Silent Film Actresses

Originally published at 6 Things To Consider

Nearly 100 years ago Theda Bara was one of the biggest Silent Screen Stars, now other than those who are fans of Silent Movies she is almost completely unknown. She made more than 40 feature films between 1914 and 1926 however most of these films are considered 'Lost films' since complete prints of only six of her films still exist.

William Fox kept his Movie Studio on the East Coast in New York City, instead of moving like many others to Los Angeles. A Fool There Was featured Bara in the role of woman who used charms to seduce and corrupt a moral Wall Street lawyer. The film was based on Rudyard Kipling's poem The Vampire. Her screen credit was listed as the Vampire, although not a blood sucking one. From this came the word Vamp. The success of this film allowed Fox to create Fox Film Corporation.

She became a star as much through publicity as for her starring roles. Fox's team had her develop a mysterious accent, for personal appearances since her film were silent, and dressed her in makeup, veils, copious jewelry and furs as the Vamp. In many ways she was the first Goth girl.

Her movies were just as mysterious and sexy as her off screen persona. Her costumes were scant and showed a great deal of skin in a time when women were always fully covered. She was the screen's first sex symbol. Many consider her finest role being Cleopatra in 1917. The film was one of her biggest hits.

In 1919 her five year contact with Fox ended and was not renewed. Nearly all of her films were made during this five year period. After leaving Fox she would do The Unchastened Woman in 1956 and Madame Mystery in 1926, her last film. She married film director Charles Brabin in 1921.

She was born Theodosia Burr Goodman on July 29, 1885 and died on April 7, 1955 of abdominal cancer at the age of 69.

One of the many silent film stars who appeared in films made by Mack Sennett and Keystone Pictures was Louise Fazenda. Fazenda was born in Lafayette Indiana on June 17, 1895 to a merchant broker named Joseph Fazenda. He moved his family to Los Angeles when she was a young girl.

Louise Fazenda got her start in Moving Pictures comedy shorts as early as 1913. She appeared in Keystone comedies throughout the later part of the 1910's leaving Keystone in 1920.

One of her best known character was her country bumpkin with her hair done in spit curls and multiple pigtails while wearing calico dresses.

She not only appeared in comedies but also branched out into dramas, playing roles in Kitchen Lady made in 1918 and in 1938 Down on the Farm.

She appeared in quite a few films during the 1920's and still worked in the movies once sound pictures replaced the silents. She retired after doing the 1939 film The Old Maid.

In 1927 she married Hollywood Producer Hal B Wallis and the marriage survived until her death on April 17, 1962.

When Lillian Gish died on February 27, 1993, at the age of 99, the world lost a great actress. She was born in Springfield, Ohio on October 14, 1883 with the birth name of Lillian Diana de Guiche.

Miss Gish's career started on the stage when she was just six years old. She had a very successful stage career before she found herself making films. She would have a second stage career beginning in the late 1920's where she was well received by critics and the public.

In 1912 she met D.W. Griffith. Her first film was the Griffith directed The Unseen Enemy. She played the older of two orphaned sisters. The younger sister was played by her real life sister, Dorothy Gish. In 1912 alone she would appear in 12 films for Griffith. By 1915 she had become one of the top stars in the industry and was the star for two of Griffith's most ambitious projects, The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance.

Miss Gish, from the beginning of 'sound' movies until her last film appearance in The Whales of August released in 1987, would appear in many films. Her appearances were always of quality but would be irregular, with long gaps between appearances.

She would receive only one Academy Awards nomination. Her major work was prior to their first ceremony. That nomination came in 1946 for Actress in a Supporting Role in Duel in the Sun. She lost to Anne Baxter in The Razor's Edge. She would receive a Honorary Award in 1970.

On June 11, 1976, Bowling Green University dedicated The Gish Film Theater and Gallery. Lillian Gish accepted the honor in person for herself and her sister. Bowling Green University is in Ohio near where the two sisters were born. Lillian Gish received on the next day the honorary degree of Doctor of Performing Arts. Upon her death items from her estate were set to the University, where they are on display.

Originally posted on 6ThingsToConsider.com

Mabel Normand was born on November 9, 1892, in New Brighton, Staten Island, New York. Her parents were Mary Drury Normand and Claude G. Normand. There are accounts that give her birth as November 10, with the year given usually being 1894 or 1895. Of their children, only four survived childbirth: Ralph, Claude, Jr., Gladys, and Mabel; and of these, Ralph died in his teens of tuberculosis.

