even in her home country ...

46. Sessue Hayakawa

Actor | The Bridge on the River Kwai

Sessue Hayakawa was born in Chiba, Japan. His father was the provincial governor and his mother a member of an aristocratic family of the "samurai" class. The young Hayakawa wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and become a career officer in the Japanese navy, but he was turned down due to ...

47. Elisabeth Bergner

Actress | The Rise of Catherine the Great

Elisabeth Bergner was the daughter of the merchant Emil Ettel and his wife Anna Rosa Wagner. She grew up in Vienna, and she made her theatre debut in Innsbruck in 1915. In 1916 she obtained a contract in Zürich, where she played Ophelia next to the famous Alexander Moissi, who fell in love with her...

48. Paul Czinner

Director | Escape Me Never

Paul Czinner was born on May 30, 1890 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]. He was a director and writer, known for Escape Me Never (1935), Husbands or Lovers (1924) and The Bolshoi Ballet (1957). He was married to Elisabeth Bergner. He died on June 22, 1972 in London, England, UK.

49. Nathalie Lissenko

Actress | Kean

Nathalie Lissenko was born in 1886 in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire [now Russia]. She was an actress and costume designer, known for Kean (1924), Le brasier ardent (1923) and A Narrow Escape (1920). She was married to Ivan Mozzhukhin. She died on January 7, 1969 in Paris, France.

50. Ivan Mozzhukhin

Actor | L'angoissante aventure

Ivan Mozzhukhin was a legendary actor of Russian silent films, who escaped execution by the Soviet Red Army and had a stellar career in Europe.

He was born Ivan Ilyich Mozzhukhin on September 26, 1889, in the village of Kondol, Saratov province, Russia (now Penza province, Russia). His father was ...

51. Doris Kenyon

Actress | The Road to Singapore

The daughter of a poet, Doris Kenyon made her stage and screen debuts in 1915. She was often cast as a pleasant heroine in many silent films. She co-starred with popular silent-era actors like Rudolph Valentino and her future husband Milton Sills. Due to her stage experience she made a smooth ...

52. Milton Sills

Actor | The Sea Hawk

American leading man of silent pictures. Born into affluence in Chicago, he attended the University of Chicago on scholarship and remained there as a professor of psychology and philosophy. A chance visit to the school by actor- manager Donald Robertson led to Sills abandoning his career and ...

53. Natacha Rambova

Actress | When Love Grows Cold

Primarily famous as the wife of screen idol Rudolph Valentino, Natacha Rambova was also a talented dancer and an innovative set designer, bringing the Art Deco style to Hollywood for the first time. At the age of 17 she became a protégé and lover of Russian ballet Svengali Theodore Kosloff, a ...

54. Rudolph Valentino

Actor | The Eagle

Hollywood's original Latin Lover, a term that was invented for Rudolph Valentino by Hollywood moguls. Alla Nazimova's friend Natacha Rambova (nee Winifred Hudnut) became romantically involved with Rudy and they lived together in her bungalow from 1921 (during the filming of Camille) until they ...

55. Yvette Andréyor

Actress | Judex: Prologue + L'ombre mystérieuse

Yvette Andréyor was born as Yvette Louise Pauline Royé in Paris, France in 1891. She was the daughter of the artist Jean-Baptiste André Roye and Marie-Louise Carcel. At age six, she made her stage debut at the Théâtre de l'Odéon. She continued her artistic training at the Conservatoire where she ...

56. Jean Toulout

Actor | Monte Cristo

Jean Toulout was born on September 28, 1887 in Paris, France. He was an actor and writer, known for Monte Cristo (1929), Les misérables (1925) and Mathias Sandorf (1921). He was married to Yvette Andréyor. He died on October 23, 1962 in Paris, France.

57. Lila Lee

Actress | The Unholy Three

A performer since childhood (she was widely known then as "Cuddles"), pert and pretty, raven-haired Lila Lee was brought to Hollywood by Paramount mogul Jesse L. Lasky and debuted in a starring role with The Cruise of the Make-Believes (1918) as a poor girl supported by a rich admirer. Following ...

58. James Kirkwood

Director | In Wrong

A veteran stage actor, James Kirkwood entered films in 1909 as an actor and was soon playing leads in many of D.W. Griffith's early pictures. He turned to directing in 1912, and by 1914 was the favorite director of Mary Pickford, with whom he made nine films; he also co-starred in three of them. ...

59. Winifred Kingston

Actress | The Squaw Man

Winifred Kingston was born on November 11, 1894 in England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Squaw Man (1914), The Virginian (1914) and Cameo Kirby (1914). She was married to Carman Runyon and Dustin Farnum. She died on February 3, 1967 in La Jolla, California, USA.

