Actresses

Isabelle Fuhrman (born February 25, 1997) is an American teen actress. Fuhrman is best known for playing Esther in Orphan. Life and careerIsabelle Fuhrman was born in Washington, D.C.. and raised in Atlanta. Her Soviet-born mother, Elina Fuhrman, is a journalist, and her father, Nick Fuhrman, was at one time the chairman of the Republican Party in Dane County, Wisconsin.[1] She has an older sister, Madeline Fuhrman. Fuhrman's acting career began at the age of seven, when a casting director from Cartoon Network spotted her waiting for her sister and cast her for one of the shows, “Cartoon Fridays.” Fuhrman made her big screen debut just a few years later in the 2007 drama …

December 4, 1921 Early life Born Edna Mae Durbin at Grace Hospital in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, she was given the professional name Deanna at the beginning of her association with Universal Studios in 1936, when she was still 14 years old. Her parents, James and Ada Durbin, were immigrants from Lancashire, England who would become U.S. citizens after moving their family from Winnipeg to Southern California in 1923. Durbin had an older sister named Edith, who recognized Deanna's musical talents at an early age and helped Deanna to take singing lessons at Ralph Thomas Academy. This led to her discovery by MGM in 1935. In late 1936, Cesar Sturani, who was the…

Carmel Myers (April 4, 1899 – November 9, 1980) was an American actress who worked chiefly in silent movies. Myers was born in San Francisco, the daughter of an Australian rabbi and Austrian Jewish mother. Her father became well-connected with California's emerging film industry, and introduced her to film pioneer D. W. Griffith, who gave Carmel a small part in Intolerance (1916). Myers also got her brother Zion Myers into Hollywood as a writer/director. From this beginning, Myers left for New York, where she acted mainly on stage for the next two years. She was signed by Universal, where she emerged as a popular actress in vamp roles. Her most popular film from this pe…

Frances Marion Dee (November 26, 1909 – March 6, 2004) was an American actress. She starred opposite Maurice Chevalier in the early talkie musical, The Playboy of Paris (1930). She starred in the film An American Tragedy (1931) in a role later recreated by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1951 retitled remake, A Place in the Sun. Early life Dee was born Frances (some sources indicate Jean) Marion Dee in Los Angeles, California, where her Army officer father was stationed. She grew up in Chicago, Illinois, where she attended Shakespeare Grammar School and Hyde Park High School, where she went by the nickname of Frankie Dee. After graduating from Hyde Park High in 1927, of which…

Nancy Carroll (November 19, 1903 – August 6, 1965) was an American actress. Career She was christened Ann Veronica Lahiff in New York City. Of Irish parentage, she and her sister once gave a dancing act in a local contest of amateur talent. This led her to a stage career and then to the screen. She began her acting career in Broadway musicals. She became a successful talkies actress because her musical background enabled her to play in the movie musicals of the 1930s. Her film debut was in Ladies Must Dress in 1927. In 1928 she made eight films. One of them, Easy Come, Easy Go, co-starring Richard Dix, made her a star. In 1930 she was nominated for the Academy Award f…

Claire Windsor (April 14, 1892 – October 24, 1972) was a notable American film actress of the silent screen era. Early life Windsor was born Clara Viola Cronk (nicknamed "Ola") in 1892 to George Edwin and Rosella R. Fearing Cronk in Marvin, Phillips County, Kansas of Scandinavian heritage. Her parents later moved to Cawker City, Kansas when she was a small child. She attended Washburn College in Topeka, Kansas from 1906 to 1907. An early marriage to a man named David Willis Bowes, took place on May 13, 1914 in Denver, Colorado, resulted in the birth of a son, David William Bowes, born on September 9, 1916, and the couple soon went their separate ways. Bowes officially f…

Constance Talmadge (April 19, 1897 - November 23, 1973) was a silent movie star born in Brooklyn, New York, USA, and was the sister of fellow actresses Norma Talmadge and Natalie Talmadge. Early life Talmadge was born into a poor family. Her father, Fred, was an alcoholic, and left them when she was still very young. Her mother, Peg, made a living by doing laundry. When a friend recommended that Peg use Norma as a model for title slides in flickers, which were shown in early nickelodeons, Peg decided to try it. This led all three sisters into an acting career. Career She began making films in 1914, in a Vitagraph comedy short, In Bridal Attire (1914). Her first major …

Clara Kimball Young (September 6, 1890 - October 15, 1960) was an American film actress, who was highly regarded and publicly popular of the early silent film era. Early life Clarisa Kimball was born in Chicago; her parents Edward M. Kimball and Pauline Maddern were travelling stock actors. She made her stage debut at the age of three, and throughout her early childhood travelled with her parents and acted with their theater company. She attended St. Francis Xavier's Academy in Chicago and then was afterwards hired into a stock company and resumed her stage career, travelling extensively through the United States and playing various small town theaters. Early in her c…

