Ladies 90 - 122 years old. 1800s.
Born in 1800s
List activity
3.4K views
• 1 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
312 people
- Doris Pawn was born on 29 December 1894 in Norfolk, Nebraska, USA. She was an actress, known for The Penalty (1920), Putting It Over (1922) and What Happened to Rosa (1920). She was married to Samuel William Dunaway, Paul Reiners and Rex Ingram. She died on 30 March 1988 in La Jolla, California, USA.USA.
1894 - 1988. (93).
66 Credits, 1914-1923. - Actress
Tatzumbia Dupea was born on 26 July 1849 in Lone Pine, California, USA. She was an actress. She died on 26 February 1970 in Los Angeles, California, USA.1849 - 1970, (120).
USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Liane Haid was a prima ballerina, dancer, singer, stage and film actress. As a child, she studied voice and dancing and played at the Viennese Open Ballet. She worked in Budapest and Vienna as a dancer. On stage, she was in Berlin and Vienna. She also made close to a hundred movies - silents and talkies. She was the first female star of Austria. She was married three times. The last one was Swiss Dr. Carl Spycher, with which she had one son, the jazz musician, Pierre Spycher. She lived with her family near Bern, Switzerland, where she died at the age of 105 years young.Austria. Switzerland.
1895 - 2000. (105). A
92 credits, 1915-1970.- Actress
- Soundtrack
A promising star first with the Metropolitan Opera than on the Broadway and London stages, soprano Mary Ellis had little chance to prove herself as either a musical or dramatic film star with only a few creaky vehicles left for audiences to ponder. Her versatility on stage, however, was extensive, ranging from heavy doses of Shakespeare and Eugene O'Neill to the Restoration comedies of Sheridan and the light operettas of Oscar Hammerstein.
Born May Belle Elsas on June 15, 1897 of humble means in New York City, her family had emigrated to the States earlier from Alsace. Her father eventually prospered as a successful paper merchant. Mary inherited any artistic leanings from her mother who was a gifted pianist. She initially delved into painting before the desire to dedicate herself to song took hold. Studying with Madame Ashworth, Mary's had the makings of a great classical singer and was offered a multiple year contract with the Metropolitan Opera company at the age of 21. Given the stage name of Mary Ellis by the company, she made her debut with Puccini's "Suor Angelica" (1918) and went on to appear in "The Blue Bird" and "Boris Gudunov", among others. Arguably the highlights of her brief operatic career include her appearances opposite the legendary tenor Enrico Caruso in his final performance (Christmas Eve, 1920) of "The Elixir of Love" (he died the following year of pneumonia), and the renowned prima donna Geraldine Farrar in "Louise". However, in 1922, Mary's burgeoning desire to act on the legitimate stage took over and, against all advice, left the Met in 1922 to pursue her "new dream".
Already a name in opera, Mary joined the David Belasco theatre company. Belasco produced and directed her in her first Broadway production "The Merchant of Venice". A lovely, vibrant presence on stage, she subsequently appeared in "Casanova" and "The Merry Wives of Gotham", but did not become a full-fledged star until playing the titular heroine in Hammerstein's operetta "Rose-Marie". Career-threatening problems incurred when the impulsive Mary decided to leave the show before her tightly binding contract with Hammerstein was completed. As a result, she was prevented from ever performing again as a singer in America. She was now forced to return to high drama in straight plays. She subsequently appeared in a series of Broadway productions co-starring British actor Basil Sydney, which included her playing of Katherine to his Petruchio in "The Taming of the Shrew". Sydney became her third husband (following two short-lived marriages) in 1929.
Unable to escape her career restrictions, she and Sydney moved to England in 1931. She met with instantaneous success in O'Neill's epic drama "Strange Interlude" the following year. She also became a lovely muse for Ivor Novello on the 30s British stage, as noted in their successful teaming of "Glamorous Night" (1935) and "The Dancing Years" (1939). England gave her the opportunity to try films and she starred in two in 1934, the drama Bella Donna (1934) with John Stuart, Cedric Hardwicke and Conrad Veidt, and in the musical All the King's Horses (1935) in which she played the Queen of Langenstein. She also managed to return to America to star in the films Paris in Spring (1935) and Fatal Lady (1936). After filming her stage triumph Glamorous Night (1937) co-starring Otto Kruger back in England, she retired from the screen, unable to gain a strong footing.
Her marriage to Basil Sydney lasted but a few years. Her fourth and last husband, Jock Muir Stewart Roberts, a Scotsman, was a happy one until his tragic death twelve years later in a 1950 mountain-climbing accident. A volunteer nurse during WWII, Mary appeared sporadically on the post-war stage (notably the Old Vic) in such successful productions as "John Gabriel Borkman", "The School for Scandal", "The Browning Version" and "Hattie Stowe" in which she portrayed Harriet Beecher Stowe. After her husband's death she was seen less and less and took her last curtain call in "Mrs. Warren's Profession" in 1970. Isolated film appearances included The Magic Box (1951) and The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960).
Mary was seen briefly as late as the 1990s playing octogenarian roles, and during her twilight years published two autobiographies: Those Dancing Years (1982) and Moments of Truth (1986. Mary, who was childless, died in London at the ripe old age of 105 on January 30, 2003.USA. UK.
1897 - 2003. (105). US
Credits : 1934-1995.- Editor
- Editorial Department
- Producer
Margaret Booth was born on 14 January 1898 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an editor and producer, known for Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Murder by Death (1976) and Annie (1982). She died on 28 October 2002 in Los Angeles, California, USA.USA.
1898 - 2002. (104).
Credits: 1921-2016.- Mabel Trunnelle was born in Dwight, Illinois on November 8, 1879. A stage actress from the East Coast, Mabel was 32 when she appeared on the silver screen. In 1911 she was in A MODERN CINDERELLA, IN THE DAYS OF CHIVALRY, and THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER, the latter being the most notable. Her last film was in 1923's THE LOVE TRAP. At 44 she went back to the stage. On April 29, 1981, Mabel died in Glendale, California at the age of 101.USA.
1879 - 1981. (101).
209 credits, 1908-1948. - Actress
- Soundtrack
When Estelle saw the girl on a white horse at the circus, she then decided that she wanted to be an actress. And she was from the age of 5, to the disapproval of her father. Her mother had her train with the Liverpool Repertory Company, and Estelle performed in many plays and many roles in the West End. In 1916, she made her debut on Broadway and worked with a number of acclaimed stage actors. Estelle spent the rest of the 'teens and '20s working in plays on both sides of the Atlantic. Being an actor in the theater, Estelle was not about to be one of those who acted in flicks and held out for a very long time. In fact, besides a small role in a few English films in the early 1930s, her real debut was Quality Street (1937), a picture that she undertook when she was in her 50s. Anyway, that was enough as it would be almost two decades before she would return to the big screen. She appeared on the stage in the plays "The Merry Wives of Windsor," "Ten Little Indians," and "The Importance of Being Earnest." But, in 1955, Estelle did return to the movies as Leslie Caron's "fairy godmother" in The Glass Slipper (1955). Estelle would spend the next 10 years appearing in films, often cast as eccentric, frail old ladies, some of whom could be deadly. Not to be left out, Estelle also would work on Television, doing guest spots in a number of shows. At 84, Estelle played a woman who was enamored by crooked Zero Mostel in the comedy The Producers (1967). Her last film would be the detective spoof Murder by Death (1976). When Estelle was asked, on the occasion of her 100th birthday, how she felt to have lived so long, she replied, "How rude of you to remind me!".UK. USA.
1883 - 1984. (101).
Credits : 1931-1980.- María Francés was born on 2 February 1887 in Tudela, Navarra, Spain. She was an actress, known for Curro Jiménez (1976), Mentirosa (1962) and La corona negra (1951). She died on 9 December 1987 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.Spain.
1887 - 1987. (100).
Credits : 1944-1977. - Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Lovely brown-eyed, brunette Claire Du Brey enjoyed a rich, four-decade film career in all. Born Clara Violet Dubrey on August 31, 1892, in Bonner's Ferry Idaho, her family traveled the rugged Sierra Madre terrain by covered wagon in their move to California when she was 13.
Educated in a convent setting and once trained to be a nurse, Claire responded to an newspaper ad and found employment working part time in motion pictures. From there, she found herself in front of the camera, making her movie debut as star Billie Burke's friend in the Triangle release Peggy (1916). Universal saw a leading lady vamp in her, however, and from 1917 she enjoyed star billing in such silent short and feature-length vehicles as Princess Dione in the Rex Ingram-directed The Reward of the Faithless (1917); The Fighting Gringo (1917), opposite Harry Carey; Anything Once (1917) and The Winged Mystery (1917) both co-starring Franklyn Farnum; Brace Up (1918) with Herbert Rawlinson; the family drama The Magic Eye (1918); and A Man in the Open (1919) with Dustin Farnum. She also appeared in a number of Lon Chaney's early Universal vehicles such as The Rescue (1917) Pay Me! (1917) and Triumph (1917).
A versatile player whether asked to portray royalty, servants, temptresses or prairie flowers, Claire turned to Los Angeles stage plays during an early 1920s lull in film offers and graced such vehicles as "Madame X," "Spring Cleaning" and "The Youngest". Later "jazz age" film roles included The Sea Hawk (1924), Drusilla with a Million (1925) Exquisite Sinner (1926), and The Devil Dancer (1927).
During the declining period of her career (1928), Claire met actress Marie Dressler and they became close friends. Claire wound up serving as Dressler's secretary, fan mail handler and travel companion. In reward, Dressler arranged for Claire to get small roles a few of her talking films Politics (1931) and Prosperity (1932). She also served as Dressler's nurse in 1933 when the elder woman was dying of cancer.
As a character actress, Claire became much in demand throughout the late 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, appearing in general purpose roles as secretaries, nurses, salesladies, housekeepers, matrons, spinsters, relatives, etc. On a rare occasion she managed to stand out, none more so than in her mad scene as Bertha Rochester in a "B"-level version of Jane Eyre (1934) starring Colin Clive and Virginia Bruce. Seen sporadically on TV into the 1950s, she retired by the end of the decade. Her last film roles were in Girls Town (1959) and The Miracle (1959), both unbilled.
An early marriage to a doctor, Mark Gorman, ended in divorce. She lived another four decades after leaving the limelight. In her final years she grew deaf and her health quite fragile, dying at the age of 100 on August 1, 1993.USA.
1892 - 1993. (100).
243 credits, 1915-1959.- American character actress famed for roles as mothers. Born in a Philadelphia suburb as Mary Kennevan, she became a schoolteacher, but soon gave it up for work as an actress in touring companies. She married actor William Carr and toured extensively with his company. After the turn of the century, he became involved in film production as both an actor and director, and he brought Mary and their six children into the film business with him. Mary made her film debut in 1916, but it was her appearance in Over the Hill to the Poorhouse (1920) which made her a success in movies. It was a tremendous success due in large part to her touching portrayal of a poverty-stricken mother. She followed it with similar roles in scores of films throughout the silent period. A fallow period arrived with the talkies, and Carr found herself nearly destitute, but publicity about her status rallied help to her cause and she found help and occasional work. She spent her later years appearing infrequently, often in films directed by her son Thomas Carr. She died at the age of 99 in November 1973.USA.
1874 - 1973. (99).
149 Credits, 1914-1957. - Gabrielle Dorziat was born on 15 January 1880 in Épernay, Marne, France. She was an actress, known for Patricia (1942), Samson (1936) and La fin du jour (1939). She was married to Michel de Zogheb. She died on 30 November 1979 in Biarritz, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France.France.
1880 - 1979. (99).
Credits : 1923-1966. - Gigetta Morano was born on 2 August 1887 in Verona, Italy. She was an actress, known for La bisbetica domata (1913), The Betrothed (1913) and Salambo (1911). She died on 11 October 1986 in Turin, Italy.Italy.
1887 - 1986. (99).
147 credits, 1916-1943. - Actress
- Writer
- Director
Lillian Diana Gish was born on October 14, 1893, in Springfield, Ohio. Her father, James Lee Gish, was an alcoholic who caroused, was rarely at home, and left the family to, more or less, fend for themselves. To help make ends meet, Lillian, her sister Dorothy Gish, and their mother, Mary Gish, a.k.a. Mary Robinson McConnell, tried their hand at acting in local productions. Lillian was six years old when she first appeared in front of an audience. For the next 13 years, she and Dorothy appeared before stage audiences with great success. Had she not made her way into films, Lillian quite possibly could have been one of the great stage actresses of all time; however, she found her way onto the big screen when, in 1912, she met famed director D.W. Griffith. Impressed with what he saw, he immediately cast her in her first film, An Unseen Enemy (1912), followed by The One She Loved (1912) and My Baby (1912). She would make 12 films for Griffith in 1912. With 25 films in the next two years, Lillian's exposure to the public was so great that she fast became one of the top stars in the industry, right alongside Mary Pickford, "America's Sweetheart".