60. Dustin Farnum

Actor | The Squaw Man

American leading man of silent pictures who specialized in Westerns. His mother and father were, respectively, a singer and an actor, and he and his younger brother William Farnum were introduced to the theatre at an early age. Raised in Maine, Dustin attended the East Maine Conference Seminary, ...

61. Betty Compson

Actress | Street Girl

A mining engineer's daughter, blond, blue-eyed Betty Compson began in show business playing the violin in a Salt Lake City vaudeville establishment for $15 a week. Following that, she went on tour, accompanied by her mother, with an act called 'The Vagabond Violinist'. Aged eighteen, she appeared ...

62. James Cruze

Actor | The Covered Wagon

Coming from a Mormon family in Utah, James Cruze was reportedly part Ute Indian. He worked as a fisherman to pay his way through drama school. Among his former wives were actresses Betty Compson (also from Utah) and Marguerite Snow. He was also married to Alberta McCoy (died on July 7, 1960), who ...

63. Claire Windsor

Actress | The Acquittal

Silent-era star Claire Windsor was born Clara Viola Cronk in Cawker City, Kansas, the daughter of Ella and G.E. Cronk. She was educated at Broadway High School in Seattle, Washington, and Washburn Preperatory Academy in Topeka, Kansas. She studied voice and piano at Cohn's Conservatory of Music in ...

64. Bert Lytell

Actor | Alias the Lone Wolf

Bert Lytell was born on February 24, 1885 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Alias the Lone Wolf (1927), Obey the Law (1926) and A Message from Mars (1921). He was married to Grace Menken, Claire Windsor and Evelyn Vaughn. He died on September 28, 1954 in New ...

65. Olga Tschechowa

Actress | Die Drei von der Tankstelle

Olga Chekhova (also Olga Tschechova in German), one of the most popular stars of the silent film era, remained a mysterious person throughout her life and was accused of being a Russian agent in Nazi Germany.

She was born Olga Konstantinovna von Knipper on April 26, 1897, in Aleksandropol, ...

66. Michael Chekhov

Actor | Spellbound

Michael Chekhov was a Russian actor in the Moscow Art Theatre who emigrated to America and made a career in Hollywood, earning himself an Oscar nomination.

He was born Mikhail Aleksandrovich Chekhov in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1891. His mother, Natalya Golden, was Jewish, and his father, Aleksandr ...

67. Mabel Normand

Actress | Mickey

Mabel Normand was one of the comedy greats of early film. In an era when women are deemed 'not funny enough' it seems film history has forgotten her contributions. Her films debuted the Keystone Cops, Charlie Chaplin's tramp and the pie in the face gag. She co-starred with both Chaplin and Roscoe "...

68. Lew Cody

Actor | Exchange of Wives

This dark-haired, suave American-born matinée idol of French ancestry abandoned a medical career after receiving favorable reviews for his performance in a school play at McGill University in Montreal.

He then went on to study drama at the Stanhope Wheatcroft School of Acting in New York, toured in ...

69. Marie Prevost

Actress | The Racket

Popular star in Hollywood for two decades through 1936, Marie Prevost began as a Mack Sennett "Bathing Beauty" in 1917, later starring in dozens of light comedies. But not long into the sound era, she encountered problems with her burgeoning weight, to the jeopardy of her career. Her self-remedy ...

70. Kenneth Harlan

Actor | The Penalty

Kenneth Harlan was born on July 26, 1895 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for The Penalty (1920), Paradise Island (1930) and Danger Island (1931). He was married to Rosemarie Gonsalves Mirjanian, Rhea Walker, Helene Stanton, Helen (Donna) Spelner, Phyllis McClure, Doris Hilda ...

71. Alice Joyce

Actress | Beau Geste

Having worked as a telephone operator at age 13 and a fashion model afterwards, Alice Joyce joined the Kalem film company at 20, making her debut in The Deacon's Daughter (1910), and achieved popularity as a charming, proper leading lady in many shorts. After Vitagraph bought out Kalem, Joyce began ...

72. Tom Moore

Actor | On Thin Ice

Tom Moore was born on May 1, 1883 in Fordstown Crossroads, County Meath, Ireland. He was an actor and director, known for On Thin Ice (1925), Side Street (1929) and The Cabaret Singer (1915). He was married to Eleanor Moore, Renée Adorée and Alice Joyce. He died on February 12, 1955 in Santa Monica...

