Actresses

Ethel Clayton (November 8, 1882 – June 6, 1966) was an American actress of the silent film era. Career Clayton's screen debut came in 1909, in a short called Justified. She jockeyed her early film appearances with a burgeoning stage career. Her pretty blond looks were reminiscient of the famous Gibson Girl drawings by Charles Dana Gibson. On the stage she appeared mainly in musicals or musical reviews such as The Ziegfeld Follies of 1911. These musical appearances indicate a singing talent Clayton may have possessed but went unused in her many silent screen performances. In 1912 she appeared in "The Country Boy" on stage at the Lyceum Theatre in Rochester New York and m…

Dorothy Dalton (September 22, 1893 – April 13, 1972) was an American silent film actress and stage personality who worked her way from a stock company to a movie career. Beginning in 1910, Dalton was a player in stock companies in Chicago and Holyoke, Massachusetts. She joined the Keith-Albee-Orpheum Corporation vaudeville circuits. By 1914 she was in Hollywood. Career Born in Chicago, Illinois, Dalton made her movie debut in 1914 in Pierre of the Plains, co-starring Edgar Selwyn, followed by the lead role in Across the Pacific that same year. In 1915, she appeared with William S. Hart in The Disciple. This production came before she left Triangle Film Corporation and w…

Virginia Cherrill (April 12, 1908 - November 14, 1996) was an American actress best known for her role as the blind flower girl in Charlie Chaplin's City Lights (1931). Due to marrying an English earl in the 1940s, she is also known as Virginia Child-Villiers, Countess of Jersey. Virginia Cherrill was born on a farm in rural Carthage, Illinois, to James E. and Blanche Cherrill. She was a Chicago society girl with no thoughts of a film career when she went to Hollywood for a visit and met Charlie Chaplin when he sat next to her at a boxing match. He had failed to find the girl he wanted for his film but decided she would do and cast her in City Lights in which she gave th…

Thelma Alice Todd (July 29, 1906 – December 16, 1935) was an American actress. Appearing in about 120 pictures between 1926 and 1935, she is best remembered for her comedic roles in films like Marx Brothers' Monkey Business and Horse Feathers, a number of Charley Chase's short comedies, and co-starring with Buster Keaton and Jimmy Durante in Speak Easily. She also had roles in several Laurel and Hardy films, the last of which (The Bohemian Girl) featured her in a part that was truncated by her death. Early life Todd was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts to Jim and Bertha Todd, and was a bright student who achieved good academic results. She intended to become a school tea…

Miriam Cooper (November 7, 1891 – April 12, 1976) was a silent film actress who is best known for her work in early film including Birth of a Nation and Intolerance for D.W. Griffith and The Honor System and Evangeline for her husband Raoul Walsh. She retired from acting in 1923 but was rediscovered by the film community in the 1960s, and toured colleges lecturing about silent films. Early life Miriam Cooper was born to Julian Cooper and Margaret Stewart in Baltimore, Maryland on November 7, 1891. Her mother was from a devout Catholic family with a long history in Baltimore. Her paternal grandfather had helped discover Navassa Island and made his wealth from selling gua…

Ruth Chatterton (December 24, 1892 – November 24, 1961) was an American actress and novelist. She also flew planes and knew Amelia Earhart. Early life Born in New York City on Christmas Eve 1892, of English and French extraction to Walter Smith and Lillian Reed Chatterton. She was a descendant of the English poet Thomas Chatterton. She was on Broadway by the age of 14, as a dancer. Career After leaving a private school at the age of 14, Ruth started off as a chorus girl in a stage play and was a star on the American stage by age eighteen. Her first film was Sins of the Fathers in 1928, and almost all of her films were pre-Code. She was nominated for the Academy Awar…

June Caprice (November 19, 1895 – November 9, 1936) was an American silent film actress. Early life and career Born Helen Elizabeth Lawson in Arlington, Massachusetts, she began her acting career in live theatre and in 1916 signed with the Fox Film Corporation. In 1916 William Fox searched to find a "second Mary Pickford." By the summer of that year he believed he had located the woman he predicted would be the best known female on the screen within six months time. She made her debut on July 9 at the Academy of Music (Manhattan) on 14th Street (Manhattan), in Caprice of the Mountains. A New York Times film critic said of her, "she is young, pretty, graceful, petite, …

Agnes Ayres (April 4, 1898 – December 25, 1940) was an American actress who rose to fame during the silent film era. Early life and career Born as Agnes Eyre Henkel in Carbondale, Illinois, she began her career in 1914 when she was noticed by an Essanay Studios staff director and cast as an extra in a crowd scene. After moving to New York City with her mother to pursue a career in acting, Ayres was spotted by actress Alice Joyce. Joyce noticed the physical resemblance the two shared which eventually led to Ayres being cast in Richard the Brazen (1917), as Joyce's character's sister. Ayres' career began to gain momentum when Paramount Pictures founder Jesse Laksy began …

Nejla Ates was a Turkish belly dancer and actress born on march 7, 1932 in Romania as Necla Batirin. Notably, she appeared the film Son of Sinbad and Fanny, her first Broadway musical in 1954. She also performed at many clubs. In January of 1963, she married producer Francis Elwood Semone. They divorced in March 1964. She also married writer Ozer Bayscurlins until her death. She tried to commit suicide twice by overdosing on pills. She died in Istanbul, Turkey in April of 2005 There is a statue of her in Central Park.