In 1915, Lillian starred as Elsie Stoneman in Griffith's most ambitious project to date, The Birth of a Nation (1915). She was not making the large number of films that she had been in the beginning because she was successful and popular enough to be able to pick and choose the right films to appear in. The following year, she appeared in another Griffith classic, Intolerance (1916). By the early 1920s, her career was on its way down. As with anything else, be it sports or politics, new faces appeared on the scene to replace the "old", and Lillian was no different. In fact, she did not appear at all on the screen in 1922, 1925 or 1929. However, 1926 was her busiest year of the decade with roles in La Bohème (1926) and The Scarlet Letter (1926). As the decade wound to a close, "talkies" were replacing silent films. However, Lillian was not idle during her time away from the screen. She appeared in stage productions, to the acclaim of the public and critics alike. In 1933, she filmed His Double Life (1933), but did not make another film for nine years.
When she returned in 1943, she appeared in two big-budget pictures, Commandos Strike at Dawn (1942) and Top Man (1943). Although these roles did not bring her the attention she had had in her early career, Lillian still proved she could hold her own with the best of them. She earned an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her role of Laura Belle McCanles in Duel in the Sun (1946), but lost to Anne Baxter in The Razor's Edge (1946).
One of the most critically acclaimed roles of her career came in the thriller The Night of the Hunter (1955), also notable as the only film directed by actor Charles Laughton. In 1969, she published her autobiography, "The Movies, Mr. Griffith, and Me". In 1987, she made what was to be her last motion picture, The Whales of August (1987), a box-office success that exposed her to a new generation of fans. Her 75-year career is almost unbeatable in any field, let alone the film industry. On February 27, 1993, at age 99, Lillian Gish died peacefully in her sleep at her Manhattan apartment in New York City. She never married.1893 - 1993, 99.- Julia M. Taylor was born on 20 September 1878 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA. She was an actress, known for Love and Law (1910), The Norwood Necklace (1911) and The Vote That Counted (1911). She was married to Wallace Worsley. She died on 4 December 1976 in Hollywood, California, USA.1878 - 1976, 98.
13 credits, 10-11. - 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 death in '82 and lived in Cleveland Ohio. Had a Home in Tucker's Town, Bermuda for many years. Patron of The Cleveland Symphony for many years.USA.
1890 - 1989. (98).
59 credits, 1915-1927. - Lilia Sofer was born on November 28, 1896, to Catholic Katharina Skala and Jewish Julius Sofer , in Vienna, Austria. Julius Sofer worked as a manufacturer's representative for the Waldes Kohinoor Company. Lilia had two sisters: Lisl (later known as renowned dance-therapy pioneer Elizabeth Polk); and Felicitas ("Lizi"--pronounced "Litzi"), an infant nurse. All three sisters adopted their mother's Gentile maiden name of "Skala" and emigrated to the United States.
Lilia Skala would become a star on two continents. In pre-World War II Austria she starred in famed Max Reinhardt's stage troupe, and in post-war America she would become a notable award-worthy matronly character star on Broadway and in films. Forced to flee her Nazi-occupied homeland with her Jewish husband, Louis Erich Pollak (who also adopted his mother-in-law's Gentile maiden name of "Skala") and two young sons in the late 1930s, Lilia and her family managed to escape (at different times) to England. In 1939, practically penniless, they emigrated to the USA, where she sought menial labor in New York's garment district. She quickly learned English and worked her way back to an acting career, this time as a sweet, delightful, thick-accented Academy Award, Golden Globe and Emmy nominee.
She broke through the Broadway barrier in 1941 with "Letters to Lucerne", followed by a featured role in the musical "Call Me Madam" with Ethel Merman. In the 1950s, she did an extensive tour in "The Diary of Anne Frank" as Mrs. Frank, and performed in a German-language production of Kurt Weill's "The Threepenny Opera". Lilia became a familiar benevolent face on TV in several early soap operas, including Claudia: The Story of a Marriage (1952).
She won her widest claim to fame, however, as the elderly chapel-building Mother Superior opposite Sidney Poitier in Lilies of the Field (1963), for which she won both Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations. That led to more character actress work in films, most notably as the dog-carrying Jewish lady in the star-studded Ship of Fools (1965) and as Jennifer Beals's elderly friend in Flashdance (1983). On TV she played Eva Gabor's Hungarian mother in Green Acres (1965) and earned an Emmy nomination for her work in the popular miniseries Eleanor and Franklin (1976)).
She continued filming into her 90th year. Her final film work, occurring in the 1980's, went on to include a touching role as Hanna Long in the hit musical Flashdance (1983), plus parts in Testament (1983), House of Games (1987) and Men of Respect (1990). A few years later, on December 18, 1994, Lilia died of natural causes in Bay Shore (Long Island), New York, a few weeks after her 98th birthday.1896 - 1995, 98. Austria. New York. - Actress
- Writer
Camille Dalberg was born on 28 June 1870 in Frankfurt, Germany. She was an actress and writer, known for Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1913), The Seven Sisters (1915) and After Many Days (1912). She was married to Charles Kraus. She died in February 1968 in Bronx, New York, USA.Germany. USA.
1871 - 1968. (97).
Credits: 1911-1920.- Actress
- Soundtrack
The daughter of actor-manager Samuel Rupert Woods and actress Lillie Roberts, Ethel Griffies began her own stage career at the age of 3. She was 21 when she finally made her London debut in 1899, and 46 when she made her first Broadway appearance in "Havoc" (1924). Discounting a tentative stab at filmmaking in 1917, she made her movie bow in 1930, repeating her stage role in Old English (1930). Habitually cast as a crotchety old lady with the proverbial golden heart, she alternated between bits and prominently featured roles for the next 35 years. Her larger parts included Grace Poole in both the 1934 (Jane Eyre (1934)) and 1943 (Jane Eyre (1943)) versions of "Jane Eyre" and "Mrs. Bundy", the amateur ornithologist in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963). Every so often she'd take a sabbatical from film work to concentrate on the stage; she made her last Broadway appearance in 1967, at which time she was England's oldest working actress. Presumably at the invitation of fellow Briton Arthur Treacher, Ethel was a frequent guest on TV's The Merv Griffin Show (1962), never failing to bring down the house with her wickedly witty comments on her 80 years in show business.1878 - 1975, 97. Yorkshire. London.
108 credits, 17-66.- A former stage actress, Dorothy Phillips was married to actor/director/producer Allen Holubar. They were known as two of the screen's most prominent players--her the star, he the director/producer. Dorothy was well known in Hollywood as one of the most warm-hearted, approachable stars in the business. After the advent of sound, however, her career faded and she could be seen in a handful of films as an extra. Although a major star in her time and one of the best loved of that era, her passing was barely mentioned, other than in local papers.USA.
1882 - 1980. (97).
151 credits, 1911-1962. - Actress
Hazel Dawn was born on 23 March 1890 in Ogden, Utah, USA. She was an actress, known for Niobe (1915), My Lady Incog. (1916) and One of Our Girls (1914). She was married to Charles Edward Gruwell (mining engineer). She died on 28 August 1988 in New York City, New York, USA.USA.
1891 - 1981. (97).
Credits : 1914-1954.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Virginia-born Mary Duncan went to Hollywood after critics praised her acting in the lead in "The Shanghai Gesture" on Broadway. While making Five and Ten (1931), she became friends with the film's lead, Marion Davies. The two women attended a polo match, where Davies introduced Duncan to Stephen "Laddie" Sanford, an international polo star and director of the Bigelow-Sanford Carpet Company. She and Sanford married in 1933, after which she retired from films and moved with him to Palm Beach, Florida. They also maintained three homes in the New York area.
In retirement, she devoted herself to philanthropic works, doing in major fund-raising for several charities. In addition, the Sanfords were socially very prominent, and for many years the former Mary Duncan reigned as the grande dame of Palm Beach society. A neighbor who became a close friend was Rose Kennedy, mother of President John F. Kennedy. Those whom the Sanfords entertained at their mansion included the King and Queen of Jordan and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. She continued her charity work until very late in life, and died quietly in her sleep, aged 98.USA
1895 - 1993, (97).- Bedia Muvahhit was born on 16 January 1897 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire [now Istanbul, Turkey]. She was an actress, known for Kötü Tohum (1963), Çalikusu (1966) and Sevinç Gözyaslari (1965). She was married to Ferdi Statzer and Ahmet Muvahhit. She died on 20 January 1994 in Istanbul, Turkey.Turkey.
1897 - 1994. (97).
47 credits, 1917-1970. - Louise Lorimer was born on 14 July 1898 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She was an actress, known for Flying Cadets (1941), Compulsion (1959) and The Prowler (1951). She died on 11 August 1995 in Newton, Massachusetts, USA.1898 - 1995, 97.
- Priscilla Bonner was born on 17 February 1899 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. She was an actress, known for Charley's Aunt (1925), 3 Bad Men (1926) and The False Alarm (1926). She was married to Dr. E. Bertrand Woolfan and Allen Wynes Alexander. She died on 21 February 1996 in Los Angeles, California, USA.1899 - 1996, 97.
37 credits, 20-29. - Kitty Gordon was born on 22 April 1878 in Folkestone, Kent, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Wasp (1918), The Scar (1919) and Forget-Me-Not (1917). She was married to Ralph Ranlet, Captain Henry W.W.H. Beresford, Michael Levenston and Maxwell James. She died on 26 May 1974 in Brentwood, Long Island, New York, USA.UK. USA.
1878 - 1974, (96). - Costume and Wardrobe Department
Edna Shotwell was born on 9 August 1888 in Kansas, USA. She died on 14 April 1985 in Sacramento, California, USA.USA
1888 - 1985, (96).- In 1906, Madge went to New York City to study at the Art Students League where she hoped to become an illustrator. This lasted until she appeared in a student musical, which led to a full time job in a traveling stock company. By 1912, Madge was a Broadway Star with the bedroom farce "Little Miss Brown". For the next five years, Madge continued to find success on Broadway appearing in similar roles. Within 3 months of the formation of Goldwyn Pictures, Sam Goldwyn had signed Madge Kennedy to a big movie contract. Goldwyn was at his best when it came to publicity. It was Goldwyn himself who gave Madge the title of "winsome", and Madge was as winsome and sweet as her light comedies suggested. Some of her films were 'Baby Mine (1917)', 'Our Little Wife (1918)', The Kingdom of Youth (1918)' and 'Dollars and Sense (1920)'. While at Goldwyn, Madge shared a dressing room with actress Mabel Normand. After 21 films, Madge left Goldwyn Pictures and appeared in a handful of films produced by her husband, Harold Bolster. These films included 'The Purple Highway (1923)' and 'Bad Company (1925)'. After that, Madge retired from the screen and returned to the stage. After a few years and her remarriage, Madge retired from acting altogether. In 1952, Madge was coaxed out of retirement by George Cukor for the small role of Judge Carroll in 'The Marrying Kind (1952)'. With that, she started another career as Character Actress appearing in films like 'Lust for Life (1956)', 'The Catered Affair (1956)', 'North by Northwest (1959)' and 'The Day of the Locust (1975)'. On the small screen, Madge played the part of Aunt Martha on "Leave It to Beaver (1957)".USA.
1891 - 1987. (96).
66 credits, 1917-1986. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Born Irene Luther on October 13, 1891, silent-screen femme Irene Rich came from a once well-to-do family in Buffalo, New York. Her father had a reversal of fortune while she was quite young and the family subsequently had to move to California. Following her education, Irene pursued a career as a realtor. She had already married twice by the time she decided to become an actress and, by the "ripe old age" of 27, had begun working as a movie extra.
Success came quickly for Irene and her first part of real substance was in The Girl in His House (1918). She continued on as a poised, resourceful co-star and became a particular favorite of Will Rogers, who used her in Water, Water, Everywhere (1920), The Strange Boarder (1920), Jes' Call Me Jim (1920), Boys Will Be Boys (1921) and The Ropin' Fool (1922). Her array of leading men ran the gamut -- from Harry Carey in Desperate Trails (1921) to Lon Chaney in The Trap (1922) to John Barrymore in Beau Brummel (1924) to movie mutt Strongheart the Dog in Brawn of the North (1922).