73. Olga Petrova

Actress | Bridges Burned

British born Olga Petrova was born Muriel Harding on 10th May 1884 in England. She first made her film debut in Russia playing the role of Sofja Andreevna in Yakov Protazanov's 'Departure of a Grand Old Man' in 1912, she arrived in America around 1913 to appear on vaudeville and in the dramatic ...

74. Louis Willoughby

Director | Wisp o' the Woods

Louis Willoughby was born on July 10, 1876 in England, UK. He was an actor and director, known for Wisp o' the Woods (1919), Mirandy Smiles (1918) and Only a Mill Girl (1919). He was married to Olga Petrova. He died on September 12, 1968 in Clearwater, Florida, USA.

75. May Allison

Actress | The Telephone Girl

Born in Rising Fawn, GA (youngest of 5 children) Parents: Dr. John S. Allison and Nannie Virginia Wise Sisters: Maude, Verda, Zetta Brother: Herschel Mother Lived with her in California until her death. After Quirk's death, she met C. N. Osborne in NYC, they were married for over 40 years until his...

76. Robert Ellis

Director | The Tiger's Trail

Robert Ellis was born on June 27, 1892 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Tiger's Trail (1919), Speed to Burn (1938) and The Ventures of Marguerite (1915). He was married to Vera Reynolds, May Allison, Irene Boyle and Helen Logan. He died on December 29, 1974 in...

77. Miriam Cooper

Actress | The Birth of a Nation

Miriam Cooper was born to Julian Cooper and Margaret Stewart in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1891. The family was Roman Catholic, and the Coopers were fairly well-to-do. After the birth of five children in five years (one of whom died in infancy), Julian Cooper deserted his family and fled to Europe. ...

78. Raoul Walsh

Editor | The Birth of a Nation

Raoul Walsh's 52-year directorial career made him a Hollywood legend. Walsh was also an actor: He appeared in the first version of W. Somerset Maugham's "Rain" renamed Sadie Thompson (1928) opposite Gloria Swanson in the title role. He would have played the Cisco Kid in his own film In Old Arizona ...

79. Marguerite Courtot

Actress | The Swamp Fox

Little-known today but regarded in her time as one of the screen's great beauties, New Jersey-born Marguerite Courtot was sent in 1909, at age 12, to be educated in a European convent. By the time she returned to the US she had blossomed into such a beauty that she soon had a career as a top ...

80. Raymond McKee

Actor | Kidnapped

Raymond McKee was born on December 7, 1892 in Keokuk, Iowa, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Kidnapped (1917), A Blind Bargain (1922) and Campus Knights (1929). He was married to Marguerite Courtot and Frances White. He died on October 3, 1984 in Long Beach, California, USA.

81. Lois Weber

Director | Suspense

Lois Weber, who had been a street-corner evangelist before entering motion pictures in 1905, became the first American woman movie director of note, and a major one at that. Herbert Blaché, the husband of Frenchwoman Alice Guy, the first woman to direct a motion picture (and arguably, the first ...

82. Phillips Smalley

Director | The Hand That Rocks the Cradle

Phillips Smalley was born on August 7, 1875 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was a director and actor, known for The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1917), The Merchant of Venice (1914) and Captain Courtesy (1915). He was married to Phyllis Lorraine Ephlin and Lois Weber. He died on May 2, 1939 in ...

83. Anny Ondra

Actress | Blackmail

Anny Ondra was a Polish-Czech-Austrian-German-French singer and a film and stage actress. As a child she lived in Prague, where her father was a colonel in the Austro-Hungarian army. After graduating from convent school in Prague, she studied to be an actress with Professor Bor. She was already a ...

84. Karel Lamac

Director | Wo die Lerche singt

Karel Lamac was born on January 27, 1897 in Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary. He was a director and actor, known for Wo die Lerche singt (1936), Svejk na fronte (1926) and Eine Freundin so goldig wie Du (1930). He was married to Anny Ondra. He died on August 2, 1952 in Hamburg, Germany.

85. Viola Dana

Actress | Two Sisters

Viola Dana (real name Virginia Flugrath) was born in Brooklyn, NY, on June 26, 1897. She was the middle sister of three sisters (the other two were Edna Flugrath and Shirley Mason). She made her film debut in 1914 in Molly the Drummer Boy (1914). The following year she received top billing playing ...

86. John H. Collins

Director | Children of Eve

John H. Collins was born on December 31, 1889 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Children of Eve (1915), The Girl Without a Soul (1917) and Riders of the Night (1918). He was married to Viola Dana. He died on October 23, 1918 in New York City, New York, USA.