Gwili Andre (4 February 1908 – 5 February 1959) was a Danish actress who had a brief career in Hollywood films. Film career Born Gurli Andresen in Copenhagen, Denmark, Andre came to Hollywood in the early 1930s with the intention of establishing herself as a film star. She appeared in the 1932 RKO Studio films Roar of the Dragon and Secrets of the French Police and began to attract attention for her striking good looks. These films provided her with starring roles playing against such established actors as Richard Dix, ZaSu Pitts and Frank Morgan, and RKO began using her glamorous looks to promote her. A widespread publicity campaign ensured that her name and face beca…

Ruth "Dusty" Anderson (December 17, 1918 in Toledo, Ohio) is an American actress and World War II pin-up girl. She began her career as a model and made her motion picture debut in a minor role as one of the cover girls in the 1944 Columbia Pictures production of Cover Girl starring Rita Hayworth. Over the next three years Anderson appeared in another eight films, usually in secondary roles. During World War II she was one of a number of actresses who became a pin-up girl, appearing in the October 27, 1944 issue of the United States Military's YANK magazine. Dusty Anderson married director Jean Negulesco in 1946 and retired from acting. Four years later, her final scree…

Merry Anders (born Mary Helen Anderson; 22 May 1932) is an American supporting actress who has appeared in a number of television programs and films since the 1950s. In 1954, she succeeded Ann Todd as Stuart Erwin's daughter in the final season of his TV series, The Stu Erwin Show. From 1957-1959, Anders co-starred with Barbara Eden and Lori Nelson in How to Marry a Millionaire in a syndicated 20th Century Fox television series based on the 1953 film How to Marry a Millionaire. The three played young women living in New York City trying to land a wealthy husband. Anders left show business in 1972 to work for a division of Litton Industries, where she stayed until her ret…

Adrienne Ames (August 3, 1907 – May 31, 1947) was an American film actress. Life and career Born Adrienne Ruth McClure in Fort Worth, Texas, Ames began her film career in 1927 as a stand-in for Pola Negri. Ames was soon cast in small film roles in silent films. With the advent of talking pictures, Ames' popularity grew and she was usually cast as society women, or in musicals. She made thirty films during the 1930s with her biggest success in George White's Scandals (1934), a film which was also notable as the debut of Alice Faye. Ames also appeared with the three leading men from the 1931 version of Dracula (Bela Lugosi, David Manners, and Edward Van Sloan) in The Dea…

Chelo Alonso (born April 10, 1933) is a former Cuban actress who became a star in Italian cinema, and ultimately a 1960s cult film heroine and sex symbol in the U.S. She was well-known for playing femme fatales with fiery tempers and sensual dance scenes. Biography Alonso was born Isabella Garcia in Central Lugareño, Camagüey, Cuba, to a Cuban father and Mexican mother. She initially achieved recognition in Cuba for her dancing ability, becoming a sensation at Cuba's National Theatre in Havana. Soon after, she emerged as a new exotic dancing talent at the Folies Bergère in Paris. She was billed as the "new Josephine Baker", who had also performed and become famous at …

Lola Jean Albright (born July 20, 1924, Akron, Ohio) is an American singer and actress. Albright worked as a model before moving to Hollywood. She began her motion picture with a bit part in the 1948 film The Pirate, and followed it with important role in the acclaimed 1949 hit Champion. For the next ten years, she appeared in secondary roles in over twenty films, including several 'B' Westerns. Albright also acted in guest roles on several television series. In 1958, she gained the part of Edie Hart in the trend-setting Peter Gunn, a television detective series produced by Blake Edwards and directed by Robert Altman, with the theme music that made Henry Mancini famous.…

Anna Maria Alberghetti (born 15 May 1936) is an Italian-born operatic singer and actress. Born in Pesaro (Marche) she starred on Broadway and won a Tony Award in 1962 as Best Actress (Musical) for Carnival![1] (she tied with Diahann Carroll for the musical No Strings). Alberghetti was a child prodigy. Her father was an opera singer and concert master of the Rome Opera Company. Her mother was a pianist. At age 6, Anna Maria sang in a concert on the Isle of Rhodes with a 100-piece orchestra. She performed at Carnegie Hall in New York at the age of 13. She also entered into film as a teenager. Her cinema appearances include The Medium (1951), Here Comes the Groom (1951), …

Dawn Addams (21 September 1930 – 7 May 1985) was a British actress in motion pictures of the 1950s. She was born Victoria Dawn Addams in Felixstowe, Suffolk, England, the daughter of Ethel Mary and Captain James Ramage Addams. Her mother died when she was young, and she spent her early life in Calcutta, India. Her heart shaped face and beautiful physique soon attracted the attention of talent agents. She resembled another British actress Elizabeth Taylor but only slightly. Addams unlike Taylor retained her British accent. Her film career began in 1951, and a year later she co-starred with Peter Lawford in The Hour of 13. In 1953 she appeared in a small role in the groun…