Irene's true screen persona, however, arrived in the form of tearjerkers, nobly portraying the ever-suffering, well-coiffed "doormat" in her own plush, domestic dramas. Somewhat reminiscent in both looks, style and demeanor of Irene Dunne, she became a favorite in women's pictures throughout the 1920s, one of her best known roles being in Lady Windermere's Fan (1925).
With age Irene moved into more motherly roles, and by the coming of sound she was playing Will Rogers' pushy wife in a few of his social comedies, including So This Is London (1930) and Down to Earth (1932). At around the same time Irene enjoyed a spectacular new career on radio. In 1933 she began her nationwide anthology program entitled "Dear John" (also called "The Irene Rich Show"), which lasted over a decade. Her leading man on that show for many of those years was Gale Gordon, who later played Lucille Ball's apoplectic boss and nemesis on 1960s TV.
Irene also enjoyed some success on stage in such productions as "Seven Keys to Baldpate" (1935), which starred George M. Cohan. Eventually she left it all, marrying a fourth time to businessman George Henry Clifford in 1950, and settling in comfortable retirement. She died at age 96 quietly of heart failure and was survived by two daughters, one of whom, Frances Rich, was an actress briefly on the 1930s stage and screen before becoming a noted sculptor.USA
1891 - 1988. (96).
118 credits, 1918-1949.- Irene Hunt was born on 22 February 1892 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Oliver Twist, Jr. (1921), The Stronger Man (1915) and One Flight Up (1915). She was married to Lester F. Scott Jr. and Walter Weyman. She died on 13 October 1988 in Paso Robles, California, USA.USA
1892 - 1988. (96).
129 credits, 1913-1926. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Gina Manès was born on 7 April 1893 in Paris, France. She was an actress, known for Thérèse Raquin (1928), Le diable en bouteille (1935) and La nuit rouge (1923). She died on 6 September 1989 in Toulouse, Haute-Garonne, Midi-Pyrénées, France.France
1893 - 1989. (96).
88 credits, 1916-1966.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jan Duggan was born on 6 November 1881 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. She was an actress, known for The Old Fashioned Way (1934), Wagon Wheels (1934) and Midnight Intruder (1938). She died on 10 March 1977 in Anaheim, California, USA.1881 - 1977, 95.
41 credits, 30-43.- Princess Mona Darkfeather was born Josephine M. Workman in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles on 13 January 1882. Her grandparents were William Workman (1799-1876), a native of England, and Nicolasa Urioste (1802-1892), who hailed from the Taos Pueblo of New Mexico. Consequently, though Darkfeather stated in a 1914 film magazine interview that she was descended "from an aristocratic Spanish family," she likely had at least some Indian blood through her grandmother. Her father was José (Joseph) Workman (1833-1901), who worked as a ranch superintendent in Kern County, California, when he married Josephine Belt (1850-1937), a native of Stockton, California, of American and Peruvian ancestry. Josephine was the youngest of their seven children.
The first hint of her involvement in entertainment appears to have been captured in the 1900 federal census, where her profession was given as "whistler." Some have speculated this was a job calling out to passersby to visit a nickelodeon theater. In 1909, however, the year films were first made in Los Angeles, Josephine answered an advertisement calling for a dark-featured woman for acting roles. Quickly, she became a major star in the fledgling film industry in Hollywood with her peak period of activity coming between 1913 and 1915.
Working with film director Frank E. Montgomery (a.k.a., Akley), Princess Mona made dozens of short films as a stereotypical Indian for such companies as Bison, Nestor, Kalem and Centaur and one full-length film for Universal in 1917. Her last film appearance was in 1926. Her husband continued to work in the industry as a cameraman and bit player, the former Princess lived in obscurity for decades.
She lived in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles until her death on 3 September 1977 when she was 95 years old. She died as a ward of the State of California and her collection of film memorabilia, recalled by relatives, was likely discarded as she had lost contact with her family. Josephine Workman/Princess Mona Darkfeather was buried in an unmarked grave at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California, but in late 2014 her great-nephew, Doug Neilson, had a grave marker installed to identify this early silent film star.USA
1882 - 1977, (95).
107 credits, 1910-1917. - Dolores Cassinelli was born on 4 July 1888 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Jamestown (1923), Christopher Columbus (1923) and The Right to Lie (1919). She died on 26 April 1984 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA.1888 - 1984, (95).
- Vivian Reed was born on 17 April 1894 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for The Eternal Feminine (1915), The Journey's End (1915) and His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz (1914). She was married to Alfred E. Green. She died on 19 July 1989 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.1894 - 1989, (95).
USA
41 credits, 1914-1938. - Actress
- Writer
The daughter of an opera star turned actress, Gladys Hulette began her career as a three-year old on the stage. On Broadway from 1906, she played juvenile leads in "The Kreutzer Sonata" and "A Doll's House". She was also Tyltyl in "The Blue Bird". A genuine pioneer of the movies, Gladys first starred on screen in Carl Laemmle's one-reel IMP production of Hiawatha (1909). During the 1910's and 20's, she appeared variously in films with Edison, Biograph, Thanhouser, Vitagraph, Astra and First National. In 1917, she was voted most popular actress by students of New York University. In truth, Gladys was a true all-rounder, who took on just about anything from high drama to slapstick farce. She even starred as the titular heroine in the comedy Prudence, the Pirate (1916). In private life, Gladys was fond of flowers, a voracious reader of books, including classic literature and a painter in oils, whose works occasionally found their way into major exhibitions. Long after leaving the Hollywood scene, she found work as a ticket seller at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.USA
1896 - 1991, (95).
138 credits, 1908-1934.- Virginia Bradford was born on 7 November 1899 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. She was an actress, known for Atta Boy (1926), Chicago (1927) and Two Lovers (1928). She was married to Thomas Prentice, Cedric Belfrage, Joseph Petrie Lyons and Frederick Minter. She died on 30 October 1995 in Indiana, USA.1899 - 1995, 95.
15 credits, 23-29. - Actress
- Soundtrack
The daughter of a stage entertainer, New York-born actress Genevieve Tobin started treading the boards as a child and appeared in the role of Little Eva in the silent short Uncle Tom's Cabin (1910). Her older brother George Tobin and younger sister Vivian Tobin also became stage and film actors. By her teens Genevieve was appearing as a sparkling blonde ingénue on 20s Broadway, steadily gaining notice with her chic looks and vivacious personality. Considered a medium-weight talent, she nevertheless tackled such roles as Cordelia in "King Lear" (1923) in addition to her usual frothy comedies and musicals such as "Polly Preferred" (1923). Following her New York performance in Cole Porter's musical "Fifty Million Frenchmen" in 1929 in which she introduced the song "You Do Something to Me," Genevieve started focusing squarely on films, particularly screwball farce, starting with a couple of glamorous leading lady roles in the early talkies A Lady Surrenders (1930) and Free Love (1930), one a heavy drama and the other a lighter comedy both co-starring Conrad Nagel. Genevieve moved into second leads as the 1930s flew by, however, often playing the arch or self-involved 'other woman' role. She appeared in fine form as the problematic third wheel in One Hour with You (1932) with Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald; Goodbye Again (1933) co-starring Warren William and Joan Blondell; Kiss and Make-Up (1934) with Cary Grant and Helen Mack; The Goose and the Gander (1935) with Kay Francis and George Brent; and, her last, No Time for Comedy (1940) which paired up James Stewart with Rosalind Russell, and was also directed by her husband (and former stage actor) William Keighley. Genevieve abandoned her career for high society after marrying Keighley and never looked back -- her marriage lasting 46 years until his death in 1984 at age 90+. Genevieve herself would live to become a nonagenarian, dying of natural causes in 1995 in Pasadena, California.1899 - 1995, 95.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
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 picture production company when they switched to creating movies, and Guy became its first film director. She impressed the company so much with the output (she averaged two two-reelers a week) and quality of her productions that by 1905 she was made the company's production director, supervising its other directors. In 1907 she married Herbert Blaché, an Englishman who ran Gaumont's British and German offices. The pair went to the U.S. to set up the company's operations there. In 1910 Mme. Guy set up her own production company, Solax, in New York and with her husband built a studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey. After a period of critical and financial success, the couple's fortunes declined when Thomas Alva Edison's trust hindered film production in the East coast, and they eventually shut down the studio in 1919. Although her husband secured work directing films for several major Hollywood studios, Guy was never able to secure any directorial jobs there, never made a film again, most of her films were lost, some were credited to other film directors, and she did no receive recognition for her pioneering work in France and the United States. She returned to France in 1922 after her divorce from Blaché, and in 1964 returned to the U.S. and lived in Mahwah, New Jersey - not far from where her original studios were - with her daughter, where she died in 1968.France. USA.
1873 - 1968. (94).
Credits : 1896-1957.
A few credits -
433 Director.
31 Producer
16 Writer
3 Actor
2 Cinematography.- Titian haired, full figured, voluptuous Dorothy Vernon had a career that spanned from the early days of moving pictures through the boxed screen known as television.
Whether it was a comedy, a western, a musical or whatever was needed, Dorothy did it all. Her unforgettable glow and her almost heavenly serene appearance was the focal point of many western square dances, slapstick sequences, or horrid haunts.
One film historian noted that he had seen Vernon in so many PRC westerns that he started to believe that she was Charles King's out of work mother.
At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what you watch from the 1920s - 1950, chances are eventually you'll run into the small lady with the big presence.1875 - 1970, 94. - Beautiful brunette star of the early American cinema Lily Branscombe born Lillian Rodman in Cartertown, New Zealand in 1876. Lily began on the Australian theatre in the 1890's. Arrived in the US in the mid 1900's. Lily starred and supported in at least 50 drama and comedy movies for the Essanay Film Company between 1911-13. Lily starred opposite a number of early male stars including Harry Cashman and John Steppling, but her most successful leading star was Francis X. Bushman whom she appeared with several times in romantic dramas and comedies.New Zealand. USA.
1876 - 1970. (94).
46 credits, 1911-1913. - Huguette Duflos was born on 24 August 1887 in Limoges, Haute-Vienne, Limousin, France. She was an actress, known for Les mystères de Paris (1922), Le procès de Mary Dugan (1931) and Maman Colibri (1937). She was married to Raphaël Duflos. She died on 12 April 1982 in Paris, France.1887 - 1982, 94. France.
- Pina Menichelli was born on 10 January 1890 in Castroreale, Sicily, Italy. She was an actress, known for La dama de Chez Maxim's (1923), Il fuoco (la favilla - la vampa - la cenere) (1916) and The Rival Actresses (1913). She died on 29 August 1984 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy.Italy.
1890 - 1984. (94).
Credits : 1913-1925. - Ethel Grandin was born on 3 March 1894 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for The Crimson Stain Mystery (1916), Garments of Truth (1921) and A Tailor-Made Man (1922). She was married to Ray C. Smallwood. She died on 28 September 1988 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.USA
109 credits, 1911-1922.
1894 - 1988, (94). - Actress
- Soundtrack
Dubbed "the funniest woman in the world", comedienne Beatrice Lillie was born the daughter of a Canadian government official and grew up in Toronto. She sang in a family trio act with her mother, Lucy, and her piano-playing older sister, Muriel. Times were hard and the ambitious mother eventually took the girls to England to test the waters. In 1914, Bea made her solo debut in London's West End and was an immediate hit with audiences. A valuable marquee player as a droll revue and stage artiste, she skillfully interwove sketches, songs and monologues with parody and witty satire. In 1924, she returned to America and was an instant success on Broadway, thus becoming the toast of two continents. For the next decade, she worked with the top stage headliners of her day, including Gertrude Lawrence, Bert Lahr and Jack Haley. Noël Coward and Cole Porter wrote songs and even shows for her. A top radio and comedy recording artist to boot, Bea's success in films was surprisingly limited, although she did achieve some recognition in such productions as Exit Smiling (1926) and Doctor Rhythm (1938). During the Second World War, Bea became a favourite performer with the troops and, in her post-war years, toured with her own show "An Evening with Beatrice Lillie". Her rather eccentric persona worked beautifully on Broadway and, in 1958, she replaced Rosalind Russell in "Auntie Mame". In 1964, she took on the role of "Madame Arcati" in the musical version of "Blithe Spirit", entitled "High Spirits". This was to be her last staged musical. Sadly, her style grew passé and outdated in the Vietnam era, and she quickly faded from view after a movie appearance in Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967). At this point, she had already begun to show early signs of Alzheimer's disease, although she managed to publish her biography in 1973. A year later, Bea suffered the first of two strokes and lived the next decade and a half in virtual seclusion. She died in 1989 at age 94.Canada. UK.
