Actresses

Louise Dresser (October 5, 1878 – April 24, 1965) was an American actress. Born Louise Josephine Kerlin in Evansville, Indiana, her first film was The Glory of Clementina (1922), and her first starring role was in The City that Never Sleeps (1924). She took her professional last name as a tribute to her good friend, songwriter Paul Dresser. Dresser, the elder brother of novelist Theodore Dreiser, was a popular songwriter of the turn of the 20th century. During the first presentations of the Academy Awards in 1929 she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for A Ship Comes In. She portrayed Empress Elizabeth in Paramount Pictures's The Scarlet Empress (193…

Virginia Brown Faire (June 26, 1904 – June 30, 1980) was an American silent-film actress, appearing in mainly dramatic films and westerns. Born as Virginia Labuna in Brooklyn, New York, she was brought to Hollywood in 1919 after being the winner of the Motion Picture Classic magazine's "Fame and Fortune" contest. She was educated in the public, elementary and high schools of Brooklyn. It was not long after she turned 15 years old that she presented herself at the Metro studio where she was almost immediately put on. Shortly after she appeared in pictures for Fox, she was with Universal. Between 1920 and 1935, she appeared in some 75 films. Her first film credit was the…

Dorothy Devore (June 22, 1899 {though some sources say 1901} - September 10, 1976) was a leading and popular American silent-film actor and comedian in her time. Early life Born Alma Inez Williams in Fort Worth, Texas, Dorothy Devore's family soon moved to Los Angeles when she was still a young girl. It was in Los Angeles where Dorothy completed her education and then joined a musical comedy company, with which she appeared for one year. She then went to Lyons and Moran comedies at Universal Pictures. It was at Universal where she was "discovered" by director/producer Al Christie, one of the most famous comedic moviemakers of the era. Dorothy began playing in small par…

Kitty Gordon (22 April 1878 - 26 May 1974) was an actress both on stage and in silent film. Her first professional stage appearance was at the Princes Theatre in Bristol in 1901 in the touring production of San Toy. She married theatre manager Michael Levenston in 1903 but he died less than four months later. Kitty continued with her stage work appearing in the comic opera The Duchess of Dantzic in 1903 and the operetta Véronique in 1904. In October of that year she married Harry Beresford. They had one child, Vera, who became an actress. In 1909 she moved to New York with her husband where she became a regular on the New York stage. She made her first film appearanc…

Brenda is Brazilian actress and model. She became famous for her role of Rani in "Caminhos das Indias".

Hope Hampton (Mae Elizabeth Hampton) (19 February 1897 - 23 January 1982) was an American silent motion picture actress, who was noted for her seemingly effortless incarnation of siren and flapper types in silent-picture roles during the 1920s. Early life Texas-born, Philadelphia-bred beauty-contest winner Hampton, was discovered by U.S. silent cinema pioneer Jules Brulatour while working as an extra for director Maurice Tourneur. She made her screen debut in 1920's A Modern Salome, and went on to feature prominently in several Brulatour-financed films. In 1923, Hampton wed her manager Brulatour, and they remained married until his death in 1946. Later life After ret…

Camille Anderson Camille Constance Anderson (Born March 12, 1977 in Dallas, Texas) is an American actress and model. Filmography Wedding Crashers (2005) The John Henson Project (2004) Sketch Pad (2003) Las Vegas (2003) Intolerable Cruelty (2003) Regular Joe (2003) Pauly Shore Is Dead (2003) The Man Show (2002) Psychotic (2002) Dharma & Greg (2001) Rock Star (2001) Wild On... (2001) Diagnosis Murder (2001) Arrest & Trial (2000) Trivia Camille is an only child. She competed In The 2004 WWE Diva …

Carol Dempster (December 9, 1901 - February 1, 1991) was an American film actress of the silent film era. Biography Born in Duluth, Minnesota, Dempster got her start in films as a protégé of legendary film director D.W. Griffith alongside other Griffith actresses of the mid-1910s Lillian and Dorothy Gish and Mae Marsh. Griffith gave Dempster her first role at age 15 in his colossal 1916 all-star cast Intolerance playing one of the Babylonian harem girls alongside another teenaged newcomer, Mildred Harris. Dempster would eventually become one of Griffiths "favorites" and cast her in nearly every one of his films throughout the 1920s, allegedly to the jealous irritation o…

Pauline Garon (September 9, 1900 – August 30, 1965) was a Canadian-born American silent film, feature film and stage actress. Early life Born in Montreal, Quebec as Marie Pauline Garon, Garon was the daughter of Pierre and Victoria Garon. Pierre was of French descent and Victoria's heritage was Irish. Her father first worked for the Canadian postal department, then worked at an insurance agency, where he managed to gain enough money to send his youngest child (out of eleven children) to the Couvent Sacre-Coeur (Sacred Heart Convent) in Montreal, one of the most prestigious schools in the city. Garon attended this school for seven years. She was the first graduate of the…

Elaine Hammerstein (June 16, 1897 – August 13, 1948) was an American silent film and stage actress. Musical lineage Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she was the daughter of opera producer Arthur Hammerstein and the granddaughter of Oscar Hammerstein. Her father once remarked he was more interested in his daughter's career than in his own. Hammerstein was Arthur's daughter by his first marriage, to Jean Allison Hammerstein. When the couple divorced the mother did not ask for permananent custody of Elaine. Rather she requested that her daughter be allowed to choose for herself when she reached the age of maturity. Theater Hammerstein graduated from Bryn Mawr College…