Colleen Moore (August 19, 1899 – January 25, 1988) was an American film actress, and one of the most fashionable stars of the silent film era. Early life Born Kathleen Morrison on August 19, 1899 (some sources state 1902) in Port Huron, Michigan, Miss Moore was the eldest child of Charles R. and Agnes Morrison. The family remained in Port Huron during the early years of Moore's life, at first living with her grandmother Mary Kelly (often spelled Kelley) and then with at least one of Moore's aunts. By 1905 the family had moved to Hillsdale, Michigan where they remained for over two years. They had relocated to Atlanta, Georgia by 1908. They are listed at three differen…

Camilla Horn (25 April 1903, Frankfurt am Main - 14 August 1996) was a former German dancer and a film star of the silent and sound era. She starred in several Hollywood films of the late 1920s and in a few British and Italian productions. Biography The daughter of a civil servant, Horn was educated as a dressmaker and worked at Erfurt. In 1925, together with Marlene Dietrich, she worked as an extra in the German film Madame Doesn't Want Any Children, and later she was seen in a musical review by director Alexander Korda. She made her great breakthrough in 1926, when she replaced the popular American actress Lillian Gish, for the part of Gretchen in F. W. Murnau's lavi…

Amira Casar (born on July 1, 1971 in London) is a French actress of Irish origin, who has appeared in 40 films between 1989 and 2009. Daughter of a Kurdish father and a Russian opera singer, Casar grew up in Ireland and after she was discovered by photographer Helmut Newton, moved to France at the age of sixteen. She worked as a model for Chanel and Jean-Paul Gaultier, studying drama at Conservatoire national d'art dramatique in Paris. In 1997, she was nominated for a César in the category of "Espoir Féminin" for her role as "Sandra" in film La Vérité si je mens. Her theatre debut occurred in 1999 in Aunt Dan and Lemon with Miranda Richardson and she subsequently playe…

Alessandra Martines (born 19 September 1963 in in Rome) is an Italian-French dancer and actress. Filmography * 1987 - Miss Arizona - Marta * 1988 - Saremo felici * 1988 - Cinema, che follia! - TV series * 1989 - Steps of Love - Elisa * 1989 - Sinbad of the Seven Seas - Alina * 1991 - Fantaghirò 1 - Fantaghirò * 1992 - Processo di famiglia - TV film * 1992 - Fantaghirò 2 - Fantaghirò * 1993 - Colpo di coda - Paola - TV film * 1993 - All That... for This?! - Allessandra Barrucq * 1993 - Fantaghirò 3 - Fantaghirò * 1994 - Fantaghirò 4 - Fantaghirò * 1995 - Les Misérables - Elise Ziman * 1996 - Men, Women:…

Dolores Costello (September 17, 1903 – March 1, 1979) was an American film actress who achieved her greatest success during the era of silent movies. She was nicknamed "The Goddess of the Silent Screen". She was the mother of John Drew Barrymore, and is grandmother of Drew Barrymore. Early years Costello was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the daughter of actors Maurice Costello and Mae Costello. She was of Irish descent through her father. Dolores and her younger sister Helene made their first film appearances in the years 1909 – 1915 as child actresses for the Vitagraph Film Company. They played supporting roles in several films starring their father, who was a popu…

Virginia Lee Corbin (December 5, 1910 - June 5, 1942) was an American silent film actress. Corbin began her career as a child actress in 1916, and went on to become a youthful flapper in the 1920s. Unfortunately she was one of the many silent stars that would not make it in the sound era, and was put to retirement in the early 1930s. She married Chicago stockbroker Theodore Krol in 1929 and they had two children, Phillip and Robert. They divorced in 1937 and shortly after she married another Chicago stockbroker, Charles Jacobson. She died suddenly at age 31 from tuberculosis.

Jewel Carmen (July 13, 1897 – March 4, 1984) was an American silent film actress. Early life and career Born Florence Lavina Quick in Danville, Kentucky, Carmen made her film debut in the 1912 film The Will of Destiny. She went on to appear in Daphne and the Pirate (1916), opposite Lillian Gish and D. W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916). Lawsuits against Fox In 1917, Carmen contracted with Fox Film Corporation, but finding the deal unsatisfactory opened a new contract with the Keeney Corporation in 1918 while her first contract remained in effect. Fox sent Keeney notice of their prior contract, warning that they would hold Keeney responsible for assisting her in breakin…

Corinne Griffith (November 21, 1894 – July 13, 1979) was an American actress. Dubbed "The Orchid Lady of the Screen",she was one of the most popular film actresses of the 1920s and widely considered the most beautiful actress of the silent screen. Shortly after the advent of sound film, Griffith retired from acting and became a successful author. Early life and career Corinne Griffith was born as Corinne Mae Griffin in Texarkana, Texas to John Lewis Griffin and Ambolina (Ambolyn) Ghio on November 21, 1894. Her parents were married on July 6, 1887 in Texarkana according to their wedding announcement listed in the Dallas Morning News. Her grandparents, Anthony and August…