1894 - 1989. (94).
41 credits, 1926-1967.- Aileen Pringle's favorite film was a mid-1920s silent based on a book by Elinor Glyn: Three Weeks (1924), sort of a "Lady Chatterly's Lover". She recalled in a 1980 telephone conversation: "The film was in good taste; some people thought the book was trashy". Anita Loos wrote in "A Girl Like I", the first volume of her autobiography, vaudeville comic Joe Frisco telling Glynn: "Leave me get this straight. You want to find some tramp that don't look like a tramp, to play that English tramp in your picture. But take it from me, that kind of tramp don't hang out in Hollywood". Aileen had spent her 20s married to Charles McKenzie Pringle, the son of Sir John Pringle, a Jamaica landowner and a member of the Privy and Legislative Councils of Jamaica. Aileen lived in Jamaica until she went on stage with George Arliss. When she began divorce proceedings against Pringle in 1926, Hollywood gossip columnists speculated she would marry H.L. Mencken. She did not remarry until 1944 when she became the bride of James M. Cain, author of "The Postman Always Rings Twice". I opened my 1980 telephone conversation with Aileen by mentioning that the day before I had been reading her correspondence with Mencken at the New York Public Library. "But all the letters were destroyed", she said. I knew that Mencken had asked for all of his letters to her back at the time he became engaged to Sara Haardt. Aileen was the only woman who received such a request from Mencken at that time. "It was your letters from the late '30s and '40s I was reading", I told Aileen. "In one of them Mencken was urging you to write a book. Did you ever finish it?" "No. I got married instead." In a 1946 letter she wrote to Mencken. "If I had remained married to that psychotic Cain, I would be wearing a straitjacket instead of the New Look."1895 - 1989, 94.
83 credits, 20-56. - A soulful, fragile-looking blonde beauty, silent screen star Jane Novak was born in St. Louis, Missouri on January 12, 1896, and supposedly began her film career at age 17 when a director took to a photo of the young girl on the makeup table of her own aunt, the film star Anne Schaefer. From 1913 Jane appeared in a host of short films from the Vitagraph Company, a few of her earliest being Anne of the Trails (1913), At the Sign of the Lost Angel (1913) and Sacrifice (1913) all of which starred her Aunt Anne. Jane almost immediately moved into female leads and second leads with such films as Deception (1913) and Any Port in a Storm (1913).
She continued to make Vitagraph shorts during the years 1914 and 1915, including a couple of comedies vehicles for Harold Lloyd -- Willie's Haircut (1914) and Just Nuts (1915) -- before gradually moving into feature films. At Universal she appeared opposite Harry Carey in the serial Graft (1915) and with actor/director Hobart Bosworth in The Iron Hand (1916). Elsewhere, she, like her equally successful younger sister/actress, Eva Novak, got a handle on the western genre with her delicate looks slightly belying a vitality for the outdoors. Jane appeared opposite William S. Hart, who directed many of his own productions, in The Tiger Man (1918), _Selfish Yates (1918), The Money Corral (1919), Wagon Tracks (1919), and Three Word Brand (1921). At one point she was Hart's fiancée after divorcing actor Frank Newburg, but it ended and their professional relationship ended as well. The actress also appeared alongside her sister's favorite co-star, Tom Mix, in Treat 'Em Rough (1919), .
Throughout the productive 1920s, Jane's high-caliber male co-stars included Charles Ray, Sessue Hayakawa, Lewis Stone, Wallace Beery, Tom Moore, House Peters, John Bowers, Buck Jones, Kenneth Harlan, Earle Williams, James Rennie, John Harron, and even Lightning the Dog. Sisters Jane and Eva did appear on screen together in The Man Life Passed By (1923). Two of Jane's finest performances came in melodrama -- Thelma (1922) and The Lullaby (1924).
Like her sister, Jane's leading lady career faltered come the advent of talking pictures. Following her sixth billed role in the Richard Dix western Redskin (1929), she would not return to the screen until seven years later with the Harry Carey western Ghost Town (1936) in which she had a prime supporting role as a gun moll. From then on, small, often uncredited roles came her way sporadically in such notable films as Foreign Correspondent (1940), Gallant Lady (1942), Desert Fury (1947), The File on Thelma Jordon (1949), The Furies (1950), and her last, About Mrs. Leslie (1954).
Jane made a fortune in late 1920s real estate and film production but lost it all following the 1929 stock market crash. In 1974, Harper & Row published her cookbook entitled "Treasury of Chicken Cookery". Sister Eva died at age 90 of pneumonia at the Motion Picture Country Hospital in Woodland Hills, California in 1988. Jane followed her two years later (of a stroke), about a month after her 94th birthday also at the Woodland Hills Hospital.USA.
1896 - 1990. (94).
124 credits, 1913-1989. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Dame Judith Anderson was born Frances Margaret Anderson on February 10, 1897 in Adelaide, South Australia. She began her acting career in Australia before moving to New York in 1918. There she established herself as one of the greatest theatrical actresses and was a major star on Broadway throughout the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Her notable stage works included the role of Lady Macbeth, which she played first in the 1920s, and gave an Emmy Award-winning television performance in Macbeth (1960). Anderson's long association with Euripides' "Medea" began with her acclaimed Tony Award-winning 1948 stage performance in the title role. She appeared in the television version of Medea (1983) in the supporting character of the Nurse.
Anderson made her Hollywood film debut under director Rowland Brown in a supporting role in Blood Money (1933). Her striking, not conventionally attractive features were complemented with her powerful presence, mastery of timing and an effortless style. Anderson made a film career as a supporting character actress in several significant films including Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940), for which she was Oscar nominated for Best Supporting Actress. She worked with director Otto Preminger in Laura (1944), then with René Clair in And Then There Were None (1945). Her remarkable performance in a supporting role in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) fit in a stellar acting ensemble under director Richard Brooks.
Anderson was awarded Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1960 Queen's New Year's Honours List for her services to the performing arts. Living in Santa Barbara in her later years, she also had a successful stint on the soap opera Santa Barbara (1984) and was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in 1984. In the same year, at age 87, she appeared in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) as the High Priestess, and was nominated for a Saturn Award for that role. She was awarded Companion of the Order of Australia in the 1991 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to the performing arts. Anderson died at age 94 of pneumonia on January 3, 1992 in Santa Barbara, California.1897 - 1992, 94. Australia. California.
57 credits, 30-87.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Character actress Shirley Booth could play everything in all facets of show business, whether it was Miss Duffy the Tavern Owner's Man Crazy Daughter on "Duffy's Tavern", the sassy maid on TV's Hazel (1961) or the pathetic woman in Come Back, Little Sheba (1952). For those who only know her through her sitcom, it might be hard to believe she was a seasoned theatrical veteran, having appeared on Broadway from 1925-70. She was highly regarded as a stage actress and ranks as one of the premier talents of the 20th-century theatre.1898 - 1992, 94.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Barely 5' tall, the little "yente" with the big, expressive talent and mischievous twinkle in her eye, Yiddish icon Molly Picon, entertained theater, radio, TV and film audiences for over seven decades. Born Malka Opiekun to Polish-Jewish parents in New York on February 28, 1898, she would gradually assist in popularizing the Yiddish culture into the American mainstream as well as overseas. Raised in Philadelphia, she began performing at age 5 in song-and-dance routines.
Breaking into the big time with a vaudeville act called "The Four Seasons" in 1919, she eventually made an endearing comedic name for herself as the "Sweetheart of Second Avenue" of New York's Lower East Side Yiddish Theatre District. The indefatigable Picon was a real live wire and played very broad, confident, dominant characters on stage, which ended up making it hard for her to be taken seriously in dramatic pieces.
Molly's marriage in 1919 to Yiddish playwright and stage star Jacob Kalich, was a fruitful one. He became her mentor, collaborator, co-star, the author of many of her popular plays and the manager of her career. Molly and her husband toured much of Europe in 1921 so that she could perfect her Yiddish. After returning to the United States, she starred in more than 200 Yiddish productions, performing comic renditions of "The Working Goil" and "The Story of Grandma's Shawl."
As for film, she appeared in such Yiddish/Jewish pictures as Hütet eure Töchter (1922) and Good Luck (1923). Come the advent of sound, she would be fondly remembered for her native-language showcases of the 30s, notably in Yidl mitn fidl (1936), the story of a traveling musician who dresses as a boy to avoid unwarranted male advances and as a Yiddish Cinderella, a dutiful but unappreciated daughter who cares for her father and his large family, in Mamele (1938), the last Jewish film made in Poland. During one musical vignette, Picon portrays her character's grandmother in several stages of life. In 1931, she opened the Molly Picon Theatre in New York and by 1934 had her own radio program.
One of America's finest storytellers, Molly made her English-speaking Broadway debut in 1940 as a Jewish widow in the dramatic "Morning Star," then returned in 1942 with her Yiddish musical offering "Oy Is Dus a Leben!" and with the 1948 comedy "For Heaven's Sake, Mother." She remained a strong stage presence throughout the 1940s and 1950s as she included more and more English-speaking plays as well. In the 1960's she returned to Broadway with delightful appearances in "Milk and Honey," How to Be a Jewish Mother" and "The Front Page."
Molly grew with delightful ease into matronly roles, became synonymous with the well-meaning but overbearing and coddling "Jewish mama." Such amusing, unflappable film roles would be found in the social comedy Come Blow Your Horn (1963) as Sinatra's meddling Italian mother; the musical Fiddler on the Roof (1971) as Yente the turn-of-the-century matchmaker (her husband had a minor role as Yankel); the delightful madam in the rollicking slapstick comedy For Pete's Sake (1974) starring Barbra Streisand; and as Mom Goldfarb in the Burt Reynolds action vehicles The Cannonball Run (1981) and Cannonball Run II (1984). Molly also began embracing TV on occasion, appearing to both humorous and heartwarming effect in such popular 60's programs as "Dr. Kildare," "Gomer Pyle" and "Car 54, Where Are You?"
Following her husband's death in 1975, Molly slowed down considerably. She suffered from Alzheimer's disease in her later years and died at age 94. Picon wrote her first biography about her family in So Laugh a Little in 1962, and much later (1980), her autobiography, Hello, Molly! She was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981. Vicariously known as the "Jewish Charlie Chaplin" and "Jewish Helen Hayes," she was a patriot and humanitarian at heart, with an energy, creativity and ability to entertain that couldn't help but make her one of entertainment's most beloved citizens.1898 - 1992, 94.
34 credits, 21-84.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Before Arlette-Leonie Bathiat went to the movies she was a secretary and had posed several times as a model for different painters and photographers. In 1920 she debuted on stage at a theatre. She only began to work in movies after 1930. After World War II she was condemned to prison for having been the lover of a German official during the ocupation of France. In 1963 she had an accident which left her almost blind. Her most important movies were filmed and directed by Marcel Carné ("Hotel du Nord (1938)" or "Enfants du Paradis, Les (1945)").France.
1898 - 1992. (94).
84 credits, 1930-2002.- Genteel London-born actress Joyce Carey came from a distinguished theatrical family. Her own lengthy career on the stage began in 1916 when she played Princess Katherine in an all-female ensemble of "Henry V". She made her debut on the legitimate stage in a small part in the West End production of the exotic melodrama "Mr.Wu". During the 1920's, Joyce became a well-known interpreter of Shakespearean roles in Stratford-upon-Avon (including Miranda in "The Tempest" and Perdita in "The Winter's Tale"), as well as acting in several fashionable drawing room comedies in London. She came to be best known, however, for her long association with Noël Coward whom she met (and befriended) during a rehearsal for his play "The Vortex" in 1924. Coward liked her so much, that he cast her in the leading role of Sarah Hurst in "Easy Virtue" the following year. The play went from London to Broadway, opening at the Empire Theatre and enjoying a successful run of 147 performances. Joyce's career was now made and she regularly featured in Coward plays for the remainder of her life on stage.