Talia Shire (born April 25, 1946) is an American actress most known for her roles as Connie Corleone in The Godfather films and Adrian Balboa in Rocky series (I to V). Personal life Shire was born Talia Rose Coppola in Lake Success, New York, the daughter of Italia and arranger/composer Carmine Coppola. Talia is the sister of director and producer Francis Ford Coppola and academic August Coppola, the aunt of actor Nicolas Cage and director Sofia Coppola, and the niece of composer and conductor Anton Coppola. She was married to composer David Shire, with whom she had a son, Matthew Orlando Shire. She has two other sons, actors/musicians Jason Schwartzman and Robert Carmi…

June Collyer (August 19, 1906 – March 16, 1968) was an American film actress of the 1920s and 1930s. Early life and career Born Dorothea Heermance in New York City, Collyer chose to use her mother's maiden name when she decided to pursue acting. A society girl chosen by Allan Dwan, she had her first starring role in 1927 when she starred in East Side, West Side. She did a total of eleven films during the silent film era, and unlike many of that period she made a successful transition to sound movies. In 1928 she was one of thirteen girls selected as "WAMPAS Baby Stars", an honor her future sister-in-law Marian Shockley would also receive later on in 1932. In 1930 Coll…

Helene Costello (June 21, 1906 - January 26, 1957) was an American motion picture actress, most notably of the silent film era. Lou Costello took his professional name from the actress. Biography Born in New York City, New York, USA she was the daughter of the prominent stage and pioneering film actor Maurice Costello and his actress wife Mae Costello and the younger sister of actress Dolores Costello. Helene first appeared onscreen (opposite her father) in the 1909 film adaptation of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables. She would continue acting in films throughout the 1910s as a child actor and reach her peak of public popularity in the 1920s, although never quite rivalling…

Marguerite De La Motte (June 22, 1902 – March 10, 1950) was an American film actress, most notably of the silent film era. Career Born in Duluth, Minnesota, De La Motte began her entertainment career studying ballet under Anna Pavlova. In 1919 she became the dance star of Sid Grauman on the stage of his theater. In 1918, at the age of 16, she made her screen debut in the Douglas Fairbanks, Sr directed romantic comedy film Arizona. That same year she lost both of her parents in an automobile accident and film producer J.L. Frothingham assumed guardianship of her and her younger sister. De La Motte spent the 1920s appearing in numerous films, often cast by Douglas Fairba…

Amanda Tapping - Unknown Photoshoot

Rosalind Russell (June 4, 1907 – November 28, 1976) was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame. She won all 5 Golden Globes for which she was nominated, and was tied with Meryl Streep for wins until 2007 when Streep was awarded a sixth. Russell won a Tony Award in 1953 for Best Performance by an Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Ruth in the Broadway show Wonderful Town. Russell was known for playing character roles, exceptionally wealthy, dignified ladylike women. She had a wide car…

Constance Collier (22 January 1878 – 25 April 1955) was a British-born American film actress and acting coach. Life and career Born Laura Constance Hardie, in Windsor, Berkshire, Collier made her stage debut at the age of 3, when she played Fairy Peasblossom in A Midsummer's Night Dream. In 1893, at the age of 15, she joined the Gaiety Girls, the famous dance troupe based at the Gaiety Theatre in London. She was a very beautiful woman and soon became so tall that she towered over all the other dancers. In addition, she had an enormous personality and considerable determination. She naturally attracted considerable attention. On 27 December 1906, Beerbohm Tree's extravag…

Shannon Day was born on August 5, 1896 in New York City. Shannon appeared in her first motion picture in 1921 in FORBIDDEN FRUIT. Numerous films followed in both bit parts and some with a little more meat to them. She was never to establish herself among the big names of the time however. Shannon retired from films after she appeared in HOTEL VARIETY in 1933. On February 24, 1977, Shannon died in the city of her birth at the age of 80. She had been in a total of 29 motion pictures

Teresa Wright (October 27, 1918 – March 6, 2005) was an American actress. Early life She was born Muriel Teresa Wright in Harlem, New York City, the daughter of Martha and Arthur Wright, who was an insurance agent. She grew up in Maplewood, New Jersey. During her years at Columbia High School, she became seriously interested in acting and spent her summers working in Provincetown theater productions. Following her high school graduation in 1938, she returned to New York and was hired to understudy the role of Emily (played by Dorothy McGuire and later Martha Scott) in Thornton Wilder's Our Town. She took over the role when Martha Scott went to Hollywood to make the film…

Marjorie Daw (January 19, 1902 – March 18, 1979) was an American film actress of the silent era. She appeared in 68 films between 1914 and 1927. Biography Born Margaret House in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Daw began acting as a teen to support her and her younger brother after the death of their parents. Daw made her film debut in 1914 and worked steadily during the 1920s. She retired from acting after the advent of sound film. Daw was married twice; her first marriage was to director A. Edward Sutherland and produced no children. After divorcing Sutherland in 1925, she married Myron Selznick in 1929. The marriage ended in 1942. Daw died on March 18, 1979 in Huntington…

Helene Chadwick (November 25, 1897–September 4, 1940) was an American actress in silent motion pictures and in early sound films. Early life and career Chadwick was born in the small town of Chadwick, New York, which was named for her grandfather. Her mother was a singer who performed on the stage and her father was a business man. She began making films for Pathe Pictures in Manhattan, New York. A director was impressed by Chadwicks's talent as an equestrian, thus she began acting as a western star but this did not continue with the exodus of film production from the east to the west coast. Signed by Samuel Goldwyn, Chadwick went to California in 1913 and entered sil…

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…