She worked as a bit player at D.W. Griffith's American Mutoscope and Biograph film company in New York. In the winter of 1911-1912, Griffith took the main Biograph company, including Mabel, to California. Having met Mack Sennett in New York, when he relocated to California and started Keystone Film Company, she joined him.

Normand is regarded as "The Queen of Comedy" and the "Female Chaplin". She was an actress and comedienne unique to movie history because of the role she played in the earliest development of American film comedy. It is said that she was the first to throw a cream pie into the face of Fatty Arbuckle on film creating a classic comedy routine. She worked in a series of films called the "Fatty and Mabel" comedies.

In 1916 she left Keystone to form her own company; Mabel Normand Feature Film Company. The company was short lived and only produced one film, Mickey, which sat undistributed for a year. She signed in 1918 with Goldwyn Films.

1921-1923 would be disaster years for Normand. In 1921 her good friend Fatty Arbuckle was tried for rape and murder. Then on February 1, 1922 shortly after leaving the home of director William Desmond Taylor, he was murdered. Mabel was the last, other than the murderer, to see him alive and was closely scrutinized by police and the media. In 1923 she was involved in another scandal when her chauffeur Joe Kelly shot and wounded Courtland Dines, one of her many friends.

Towards the end of the 1920's Normand's health declined. After an extended stay in a sanitarium she died from tuberculosis in Monrovia, California at age 38 on February 23, 1930.

My Mabel Normand Lens

The life of Virgina Rappe is almost clouded in as much mystery as her death. Rappe, who was born on July 7, 1895, was discovered sick in Silent Comedy star Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle's vacation bedroom in San Francisco on September 5, 1921. four days later she died of an inflammation of the lining of the pelvis.

Mostly due to false newspaper reports claiming that Arbuckle had raped the young actress during the wind weekend party either with his weight or the act of rape with a foreign object causing the rupture of her bladder, Arbuckle was arrested of raping and murdering Rappe.

Virginia Rappe (pronounce Rap-pey) life was tragic from the beginning. She was born out of wedlock and her mother Mabel moved from Chicago to New York to hide her shame. Mabel died when Virginia was 11 and went back to Chicago to be raised by her Grandmother.

She suffered what was probably a lonely and difficult childhood and if she didn't use her body to her advantage she was used by men. By the age of 17 she possibly had a number of abortions as well as giving birth to a child that she gave up.

By 1917 she was in California getting work in motion pictures and dating director Henry "Pathé" Lehrman. Many of these roles were small, in a time when only major roles got a screen credit, so it's hard to say how many films in which she appeared.

Shortly before leaving LA for San Francisco she and Lehrman separated and there was a rumor that she was pregnant. Was an abortion part of the cause of death? No one may ever know although it is the most common theory. She was remembered as saying during the party that "I need money for an abortion".

Virginia Bradford (1900-1992) She enjoyed a brief Hollywood career in the mid 1920's. She played mostly supporting roles.


Norma Talmadge (1893-1957) She was one of the greatest stars of the silent era and a major box office draw. She was also involved in film productions with the Norma Talmadge Film Corporation. Her voice did not lend well to talking pictures and after a couple of disappointing films retired.


Pola Negri (1894-1987) She was a polish actress who made films portraying herself as a Vamp. Her career began in German films, but in the early 1920's moved to Hollywood. With the introduction of talking pictures her Vamp style fell out of vogue and Her accented voice did not appeal to the film goers of the time.


Theda Bara (1885-1955) She was another who portrayed the Vamp in her pictures. She was one of the most famous movie stars, ranking behind only Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford in popularity. After her marriage to film director Charles Brabin, her career slowed until she finally retired in 1926.


Louise Brooks (1906-1985) She appeared towards the end of the Silent era playing the lead female roles in a number of light comedies and flapper films. In the late 1920's she left Hollywood for Germany making films that were classified as "very adult" and considered shocking. When she returned to Hollywood she was effectively blacklisted.


Colleen Moore (1900-1988) She was one of the most fashionable of the Hollywood stars. Moore playing a vivacious flapper caused a sensation making her one of the most talked about actresses of her day. Her roles were mostly light comedy. Her roles in talking pictures were in films that weren't very successful and retired in 1934. She perhaps now is more known for a Doll House she worked on from 1928 until her death, presently at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago or her book on the stock market published in 1969.