In 1934, Joyce added another string to her bow as the author of the comedy "Sweet Aloes", written under the pseudonym 'Jay Mallory'. She also took on the key role of Lady Farrington. The play did better on the West End than on Broadway. Warner Brothers, nonetheless, bought the rights and filmed it as a teary melodrama entitled Give Me Your Heart (1936), starring Kay Francis and George Brent. Following wartime tours with the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) in Coward plays, she later repeated her stage successes in the filmed versions of the same, notably in Johnny in the Clouds (1945), Blithe Spirit (1945) and The Astonished Heart (1950). Her best remembered role was that of the train station buffet manageress Myrtle Bagot in David Lean's Brief Encounter (1945).
During Joyce's later career, her air of quiet authority and ladylike manner were perfectly suited to a gallery of aristocratic dowagers, doting or confused aunts or mothers. A true professional, she still performed at the age of 90 - on stage, unsurprisingly, in a minor Coward play, "Semi-Monde". On the screen she achieved critical acclaim for her role as an elderly lady facing eviction, in Michael Palin's BBC play Number 27 (1988). In 1982, Joyce was awarded the Order of the British Empire.UK
1898 - 1993. (94).
90 credits, 1918-1988. - British born actress in American films. She made her film debut in 1915 with Dustin Farnum. She appeared in scores of silent films as a character actress, but reached her greatest prominence with the coming of sound. Fitzroy specialized in motherly and society women characters.1860 - 1954, 93. London. California.
102 credits, 13-44. - May Hallatt was born on 1 May 1876 in Scarborough, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Black Narcissus (1947), Separate Tables (1958) and Me and My Girl (1939). She died on 20 May 1969 in London, England, UK.UK.
1876 - 1969. (93).
Credits : 1934-1965. - Mieczyslawa Cwiklinska was a Polish actress, comedienne and singer. For more than 50 years on the stage, she was one of Poland's most outstanding comedic actors and singers.
She appeared on both stage and in film, and did operettas and the classics. She received numerous awards including commendations from the Polish national government. She was a member of her country's National Theatre.
On April 25, 1950, she celebrated the golden jubilee of her career in the theatre and was awarded highest honours by the Polish government.Poland
1879 - 1972. (93).
Credits : 1933-1948. - Leopolda Dostalová was born on 23 January 1879 in Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary [now Czech Republic]. She was an actress, known for Bílá jachta ve Splitu (1939), Psohlavci (1931) and The Magic House (1939). She died on 17 June 1972 in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic].Czech Republic.
1879 - 1972. (93).
Credits : 1931-1970. - Actress
- Soundtrack
This distinguished theatrical tragedienne will be remembered forever if only for the fact George Bernard Shaw wrote his classic "Saint Joan" work specifically for her. Her over six-decade career allowed for a gallery of sterling, masterful portrayals, both classic and contemporary, performing all over the world including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India and both Western and Eastern Europe. She was created a Dame of the British Empire in 1931, when her career was not quite half over, and in 1970 was made Companion of Honor to Queen Elizabeth.
Born Agnes Sybil Thorndike on October 24, 1882 in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, she was the daughter of a minor canon of Rochester Cathedral. She was the eldest of four children. One younger brother, Frank, was killed in WWI action, a tragedy that left her father inconsolable. He himself would die a few months later. Sybil first became a concert pianist until nerve injuries in her hands quickly altered her destiny. She, at brother Russell Thorndike's suggestion, decided upon acting. Russell would later become a novelist and his sister's biographer.
Not a classic beauty by any stretch, Dame Sybil had sharp features, prominent cheek bones and a pronounced chin that gave her a rather severe look. At age 21 she and her brother began professionally in a touring company guided by actor-manager Ben Greet. She performed as Portia in a production of The Merchant of Venice in 1907 while touring in New York. The following year she met playwright George Bernard Shaw while understudying the role of Candida in a tour which was being directed by the writer himself. It was also during this tour that Sybil met and married actor Sir Lewis Casson and solidified one of the most respected personal and professional relationships the acting realm has known. She stayed with The Old Vic for five years (1914-1919) and in 1924 earned stardom as Shaw's Joan of Arc.
Sybil's film career, unlike that of her esteemed contemporary Edith Evans, fell far short of expectations. Silent films recreated some of her finest theatrical experiences, including Lady Macbeth and, of course, Joan of Arc, but she would not evolve into a film star. She was sporadically utilized in later years as a flavorful character support and played a number of queens, dowagers and old crones with equal finesse. Such classic costumed fare would include Major Barbara (1941), The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1947), Stage Fright (1950), Gone to Earth (1950), The Lady with a Lamp (1951), Melba (1953), as Queen Victoria, and The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) in which she managed to grab focus during her scenes with Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe. In 1969, Sybil lent her name to the new theatre in Leatherhead, Surrey, which became The Thorndike. Despite her 87 years, she performed in the new play There Was An Old Woman in its first season. It was to be her final theatrical performance. Always a healthy, vigorous woman, she died of a heart attack on June 9, 1976 at the ripe young age of 93. She was survived by four children and a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.UK.
1882 - 1976. (93).
Credits : 1921-1991.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
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 Broadway theatres. She starred in her first US film as Stella in Alice Guy's drama 'The Tigress' in 1914. Olga became a highly popular diva through the 1910s starring in move than two dozen movies until her last starring role as Patience Sparhawk in Ralph Ince's 'The Panther Woman' co-starring Rockliffe Fellows in 1918, she also wrote several scripts. After Petrova left the movie business in 1918 she continued to star on Broadway during the 1920s. She wrote three plays and toured the country with a theatre troupe. She published her autobiograph in 1942 and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She died in 1977 age 93. She had no children.1884 - 1977, 93. UK. US.- Genteel Cathleen Nesbitt was a grand dame of the theatre on both sides of the Atlantic in a career spanning seven decades. Among almost 300 roles on stage, she excelled at comic portrayals of sophisticated socialites and elegant mothers. Hollywood used her, whenever a gentler, sweeter version of Gladys Cooper was needed, yet someone still possessed of a subtly sarcastic wit and turn of phrase. She attended Queen's University in Belfast and the Sorbonne in Paris.
Encouraged by a friend of her father - none other than the legendary Sarah Bernhardt - to enter the acting profession, she was taken on by Victorian actress and drama teacher Rosina Filippi (1866-1930). Cathleen's first appearance on stage was in 1910 at the Royalty Theatre in London. This was followed in November 1911 by her Broadway debut with the touring Abbey Theatre Players in 'The Well of the Saints'. From here on, and for the rest of her long life, she was never out of a job, demonstrating her range and versatility by playing everything from villainesses to being a much acclaimed Kate in Shakespeare's 'The Taming of the Shrew', Perdita in Shakespeare's 'The Winter's Tale', the great-aunt and tutor in the art of courtesanship of the title character in 'Gigi', the Dowager Empress in 'Anastasia', and the gossipy 'humorously animated' Julia Shuttlethwaite of T.S. Eliot's 'The Cocktail Party'. Her Mrs. Higgins in 'My Fair Lady', Brooks Atkinson described as played with 'grace and elegance', which also pretty much sums up Cathleen's career in films.
Her first motion picture role was a lead in the drama The Faithful Heart (1922), adapted from an Irish play. She then absented herself from the screen for the next decade, resurfacing in supporting roles in British films, though rarely cast in worthy parts, possible exceptions being Man of Evil (1944) and Jassy (1947). Her strengths were rather better showcased during her sojourn in Hollywood, which began in 1952. In addition to prolific appearances in anthology television, she also appeared in several big budget films, most memorably as Cary Grant's perspicacious grandmother in An Affair to Remember (1957) and as gossipy Lady Matheson (alongside Gladys Cooper ) in Separate Tables (1958). One of her last roles of note was as the elderly wealthy Julia Rainbird, who instigates the plot in Alfred Hitchcock's final film, Family Plot (1976).
At the instigation of her friend, Anita Loos, author of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", Nesbitt wrote her memoir, 'A Little Love and Good Company', in 1977. For her extraordinarily long career in the acting profession, she was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Honours List the following year. She retired just two years prior to her death in 1983 at the age of 94.UK.
1888 - 1982. (93).
92 credits, 1919-1981. - Unlike many serial heroines, Ann Little actually was a daughter of the West. Born in a small town near the foot of northern California's Mt. Shasta, she was raised on a ranch in the shadow of the great mountain. After graduating high school, she joined a traveling stock company, winding up in a play in San Francisco. She entered the film business making one-reel westerns with Broncho Billy Anderson, and soon relocated to Southern California, where she made a variety of films for many different companies. Since she was proficient at such outdoors activities as riding, shooting and swimming, she began to get more work in wsterns, especially as Indian maidens, which pleased her no end as she had engaged in a lifelong study of Indian culture (her faithful portrayal of a young Indian girl in The Squaw Man (1918) won her the respect and friendship of the Indian extras in that film). She began making serials during her tenure at Universal, where she would make the first (in 1915) of six. By 1917, however, she had tired of westerns, and relocated to New York City to try her hand at straight drama. However, she find herself back in the serial field, although this time even more successfully, and returned to Calilfornia. Her career was going great guns when, in 1925, she gave it all up and left the industry. Nobody knew why and she apparently never told anybody she was planning to do it; she just upped and did it. There were rumors that she found religion (Christian Science) and left to devote herself to religious work, but, although she still lived in the Los Angeles area, she refused to speak of her years in Hollywood and never gave a reasn for leaving. She died in 1984.USA
1891 - 1984. (93).
158 credits, 1911-1925. - Although Dutch-born silent screen femme fatale Jetta Goudal (pronounced Zhett-eh Goo-doll) may be pretty much forgotten today, she was, in her glorious Hollywood heyday, a star rivaling that of Gloria Swanson and fellow vamps Barbara La Marr and Nita Naldi. The daughter of a Jewish orthodox diamond cutter in Amsterdam, she began her career on stage in Europe, traveling with various theater companies. Arriving in America (New York City) following the WWI armistice (1918), Juliette (Julie) Henriette Goudeket purposely disguised her Dutch and Jewish ancestry and her age, passing herself off as "Jetta Goudal," a Parisienne born in Versailles in 1901 and the daughter of a lawyer.
She first appeared on Broadway in the drama "The Hero" in March of 1921; that September she returned with the melodrama "The Elton Charm". Eventually testing for film. She attracted immediate attention with her first two small film roles and caught the eye of legendary producer/director Cecil B. DeMille. He hired her for what turned out to be some of her (and his) greatest critical successes, including her emotional roles in The Coming of Amos (1925), The Road to Yesterday (1925), White Gold (1927) and The Forbidden Woman (1927). Unfortunately, the exotic allure and element of mystery that made Goudal so popular on-screen came with a price. She was an unrepentant theatrical "grand dame" and possessed a fierce temper well known to the film community.
Her extreme difficulty on the set led to DeMille breaking her contract, which in turn led Goudal to file a landmark lawsuit against him. She charged him with breach of contract, while he claimed her diva-like tirades over every detail of production, from costumes and scenery to mere entrances, caused a multitude of delays and severe financial setbacks for the studio. Goudal, however, won the suit--one reason being that neither DeMille nor the studio could furnish financial records to back up their claims that she cost them untold thousands of dollars--and it set a precedent regarding actors' rights vs. studios' rights. The damage to her career and reputation, however, was sealed and she never recaptured her former glory. Moreover, with the arrival of sound her very thick French accent left her with limited offers.
Goudal married art director Harold Grieve in 1930 and retired from the screen permanently three years later. Along with her husband, she went into interior design and faded from the Hollywood scene. They had no children. Plagued by health problems (heart condition) in the 1960s, she suffered a serious fall in 1973 which left her an invalid. She died in 1985 and was interred in a private room at the Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of the Angels, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. Her devoted husband was interred next to her upon his death in 1993.Netherlands. USA.
1891 - 1985. (93).
credits, 1922-1932. - Actress
Stately Isabel Jeans was brought to Hollywood by the director Anatole Litvak to appear as Fermonde Dupond in his comedy Tovarich (1937). The daughter of an art critic, Frederick George Jeans, she had aspired to be a singer but instead forged a career on the stage. Her first role came courtesy of theatre legend Herbert Beerbohm Tree when she was fifteen years old. Isabel went on to acquire a varied repertoire in the classics, as well as displaying a singular comic talent in contemporary works by Noël Coward, Ivor Novello, and others. By the late 1920s, she had become a fixture on the London stage, toured the United States, appeared with great success on Broadway and acted in two early films by Alfred Hitchcock: Downhill (1927) and Easy Virtue (1927). She had been married, thrice separated and eventually divorced from actor Claude Rains, having seemingly relished the role of the philandering wife. Her husband for a subsequently longer haul was to be a prominent English barrister.