Jeanne Elizabeth Crain (May 25, 1925 – December 14, 2003) was an American actress. Early life Crain was born in Barstow, California, to George A. Crain, a school teacher, and Loretta Carr; she was of Irish heritage on her mother's side, and of English and distant French descent on her father's. She moved to Los Angeles, California, as a young child. An excellent ice skater, Crain first attracted attention when she was crowned Miss Pan Pacific at the Pan-Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles. Later, while still in high school, she was asked to make a screen test opposite Orson Welles. She did not get the part, but in 1943, at age 18, she appeared in a bit part in the film T…

Carolyn Laurie "Carol" Kane (born June 18, 1952) is an American actress, known for her work on stage, screen and television. Early life Kane was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the daughter of Joy, a jazz singer, teacher, dancer, and pianist, and Michael Kane, an architect who worked for the World Bank. Her family is Jewish, her grandparents having emigrated from Russia. Her parents divorced when she was 12 years old. She attended the Cherry Lawn School, a progressive boarding school in Darien, Connecticut, until 1965. She attended the Professional Children's School, in New York City, and made her professional theatre debut in a 1966 production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodi…

Stockard Channing (born February 13, 1944) is an American stage, film and television actress. She is known for her portrayal of First Lady Abbey Bartlet in the NBC television series The West Wing; for playing Betty Rizzo in the film Grease; and for her role in both the stage and screen versions of Six Degrees of Separation. Early life Channing was born Susan Antonia Williams Stockard in New York City, the daughter of Mary Alice, who came from a large Brooklyn-based Irish Catholic family, and Lester Napier Stockard, who was in the shipping business and died in 1960. She grew up on the Upper East Side. She is an alumna of The Madeira School, a Virginia boarding school for…

Claudette Colbert (September 13, 1903 — July 30, 1996) was a French-born American stage and film actress. Born in Saint-Mandé, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures. She established a successful film career with Paramount Pictures and later, as a freelance performer, became one of the highest paid entertainers in American cinema. Colbert was recognized as one of the leading female exponents of screwball comedy; she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her comedic performance in It Happened One Night (1934), and also received Academy Award nominat…

Christine Lahti (born April 4, 1950) is an American actress and film director. Early life Lahti was born in Birmingham, Michigan, the daughter of Elizabeth Margaret, a painter, homemaker and nurse, and Paul Theodore Lahti, a surgeon. Lahti has Finnish ancestry. Her surname means "a gulf", "a bay" or "a cove" in Finnish and Lahti is also a city in Finland. Lahti studied fine arts at Florida State University and received her bachelor's degree in drama from the University of Michigan, where she joined Delta Gamma sorority. She then toured Europe as part of a pantomime acting troupe. Career After college, Lahti headed to New York City, where she worked as a waitress and …

Thelma "Butterfly" McQueen (January 8, 1911 - December 22, 1995) was an American actress. Originally a dancer, McQueen appeared as Prissy, Scarlett O'Hara's maid in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind Born Thelma McQueen January 7, 1911 Tampa, Florida, U.S. Died December 22, 1995 (aged 84) Augusta, Georgia, U.S. Occupation Actress Years active 1939-1989 Early life Born Thelma McQueen in Tampa, Florida, she had planned to become a nurse until a high school teacher suggested that she try acting. McQueen initially studied with Janet Collins and went on to dance with the Venezuela Jones Negro Youth Group. Around this time she acquired the nickname "Butterfly"—a trib…

Linda Denise Blair (born January 22, 1959[1]) is an American actress known for her role as the possessed child, Regan, in the 1973 film The Exorcist, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award and two Golden Globes, winning one. Biography Blair was raised in Westport, Connecticut. She began her career as a six year old child model and started acting with a regular role on the short-lived "Hidden Faces" in 1968. Her first film role was in 1971's The Sporting Club. Blair was selected from a field of 600 applicants for her most notable role as Regan in The Exorcist. The role earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and an Academy Award nomination. …

Sarah Bernhardt (born circa October 23, 1844 – March 26, 1923) was a French stage and early film actress, and has been referred to as "the most famous actress the world has ever known". Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of Europe in the 1870s, and was soon in demand in Europe and the Americas. She developed a reputation as a serious dramatic actress, earning the nickname "The Divine Sarah." Early life Bernhardt was born in Paris as Rosine Bernardt, the illegitimate daughter of Julie Bernardt (1821, Amsterdam – 1876, Paris) and an unknown father. Julie was one of six children of a widely traveling Jewish spectacle merchant, "vision specialist" and petty criminal, Mo…

Mary Brian (February 17, 1906 – December 30, 2002) was an American actress and movie star who made the transition from 'silents' to 'talkies' Early life She was born Louise Byrdie Dantzler in Corsicana, Texas, the daughter of Taurrence J. Dantzler (December 1869 – March 18, 1906) and Louise B. (August 12, 1876 – April 3, 1973). Her brother was Taurrence J. Dantzler, Jr. (August 9, 1903 – April 6, 1973). Her father died when she was one month old and the family later moved to Dallas. In the early 1920s, they moved to Long Beach, California. She had intended becoming an illustrator but that was laid aside when at age 16 she was discovered in a local bathing beauty contes…