Julie Adams (born Betty May Adams; October 17, 1926) is an American film and television actress, sometimes credited as Julia Adams or Betty Adams. Life and career A part-time secretary and actress raised in Arkansas, she began her film career in B-movie westerns. She used her real name, Betty Adams, until 1949 when she began working for Universal Pictures. She then became Julia and eventually Julie Adams. Her first movie role was a minor part in Red, Hot and Blue (1949), followed by a leading role in the Lippert western The Dalton Gang (1949). Adams was featured as the bathing beauty Kay Lawrence in 1954's Creature from the Black Lagoon. Later in her career, she playe…

Aileen Pringle (July 23, 1895 – December 16, 1989) was an American stage and film actress during the silent film era. Biography Early life Born Aileen Bisbee into a prominent and wealthy San Francisco, California family and educated in Europe, Pringle began her acting career shortly after her 1916 marriage to Charles McKenzie Pringle, the son of a wealthy titled British Jamaican landowner and a member of the Privy and Legislative Councils of Jamaica. Career rise One of Pringle's first high-profile roles was in the Rudolph Valentino film Stolen Moments (1920). Many of Pringle's early roles were only modestly successful, and she continued to build her career until the…

Audrey Dalton (born 21 January 1934 in Dublin, Irish Free State) is an Irish television and film actress. Dublin-born Audrey Dalton knew right from childhood that she wanted to be an actress: She appeared in school plays and (after the family's move to London) attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. While Dalton was at RADA, a London-based Paramount executive saw her in a play and asked her to audition for the upcoming film The Girls of Pleasure Island (1953). Winning the part (and a Paramount contract), Dalton arrived in the U.S. in 1952 and co-starred in Pleasure Island; the studio loaned her out to 20th Century Fox for My Cousin Rachel (1952) and Titanic (1953).…

Amanda Setton (born December 16, 1985) is an American television and film actress. She is best known for her role as Penelope Shafai in "Gossip Girl" and for her role as Kimberly Andrews on "One Life to Live". Setton grew up in Great Neck, New York where she was president of her high school’s theater club. She is close to her family and is very funny. Setton was born in New York and graduated from Ithaca College. In her junior year she studied abroad in Barcelona Spain in an IES program. Amanda completed a comprehensive 2 year Meisner Technique program at The Actors Workshop of Ithaca under the instruction of Eliza VanCort. Setton played Penelope Shafai in the teen drama …

Anne Gwynne (December 10, 1918 – March 31, 2003) was an American film actress of the 1940s. Known as one of the first scream queens because of her numerous appearances in horror films, the actress-model was also one of the most popular pin-ups of World War II. Career In 1939 she became a model for Catalina swimwear. Gwynne was a television pioneer, appearing in TV's first filmed series, Public Prosecutor (1947-48), 26 mysteries each 17½ minutes in running time. When aired, the DuMont Television Network stopped the film before the climax and a live three-member panel would try to guess the identity of the culprit. Other TV stations could buy rights to air this series but…

Aliza Gur (born as Alizia Gross, 1 April 1944, Ramat Gan) was Miss Israel of 1960 and a semi-finalist in the Miss Universe pageant that same year. Her parents had fled Germany during Hitler's reign and settled in the British Mandate of Palestine, where she and her brother were born. Personal life Gur eventually went to the United States and settled in California where she began her film and television career. Her parents emigrated to the United States as well and settled in Cleveland, Ohio for a time. They died in the 1970s. Aliza Gur has been married twice, to Sy Shulman and to Sheldon Shrager, but has no children. Gur currently resides in Hollywood. Career Her telev…

Born Angela Catherine Williams on the 24th of February 1922 in Dublin, Ireland, the daughter of Margaret and Joseph Williams, the only girl among six brothers In 1928 she moved to the States at age 6 after being adopted by her uncle, Eddie Greene, Margaret's brother, a Flushing fireman, and his wife Catherine In 1941 she is on the Saturday Evening Post cover by Norman Rockwell A bikini-clad painting of her adorns the nose of Skipper 2, a U.S. bomber with 25 missions and four camels destroyed under her belt She dated naval lieutenant John F. Kennedy. On their first date he takes her to Gary Cooper's house. Nevertheless, she will vote Republican. On December 7, 1946 s…

Anne Lloyd Francis (born September 16, 1930) is an American actress, famous for her role in the science fiction film classic Forbidden Planet (1956), and as the female private detective in the television series Honey West (1965-1966). She won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Emmy award for her role in Honey West. Francis holds the distinction of starring in the first TV series with a woman detective character's name in the title. Early life and career Anne Lloyd Francis was born in Ossining, New York in 1930, the only child of Phillip and Edith Francis. Francis entered show business at a young age, working as a model at age five to help her family during the Grea…