In stark contrast to Isabel's usually dignified appearance, her declared favorite pastimes were: playing a mean hand of poker, driving fast cars and going to the race track. On the other hand, there was this aura of maturity and elegance which made her one of the first actresses film producers would turn to when casting dignified socialites or upper class toffs. Hitchcock, for one, gave her another such role, as Mrs. Newsham, in Suspicion (1941). According to her ex Claude Rains, Isabel became a somewhat "mannered actress". Following an absence from the screen for almost ten years, she came once again into her own in delicious character parts, shining as Aunt Alicia in Gigi (1958) and in the satirical Peter Sellers comedy Heavens Above! (1963), as the land-owning Lady Despard.UK
1891 - 1985. (93).- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Francesca Bertini was undoubtedly one of the first divas of cinema, a lady not only on screen but also in real life. She made her film debut in La dea del mare (1907) and after that producers fought for her services. In 1921 she married European nobleman and banker Alfred Cartier. She tried her hand at directing films as well as acting in them and turned out two well-received efforts, Assunta Spina (1915) and Tosca (1918)). She made the transition from silent films to talkies, although her output slowed down considerably. Her final role was in Bernardo Bertolucci's 1900 (1976).
A "diva" to the end, she died in a "grand hotel" in Rome, Italy, in 1985, receiving friends and fans on her deathbed in a sumptuous salon.Italy.
1892 - 1985. (93).
146 credits, 1907-1982.- On Broadway from 1901, vivacious, blonde Vivian Martin was one of the first stars of the stage to be signed by the fledgling World Film Corporation in 1914 (then under the auspices of Arthur Spiegel and Lewis J. Selznick). Vivian's first step to fame had come in 1911, when the impresario George M. Cohan cast her as an ingénue for "The Only Son". She then had several back-to-back hits in romantic plays which brought her the attention of the film studios. Vivian rapidly emerged as the youngest major star at Paramount-Artcraft, even briefly regarded as a serious rival to the great Mary Pickford and dubbed "the world's sweetheart" (her other nickname was "The Dresden China Figurine"). She acted opposite most of the popular leading men of the period, including Harold Lockwood, Harrison Ford (no relation to THE Harrison Ford), Ralph Graves and Niles Welch.
She was inevitably cast as emotive, engagingly sweet, or naive mademoiselles, waifs, models, country girls and débutantes. In 1920, Vivian set up her own production company. However, the public were unwilling to accept her in more emancipated roles and her films flopped, and mounting studio rentals and an expensive lawsuit further diminished what was left of her career. Between 1926 and 1929, Vivian enjoyed a brief resurgence in marital dramas on Broadway, but not enough to resuscitate her acting prospects. By 1935, she effectively disappeared from stage and screen, but remained in public view as a philanthropist, a noted benefactor to the New York Professional Children's School. Vivian was married to Arthur H. Samuels, a former editor for The New Yorker and Harper's Bazaar.USA.
1893 - 1987. (93).
45 credits, 1914-1935. - Actress
- Producer
San Francisco-born comedienne of early silent cinema. Born Levita Axelrod in San Francisco, she was (according to Picture Show of July 19, 1919) of English parentage and named 'Billie' because a son had been expected. She trod the boards of vaudeville by the age of eleven and appeared in melodrama under heavy makeup playing adults by the age of thirteen. She also moonlighted in local cafes as a comic entertainer.
In 1913, she was hired by the branch of the Kalem film company based in Glendale, California, and appeared in several short subjects under her original name. After two years, she left Kalem to begin work for Al Christie at Nestor using her stage name Billie Rhodes for the first time. She was regularly paired with Jay Belasco in the series of situational 'Strand Comedies' and simultaneously appeared for the National Film Company, whose owner, actor-producer William Parsons, she married in 1919. However, in September that year, Parsons died unexpectedly aged just 41. Billie's career subsequently took a downturn though she had a brief run as co-star of several independently made two-reelers opposite Joe Rock. By 1925, she had forsaken the screen to become a vocalist in nightclubs and cabaret.1894 - 1988,93.- Actress
- Director
- Writer
A schoolteacher who became a stage actress (briefly), Lois Wilson entered films in 1916 at Paramount (her sisters, Diana Kane and Connie Lewis, also worked as actresses). Wilson played leading roles well into the sound era, and after she retired from the screen she worked sporadically in television and again appeared on stage.USA
1894 - 1988. (93).
172 credits, 1915-1980.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Grace Hayes was born on 23 August 1895 in Springfield, Missouri, USA. She was an actress, known for Zis Boom Bah (1941), When Johnny Comes Marching Home (1942) and Myrt and Marge (1933). She was married to Robert E. Hopkins, Charley Foy and Joseph Conrad Lind Sr.. She died on 1 February 1989 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.1895 - 1989, 93.
16 credits, 29-50.- 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, especially playing with Ronald Colman. Her best-known works were with Rudolph Valentino: daughter of a Russian aristocrat in The Eagle (1925) and an Arab dancer in The Son of the Sheik (1926). Her first talking movie was This Is Heaven (1929). She toured the U.S. in "Cherries Are Ripe" with her husband Rod La Rocque in 1930-1 and, the next year, went with him to Germany to make her last film.Austria-Hungary. USA.
1898 - 1991, (93). - 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 capacity she heard that the Selwyn Organization, a major producer of Broadway plays, was looking for girls with no stage experience. Since she was more than qualified in that respect, she tried out for the job and before she knew it she was in the chorus line of "Rock-a-Bye-Baby" until the show closed three months later. She then got a job in another Selwyn production, "A Very Good Young Man", but that show closed not long after opening. It was at this time that a casting director for Goldwyn Pictures hit the Broadway scene looking for new faces. She tested for him and impressed him enough that he finally picked her out of a pool of more than 1000 young girls who tested for the opportunity to go to Hollywood. She made her first film in 1922 and stayed in the business until 1935, when she retired. She was married twice, first to director King Vidor from 1926-1931, then to director Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast from 1940 to his death in 1968. She died in Santa Barbara, CA, in 1991.USA
1898 - 1991. (93). - Virginia Sale was born on 20 May 1899 in Urbana, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Topper (1937), Registered Nurse (1934) and I Like It That Way (1934). She was married to Sam Wren. She died on 23 August 1992 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.USA
1899 - 1992, (93).
163 credits, 1927-1975. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Soledad Jiménez was born on 28 February 1874 in Santander, Spain. She was an actress, known for Kid Galahad (1937), The Girl from Rio (1939) and The Kid from Rio (1939). She died on 17 October 1966 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.Spain. USA.
1874 - 1966. (92).
65 credits, 1928-1953.- Actress
Opera soprano Mary Garden was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, on February 20, 1874. Her family emigrated to the US in 1880, eventually settling in Chicago, Illinois. She showed an aptitude for music at an early age, studying the violin and piano and taking voice lessons while still a young girl. In 1895 she went to Paris, France, to further her voice training. She made her public debut five years later in Gustave Charpentier's "Louise" at the Opera-Comique in Paris. In 1902 composer Claude Debussy personally chose her to sing the female lead in his opera "Pelleas et Melisande", and this became her most famous and celebrated role. She was so highly regarded among composers that Jules Massenet specifically rewrote the lead part in his "Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame"--which he had originally written to be a man--for her.
She made her New York debut in 1907, in Massenet's "Thais". She was acclaimed by critics not only for her superb singing but for what many deemed her remarkable dramatic ability as well. She toured extensively in Europe and the US and joined the Chicago Civic Opera in 1910, being their featured singer until 1931. In addition, she served as general director of the Chicago Opera Association from 1921-1922.
Although she retired from the stage in 1934, she remained active in operatic circles, making many lecture and recital tours over the next 20 years and serving as audition judge for the National Arts Foundation.
She died in her birthplace of Aberdeen, Scotland, on January 3, 1967.Scotland
1874 - 1967, (92).- Actress
- Soundtrack
When her Hollywood career began in 1934, Mary Nash was already a veteran performer, having appeared in vaudeville and on Broadway. Following a brief appearance as a dancer in 1904, she joined Ethel Barrymore in a 1905 off- Broadway production, 'Alice-Sit-by-the-Fire'. This was followed by 'Captain Jinks' and 'The Silver Box' with the same company, and in 1915 she acted in George Bernard Shaw's play 'Major Barbara' at the Playhouse Theatre. The versatile actress was as adept at comedy ('Captain Applejack',1921-22) as she was in drama (Cassie in 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,1933).
She is best remembered on screen for being nasty to Shirley Temple in Heidi (1937) and The Little Princess (1939), and for playing Katharine Hepburn's elegant and proper society mother in The Philadelphia Story (1940). In addition, she gave excellent value-for-money in the role of Emma Louise in Come and Get It (1936) and as the ill-fated queen in the technicolor adventure Cobra Woman (1944). Mary Nash was briefly married to the actor José Ruben ((1888-1969).1884 - 1976, 92.
127 credits, 15-46.- Actress
- Soundtrack
A prominent German film actress born on 30 September 1887 at Madiven, Java, the daughter of a forest ranger in the service of the Dutch authorities. Sent at the age of ten to Baden-Baden to study, she later entered the cinema thanks to her marriage in 1917 to the actor Fritz Dagover who was 25 years her senior. They divorced in 1919 but not before he had introduced her to director Robert Wiene and other notables of German cinema. She made her screen debut in Fritz Lang's Harakiri (1919). Immediately after she appeared in Wiene's classic expressionist film, "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (aka The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)). Apart from three trips -- one to Sweden in 1927, another to France in 1928-9 and one to Hollywood in 1931 -- most of Lil Dagover's career and fate was linked to that of the German cinema, where her role was usually that of the frail, menaced heroine. She continued to star in a great number of films during the Nazi era. Among her best performances were her roles in Congress Dances (1931), in Gerhard Lamprecht's The Higher Command (1935) and in Veit Harlan's The Kreutzer Sonata (1937). She also acted in the Deutsches Theatre Berlin, the Salzburg Festival, at forces shows and at war theaters. At one time, she was reported to have been a close friend of Adolf Hitler. In 1944, she received the War Merits Cross. Dagover continued her career in post-war Germany, playing many supporting parts until the late 1970s.Indonesia. West Germany.
1887 - 1980. (92).
Credits : 1916-1979.- Born in Bad Kissingen, Germany, in 1885, Hanna Ralph made her stage debut in 1913 and her film debut in 1917. She was quite active in silent films, and worked for such directors as Fritz Lang and F.W. Murnau, and at one point was married to Emil Jannings (they later divorced). She made her final film, The Unholy Intruders (1952), in 1952. She died in Berlin, Germany, in 1978.Germany.
1885 - 1978. (92).
Credits : 1917-1952. - Elsie Albert was born on 20 November 1888 in North Caldwell, New Jersey, USA. She was an actress, known for Welcome Children (1921), Snow White and The Sleeping Beauty (1913). She was married to Harold Clarke Mathews. She died on 7 October 1981 in Oregon, USA.1888 - 1981, 92.
43 credits, 10-21. - A gentle-mannered, somewhat mournful-looking actress, brown-haired Helen Jerome Eddy enjoyed a substantial career in the silents, often in genteel, well-bred roles which required a certain amount of pathos. After acting on the stage at the Pasadena Playhouse, she began in films with the Lubin company in 1915, initially cast as vamps in juicy melodramas. Moving on to Paramount and better prospects, Eddy was given a starring role in King Vidor's debut full-length feature, The Turn in the Road (1919). Subsequently, she became George Beban's regular leading lady in several prestige films in the early 20's, in which her dignified personality now epitomised wholesome values. By the time the talkies arrived, Eddy had efficiently segued into character roles, henceforth as forlorn widows or careworn, long-suffering wives and mothers. She continued to show up in quality films like Skippy (1931) (as the sympathetic mother), Winterset (1936) (as the anarchist's wife) or Klondike Annie (1936) (as the ailing missionary Annie Alden).