87. Bessie Barriscale

Actress | Rose of the Rancho

Bessie Barriscale was born on September 30, 1884 in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA. She was an actress and producer, known for Rose of the Rancho (1914), Home (1916) and The Painted Soul (1915). She was married to Howard Hickman. She died on June 30, 1965 in Kentfield, California, USA.

88. Howard Hickman

Actor | Gone with the Wind

Howard Hickman was born on February 9, 1880 in Columbia, Missouri, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Gone with the Wind (1939), Kitty Kelly, M.D. (1919) and Nobody's Kid (1921). He was married to Bessie Barriscale. He died on December 31, 1949 in San Anselmo, California, USA.

89. Marguerite Snow

Actress | The Million Dollar Mystery

Although Marguerite Snow was born in Salt Lake City, her father--a comedian in vaudeville minstrel shows--traveled extensively, so she grew up all over the country. When her father died, she and her mother settled in Denver, Colorado. Marguerite took drama lessons with the intentions of becoming a ...

90. Neely Edwards

Actor | Show Boat

Neely Edwards was born on September 16, 1883 in Delphos, Ohio, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Show Boat (1929), Scarlet Pages (1930) and The Hangover (1931). He was married to Marguerite Snow and Bella B. Cohen. He died on July 10, 1965 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.

91. Frances Howard

Actress | Too Many Kisses

Frances Howard was born on June 4, 1903 in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. She was an actress, known for Too Many Kisses (1925), The Shock Punch (1925) and The Swan (1925). She was married to Samuel Goldwyn. She died on July 2, 1976 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.

92. Samuel Goldwyn

Producer | The Best Years of Our Lives

Famed for his relentless ambition, bad temper and genius for publicity, Samuel Goldwyn became Hollywood's leading "independent" producer -- largely because none of his partners could tolerate him for long. Born Shmuel (or Schmuel) Gelbfisz, probably in 1879, in the Jewish section of Warsaw, he was ...

93. Grete Reinwald

Actress | Das Rattenloch

Grete Reinwald was born on May 25, 1902 in Stuttgart, Germany. She was an actress, known for Das Rattenloch (1921), Schenk mir das Leben (1928) and Guilt (1919). She was married to Fred Louis Lerch. She died on May 24, 1983 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.

94. Fred Louis Lerch

Actor | Liebelei

Fred Louis Lerch was born on March 28, 1902 in Ernsdorf, Lower Austria, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]. He was an actor and production manager, known for Liebelei (1927), The Waltz King (1930) and Viktoria und ihr Husar (1954). He was married to Grete Reinwald. He died on August 26, 1985 in Munich, ...

95. Kathryn Carver

Actress | Serenade

Kathryn Carver was born on August 24, 1899 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Serenade (1927), Outcast (1928) and No Defense (1929). She was married to Paul Vincent Hall, Adolphe Menjou and Ira L. Hill. She died on July 17, 1947 in Elmhurst, Long Island, New York, USA.

96. Adolphe Menjou

Actor | Paths of Glory

The words "suave" and "debonair" became synonymous with the name Adolphe Menjou in Hollywood, both on- and off-camera. The epitome of knavish, continental charm and sartorial opulence, Menjou, complete with trademark waxy black mustache, evolved into one of Hollywood's most distinguished of artists...

97. Lili Beck

Actress | Dolken

Lili Beck was born on December 29, 1885 in Copenhagen, Denmark. She was an actress, known for Dolken (1915), Sonad skuld (1915) and Saved in Mid-Air (1912). She was married to Victor Sjöström, Erik Magnussen, Hakon Ahnfelt-Rønne and Martellius Lundqvist. She died on January 20, 1939 in Århus, ...

98. Victor Sjöström

Actor | Smultronstället

Victor Sjöström was born on September 20, 1879, and is the undisputed father of Swedish film, ranking as one of the masters of world cinema. His influence lives on in the work of Ingmar Bergman and all those directors, both Swedish and international, influenced by his work and the works of ...

99. Mrs. Sidney Drew

Actress | The Amateur Liar

Lucille McVey was a writer at Vitagraph when she met Sidney Drew shortly after his wife's death. They married almost immediately although he was more than twice her age. She scripted and he directed a number of domestic comedies, said to be more subtle and wholesome than those previously filmed. ...

100. Sidney Drew

Actor | The Amateur Liar

His mother claimed he was adopted, perhaps because her husband had been away touring for several years before Sidney's birth and was dead before the great event took place. Ethel Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore and John Barrymore, his niece and nephews, insisted he looked too much like "Mummum" to have ...