Eddy left the movie business in the 1940's, following a dispute over salary. She managed to establish herself as a successful real estate agent in Pasadena, occasionally emerging from retirement to appear at the Pilgrimage Theatre in the Hollywood Hills.1897 - 1990,92. - Eileen Sedgwick came from a theatrical family. Her parents were both stage actors, her brother Edward Sedgwick went on to become a respected comedy director and her sister Josie Sedgwick became a film actress. The entire family toured the vaudeville circuit as "The Five Sedgwicks," and it wasn't long before a pretty girl like Eileen was noticed by Hollywood. She is thought to have debuted in films around 1914, and worked her way up to minor stardom by 1918, when a fortuitous accident happened: the female star of the Universal serial The Lure of the Circus (1918) took ill, and Eileen was tapped to take her place and finish the serial. It proved to be a big hit, and over the next 10 years Eileen would perform in a dozen serials. By 1928, though, she apparently tired of the serial grind, and began using the name Greta Yoltz in an effort to have casting directors for non-serial films hire her. She made a few films under that name, but soon reverted to her real name. She retired from the screen with the advent of sound.USA
1898 - 1991, (92).
123 credits, 1914-1930. - Mrs. Thomas Whiffen was born on 12 March 1845 in London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Barbara Frietchie (1915) and Hearts and Flowers (1914). She was married to Thomas Whiffen. She died on 26 November 1936 in Montvale, Virginia, USA.UK. USA.
1845 - 1936. (91).
Credits: 1914-1915. - Actress
- Writer
Emma Gramatica was born on 25 October 1874 in Borgo San Donnino, Emilia-Romagna, Italy [now Fidenza]. She was an actress and writer, known for La damigella di Bard (1936), Miracle in Milan (1951) and L'angelo bianco (1943). She died on 8 November 1965 in Ostia, Rome, Lazio, Italy.Italy.
1874 - 1965. (91).
Credits : 1916-1962.- Terezie Brzková was born on 11 January 1875 in Kolín, Austria-Hungary [now Czech Republic]. She was an actress, known for Babichka (1940), Barbora Hlavsová (1943) and Sny na nedeli (1959). She was married to Václav Zejfert and Josef Brzek. She died on 19 November 1966 in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic].Czech Republic.
1875 - 1966. (91).
Credits : 1934-1961. - Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Louella Parsons was born on 6 August 1881 in Freeport, Illinois, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for Hollywood Hotel (1937), Without Reservations (1946) and Starlift (1951). She was married to Dr. Henry Watson Martin, John McCaffrey Jr. and John Demont Parsons. She died on 9 December 1972 in Santa Monica, California, USA.1881 - 1972, 91.- Mabel Taliaferro was born on 21 May 1887 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for A Wife by Proxy (1917), Cinderella (1912) and Alexander Hamilton (1924). She was married to Robert Ober, Joseph O'Brien, Thomas Carrigan and Frederic Thompson. She died on 24 January 1979 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.1887 - 1979, 91.
- Tamara Daykarhanova was born on 14 January 1889 in Moscow, Imperial Russia. She was an actress, known for The Three Sisters (1966), Producers' Showcase (1954) and Playhouse 90 (1956). She died on 2 August 1980 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.1889 - 1980, (91).
Russia. USA. - Making her film debut as an extra in 1917, Leatrice Joy soon graduated to playing opposite comics Billy West and Oliver Hardy. Director Cecil B. DeMille took her under his wing and starred her in several of his films. Often playing career girls dressed in mannish suits, or sophisticated society girls, she is generally credited with starting the bobbed-hair craze in the 1920s. She retired shortly after the advent of sound, but made occasional appearances in small supporting roles over the years.1893 - 1985, 91.
- Effervescent, blond star of sophisticated Broadway comedy in the 1920s. Born Ina Fagan, of Irish descent, her father died in a road accident four months before she was born. Without a breadwinner in the family, she was forced to live in a boarding house with her mother. From earliest childhood, she displayed a precocious talent for impersonating other people, which eventually led to her abandonment of school (Holy Cross Academy) at age 17 and her entry into the world of vaudeville.
Performing under her mother's maiden name as an imitator of established stage performers made her a popular name in revues on both sides of the Atlantic. Ina's first extended run on the stage (more than a year) was as Prudence in the 1911 musical "The Quaker Girl", where a very young F. Scott Fitzgerald became enamored with her. In 1915, she appeared in the Ziegfeld Folies, and in the following year, had her first major hit as the titular heroine in the comedy "Polly With a Past" at the Belasco Theatre.
Between 1919 and 1928, Ina Claire was almost continuously employed in one theatrical success after another in comedic plays penned by the likes of S.N. Behrman, W. Somerset Maugham, Anthony Trollope and T.S. Eliot. She had huge hits in the title role of "The Last of Mrs. Cheyney" (1925) and, as Lady Grayston, in "Our Betters" (1928). Her curtain call was as the star of "The Confidential Clerk" in 1954, at the Morosco Theatre. John Mason Brown, writing for the New York Post (December 13, 1932) called her "the ablest comedienne our theatre knows". Immensely popular with audiences and critics alike, she was noted for her deft delivery, her wit and charisma and for her elegant, stylish costumes and coiffure. She also had the ability to carefully select her roles to suit her special talent for sophisticated high comedy (though in later years blaming producers for typecasting her and not allowing her the opportunity to shine in dramatic parts). Regardless, Ina Claire has long since been inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.
Her screen career, brief as it was, seemed desultory - possibly because Claire regarded film making as 'a director's art'. She reprised the role she had originated on Broadway in 1922 in her first talking picture The Awful Truth (1929), but, like many other early talkies, the film turned out decidedly static and ponderous. It was successfully remade by Leo McCarey in 1937 with Irene Dunne in the Claire role. Ina was then slated to play the lead in "Holiday" , an adaptation of a play by Philip Barry, but the nine months remaining of her contract with Pathe proved insufficient and Ina was paid $55,000 instead to settle the contract. Paramount picked up the option of signing her for The Royal Family of Broadway (1930), spoofing the private lives of the Barrymore dynasty. Claire essayed a very good likeness of Ethel Barrymore - in fact, it annoyed the real Ethel enough to threaten legal action against Paramount. Another eight years elapsed until Ina offered a glimpse of her Broadway panache in the classic comedy Ninotchka (1939) as Greta Garbo's elegant nemesis, the Duchess Swana. Her last film role was as the mother of movie debutante Dorothy McGuire in the domestic comedy Claudia (1943).
An intensely private person, Ina Claire successfully shunned the limelight, except for the duration of her much-publicized, and brief, marriage to fading star John Gilbert (on the rebound from Garbo). She died at age 91 of a heart attack in San Francisco, California on February 21, 1985. She was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Salt Lake City, Utah.1893 - 1985, 91. - Her parents were both stage actors, so Priscilla Dean began her career as an infant in their productions. She made her film debut at age 14 in a series of one-reelers for Biograph and several other studios. In 1911 she was hired by Universal Pictures and soon gained popularity as the female lead in the comedy series of Eddie Lyons and Lee Moran. Her appearance in the serial The Gray Ghost (1917) propelled her to stardom, and she began appearing in many of Universal's most prestigious productions. The coming of sound damaged her career, however, and by the early 1930s she was appearing in low-budget films for minor independent studios.1896 - 1987, 91.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Character actress Beulah Bondi was a favorite of directors and audiences and is one of the reasons so many films from the 1930s and 1940s remain so enjoyable, as she was an integral part of many of the ensemble casts (a hallmark of the studio system) of major and/or great films, including The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Our Town (1940) and Penny Serenade (1941). Highly respected as a first-tier character actress, Bondi won two Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominations, for The Gorgeous Hussy (1936) and Of Human Hearts (1938), and an Emmy Award in 1976 for her turn in the television program The Waltons (1972).
She was born Beulah Bondy on May 3, 1888, in Chicago, and established herself as a stage actress in the first phase of her career. She made her Broadway debut in Kenneth S. Webb's "One of the Family" at the 49th Street Theatre on December 21, 1925. The show was a modest hit, racking up 238 performances. She next appeared in another hit, Maxwell Anderson's "Saturday's Children," which ran for 326 performances, before appearing in her first flop, Clemence Dane's "Mariners" in 1927. Philip Barry's and Elmer Rice's "Cock Robin" was an extremely modest hit in 1928, reaching the century mark (100 performances), but it was Bondi's performance in Rice's "Street Scene," which opened at the Playhouse Theatre on Jamuary 10, 1929, that made her career. This famous play won Rice the 1929 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was a big hit, playing for 601 performances. Most importantly, though, it brought Bondi to the movies at the advanced age of 43. She made her motion picture debut in 1931 in the movie adaptation (Street Scene (1931)), recreating the role she had originated on the Broadway stage. The talkies were still new, and she had the talent and the voice to thrive in Hollywood.
Bondi appeared in four more Broadway plays from 1931 to 1934, only one of which, "The Late Christopher Bean", a comedy by Sidney Howard, was a hit. Her last appearance on Broadway for a generation was in a flop staged by Melvyn Douglas, "Mother Lode" (she made two more appearances on the Great White Way, in "Hilda Crane" (1950) and "On Borrowed Time" in 1953; neither was a success). For the rest of her professional life, her career lay primarily in film and television.
She was typecast as mothers and, later, grandmothers, and played James Stewart's mother four times, most famously as "Ma Bailey" in It's a Wonderful Life (1946). Her greatest role is considered her turn in Leo McCarey's Depression-era melodrama Make Way for Tomorrow (1937), in which she played a mother abandoned by her children.
Beulah Bondi died on January 1, 1981, from complications from an accident, when she broke her ribs after falling over her cat. She was 92 years old.1898 - 1991, 91.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Irene Marie Dunne was born on December 20, 1898, in Louisville, Kentucky. She was the daughter of Joseph Dunne, who inspected steamships, and Adelaide Henry, a musician who prompted Irene in the arts. Her first production was in Louisville when she appeared in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the age of five. Her "debut" set the tone for a fabulous career. Following the tragic death of her father when she was 12, she moved with her remaining family to the picturesque and historic town of Madison, Indiana, to live with her maternal grandparents at 916 W. Second St. During the next few years Irene studied voice and took piano lessons in town. She was able to earn money singing in the Christ Episcopal Church choir on Sundays. After graduating from Madison High School in 1916, she studied until 1917 in a music conservatory in Indianapolis. After that she accepted a teaching post as a music and art instructor in East Chicago, Indiana, just a stone's throw from Chicago. She never made it to the school. While on her way to East Chicago, she saw a newspaper ad in the Indianapolis Star and News for an annual scholarship contest run by the Chicago Music College. Irene won the contest, which enabled her to study there for a year. After that she headed for New York City because it was still the entertainment capital of the world. Her first goal in New York was to add her name to the list of luminaries of the Metropolitan Opera Company. Her audition did her little good, as she was rejected for being too young and inexperienced. She did win the leading role in a road theater company, which was, in turn, followed by numerous plays. During this time she studied at the Chicago Music College, from which she graduated with high honors in 1926. In 1928, Irene met and married a promising young dentist from New York named Francis Dennis Griffin. She remained with Dr. Griffin until his death in 1965.
Irene came to the attention of Hollywood when she performed in "Show Boat" on the East Coast. By 1930 she was under contract to RKO Pictures. Her first film was Leathernecking (1930), which went almost unnoticed. In 1931 she appeared in Cimarron (1931), for which she received the first of five Academy Award nominations. No Other Woman (1933) and Ann Vickers (1933) the same year followed.
In 1936 (due to her comic skits in Show Boat (1936)), she was "persuaded" to star in a comedy, up to that time a medium for which she had small affection. However, Theodora Goes Wild (1936) was an instant hit, almost as popular as the more famous It Happened One Night (1934) from two years before. From this she earned her second Academy Award nomination. Later, in 1937, she was teamed with Cary Grant in The Awful Truth (1937). This helped her garner a third Academy Award nomination. She starred with Grant later in My Favorite Wife (1940) and Penny Serenade (1941).
Her favorite film was Love Affair (1939) with Charles Boyer, a huge hit in a year with so many great films, and a role for which she was again nominated for an Academy Award. Howevever, it was the tear-jerker I Remember Mama (1948) for which she will be best remembered in the role of the loving, self-sacrificing Norwegian mother. She got another nomination for that but again lost. This was the picture in which she should have won the Oscar.
She began to wean herself away from films toward the many charities and public works she championed. Her last major movie was as Polly Baxter in 1952's It Grows on Trees (1952). After that she only appeared as a guest on television. Irene knew enough to quit while she was ahead of the game and this helped keep her legacy intact.
In 1957 she was appointed as a special US delegate to the United Nations during the 12th General Assembly by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, such was her widespread appeal. The remainder of her life was spent on civic causes. She even donated $10,000 to the restoration of the town fountain in her girlhood home of Madison, Indiana, in 1976, even though she had not been there since 1938 when she came home for a visit. She died of heart failure on September 4, 1990, in Los Angeles, California.1898 - 1990, 91.- Actress
- Writer
Dot Farley was born on 6 February 1881 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for The Red Kimono (1926), So Big (1924) and The Little Irish Girl (1926). She died on 2 May 1971 in South Pasadena, California, USA.USA.
1881 - 1971. (90).
361 credits, 1910-1950.
23 writing credits, 1912-1916.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
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 the Kongelige Teater's production of Boito's opera "Mephistopheles." She studied at the Royal Theatre School of Copenhagen and embarked upon a stage career in her late teens. She toured Scandinavia and became one of the highest-paid and most popular stage actresses of her time and place. In 1909, director Urban Gad suggested that the silent screen would allow her to transcend her Danish language barrier, and she agreed appear in his film 'Afgrunden (1910)'. The film was successful and Nielsen was encouraged to continue in this new art form. A German distributor, Paul Davidson, invited Nielsen to Germany, where he was building a film studio which would eventually become Europe's largest--the Universum Film Union A.-G. (or Ufa). Nielsen and her director, Gad, whom she had married, went to Germany and spent the next quarter century there. She became one of the true superstars of the silent screen, a tragic heroine whose photograph during the First World War accompanied German and also British and French troops into battle. Among her notable films after the war was a version of "Hamlet, " which was not so much a Shakespearean film as it was an exploration of a then-current theory that the real Hamlet had been, in fact, a woman. Nielsen played the title role. She continued to play a wide variety of roles in Germany and occasionally in Denmark and Norway, never losing the respect and popularity she had maintained almost from the beginning of her career. She abandoned her film work just as sound was taking over the industry. Aside from one or two brief forays in talkies, her acting was thereafter confined to the stage. She died in 1972 at the age of 89, shortly after her fifth marriage.1881 - 1972, 90. Denmark.- Red Wing was born on February 13, 1884 on the Winnebago Reservation, Nebraska, USA as Lillian St. Cyr. Her parents were Julia De Cora (Winnebago) and Mitchell St. Cyr (French Canadian and Sauk). She was graduated in 1902 from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. Red Wing was an actress known for her feature role in one of Hollywood's first feature Westerns The Squaw Man (1914). She had previously acted in many short films for Biograph, Bison and Pathe. She was married to James Young Deer (aka James Young Johnson), a producer and director. She retired from acting in the 1920s and died on March 13, 1974 in New York City, New York, USA.USA.
1884 - 1974. (90).
66 credits, 1908-1921. - Actress
- Writer
Octavia Handworth was born Octavia Boas in New York City on Christmas Eve of 1887. She began her acting career on stage on the East Coast. Her first film was The Path Forbidden (1914), but her screen career never really got off the ground. With so many movies being churned out during the infant years of the industry, it was hard for performers to make a name for themselves, and unfortunately Octavia was one of those who was lost in the shuffle. After Footlights (1921), she retired from the film industry and devoted her life to other pursuits. She died on October 3, 1978 in Hemet, California, of natural causes.USA
1887 - 1978. ((90).
62 credits, 1910-1921.- Seweryna Broniszówna was born on 13 July 1891 in Warsaw, Poland, Russian Empire [now Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland]. She was an actress, known for Obrona Czestochowy (1913), Szlakiem hanby (1929) and Mezczyzna (1918). She died on 28 June 1982 in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland.Poland.
1891 - 1982. (90).
credits, 1913-1978. - Mignon Anderson was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1892. Her father was a former vaudeville performer and opera singer who left the stage to go into the insurance business. Her mother, Hallie Howard, was also a former vaudeville performer. Mignon got her show-business start at a very early age--at six months old she appeared in a stage production as the infant daughter of the leading lady. She grew into quite a beautiful young woman, and easily found work as an artists' model.
She made her film debut in 1911 with the Thanhouser Company in Robert Emmet (1911). Her popularity grew and she became renowned not only for her beauty and acting work, but for her somewhat notorious (for the time) private life--her nickname among her fellow Thanhouser actors was "Filet Mignon". She was romantically linked to such show-business personalities as Val Hush and Irving Cummings. She and Cumming eventually became engaged, but the relationship fell apart and they never married. She did, however, wind up marrying another Thanhouser actor, J. Morris Foster, in 1915. They remained married until Foster's death in 1966.
In 1917 she signed with Universal Pictures but left the studio a year later. While there she appeared in such pictures as The Hunted Man (1917) and A Young Patriot (1917). After leaving Universal she freelanced, appearing mainly in films for small independent studios, such as Metro's The Claim (1918), Republic Distributing's Mountain Madness (1920) and Peerless' The Heart of a Woman (1920). She and her husband took about a year off from films in 1919 to appear on the stage, and did it again in the late 1920s.
Mignon Anderson died in Los Angeles, California, on February 25, 1983.USA
1892 - 1983. (90).
141 credits, . - Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
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, but her maturity and appearance soon lead to leading roles. She starred in such films as The Lonedale Operator (1911) and Judith of Bethulia (1914). Unlike most of the frail roles for women of her day, her presence was smart and resourceful. She left Biograph in 1914 and worked with Cecil B. DeMille in The Warrens of Virginia (1915). A popular and independent actress, she worked for many studio's and directors in the age of silent movies.
In 1922, she married director Marshall Neilan, who would direct her in Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1924). The marriage ended in divorce in 1929. In 1923, she starred in Anna Christie (1923), directed by John Griffith Wray, the first play by Eugene O'Neill to be filmed. Even before talkies, her career was in decline. She made three talking pictures, including Show Girl in Hollywood (1930). This was to be the last film Sweet appeared in before retiring. Her line, in the movie, about being washed up at 32 in Hollywood, was close to the truth for her. (She was 34.) After that she retired from the screen and returned to the Stage. She appeared in plays on Broadway and with touring companies and also worked in radio during the 1930s. She and co-star Raymond Hackett married in 1936 and remained married until his death in 1958. Both of her marriages were childless.USA.
1896 - 1986. (90).
164 credits, 1909-1960.
11 self credits, 1920-1982.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Pola Negri was born in Lipno, Poland, and moved to Warsaw as a child. Living in poverty with her mother, a teenage Pola auditioned and was accepted to the Imperial Ballet. Due to an illness that ended her dancing career, she soon switched to the Warsaw Imperial Academy of Dramatic Arts and became an actress. By 17 she was a star on the Warsaw stage, but World War I would soon change the theater scene. Without the theater, Pola turned to films. With her new career in pictures and her stage success in "Sumurun", she went to Berlin and was teamed with German director Ernst Lubitsch. The Lubitsch-Negri combination was very successful and the roles that Pola played were earthy, exotic, strong women. One of her films, Passion (1919), was optioned and retitled "Passion" for exhibition in America. The film was such a success that by 1922 she and Lubitsch were both given contracts to work in Hollywood. While her first few films showed some success, they were overshadowed by her reported romances with such stars as Charles Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino. Forbidden Paradise (1924), made with Lubitsch, and Hotel Imperial (1927) were two of her more successful films. However, three things conspired to end her career in Hollywood: (1) The perception that her mourning for Rudolph Valentino was insincere, though Negri did describe him as the love of her life; (2) The Hays Office codes that would not allow her to show the very traits that made her a sex-siren in Europe; (3) Her thick Polish accent would not play in the sound pictures that were coming into vogue.
Pola Negri returned to Europe and eventually made films for UFA, which was under Nazi management. In 1941 she returned to America penniless. She made Hi Diddle Diddle (1943) and became an American citizen in 1951. Her next and last movie was The Moon-Spinners (1964).
She died of pneumonia in San Antonio, TX, in 1987.Poland. USA.
1897 - 1987, (90).
79 credits, 1914-2012.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
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 "Gladiola Bain" in Gladiola (1915). She was in top demand as evidenced by securing another lead in The Innocence of Ruth (1916). She continued to turn in great performances, particularly as Katie O'Doone in Bred in Old Kentucky (1926). Viola's final silver screen role was in 1929's One Splendid Hour (1929). The last the general public saw her was in a documentary about 'Buster Keaton' called Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow (1987).
Viola died on July 3, 1987, at age 90.USA
1897 - 1987. (90).
110 credits, 1910-1963.
12 self credits, 1920-1987.- Margaret Irving was born on 18 January 1898 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for Animal Crackers (1930), San Francisco (1936) and The People's Choice (1955). She was married to William Frederick James. She died on 5 March 1988 in Westminster, California, USA.1898 - 1988, 90.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
The daughter of a retired sea captain and his much-younger wife, actress Norma Varden was born and raised in turn-of-the-century London. A piano prodigy, she studied in Paris and appeared in concert in England during her teenage years. Acting, however, became her career of choice, studying at the Guildhall School of Music. She took her very first stage bow in a production of Peter Pan. In the adult role of Mrs. Darling, she was actually younger than the actors playing her children. In years to come, Norma would play a number of mature, lady-like roles that were much older than she was.
She performed Shakespeare in repertory and was at first cast in dramatic plays such as The Wandering Jew (1920-her West End debut) and Hamlet (1925) as the Player Queen. In various acting companies, she eventually found a flair for comedy and became the resident character comedienne for the famous Aldwych Theatre farce-ers from 1929 to 1933 à la Marx Bros. foil Margaret Dumont. Finding success there in the comedies A Night Like This and Turkey Time, she later recreated both roles on British film a couple of years later. She went on to prove herself a minor but avid scene-stealer in such movies as Evergreen (1934), The Iron Duke (1934), Stormy Weather (1935) and East Meets West (1936), quickly finding an amusing niche as a haughty society maven. She played both benevolent and supercilious with equal ease -- her height (5'7-1/2"), elongated oval face, vacant manner, plummy voice and slightly drowsy eyes adding immensely to the look and amusement of her characters.
In the early 1940s, the veteran actress visited California, accompanied by her ailing, widowed mother, for a take on the warmer climate and decided to permanently settle. Again, she found herself in demand as a now silvery-haired duchess, queen or Lady something, albeit in less meaty, sometimes even unbilled parts. Although she could dress down when called upon as a bar maid, nurse and landlady, she usually was asked to provide the requisite atmosphere for glossy, opulent settings. Her more noticeable roles came as lecherous Robert Benchley's wealthy, put-upon wife in The Major and the Minor (1942); the vile Lady Abbott in Forever Amber (1947); the giddy socialite nearly strangled by Robert Walker in Hitchcock's classic Strangers on a Train (1951); the impressively bejeweled wife of Charles Coburn, whom Marilyn Monroe fawns over in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953); and the Von Trapp housekeeper Frau Schmidt in The Sound of Music (1965).
Norma became a steadfast radio and TV comedy foil during the 40s, 50s and 60s, often at the mercy of a Lucille Ball or Jack Benny. Her longest radio part was as Basil Rathbone's housekeeper on his Sherlock Holmes radio series. On TV, she appeared in such shows as Mister Ed (1961), The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), Bewitched (1964) and Batman (1966) She had recurring roles as Betty Hutton's aunt on The Betty Hutton Show (1959) and as Shirley Booth's neighbor on Hazel (1961). Never married, Norma's mother passed away in 1969, and the actress retired shortly after. She died of heart failure in 1989, a day before her 91st birthday.1898 - 1989, 90. London. California.- Madge was born as Margaret Philpott in Texas. She got her start in theater working with a stock company in Denver. Put under a personal contract by a Broadway producer, Madge got her big break when she replaced Helen Hayes in the Broadway play "Dear Brutus". Her success as a stage actress led to her being signed by Fox Pictures. After appearing in a number of movies in the early 20's, Madge was best remembered for her performances in 'Lorna Doone (1922)' and 'The Iron Horse (1924)'. A strong will contrasted the screen image of innocence and led to disagreements over roles by the late 20's. Madge had been cast in a number of movies each year and was in Fox's first dialogue feature 'Mother Knows Best (1928)'. But her refusal to work in the film 'The Trial of Mary Dugan', which was bought expressly for her, led to her contract with Fox being terminated. It would be 3 years until she returned to the screen in the cult favorite 'White Zombie (1932)' with Bela Lugosi, but her career was not going anywhere as Madge was just one of those old silent stars. For the next few years, she appeared in a small number of low budget films and by 1936 her film career was over. In 1943, she would again appear in the headlines when she shot her lover, millionaire A. Stanford Murphy after he jilted her to marry another woman. She did marry two other men, Carlos Bellamy, whose last name she kept, and then to Logan F. Metcalf. Both marriages ended in divorce. She has no children.1899 - 1990, 90