Actresses

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…

Victoria Principal (born January 3, 1950) is an American actress, best known for her role as Pamela Barnes Ewing on the CBS nighttime drama Dallas from 1978 to 1987. Biography Early life Victoria Principal was born in Fukuoka, Japan, the eldest daughter of a United States Air Force sergeant. Her paternal grandparents were immigrants from Italy; her mother was born in Georgia and was of English descent. Since her father was a career sergeant in the Air Force, they moved often and she grew up in London, Puerto Rico, Florida, Massachusetts, and Georgia, among other places. She attended 17 different schools, including studying at the Royal Academy of Ballet while her fam…

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, …

Fernanda Arrias Machado (born 10 October 1980, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil) is a Brazilian film, television and stage actress. She is perhaps best known for her role as Maria in the film Tropa de Elite. Television * 2009 - Caras & Bocas .... Lais * 2008 Queridos Amigos - Lorena * 2007 Paraíso Tropical - Joana * 2005 Alma Gêmea - Dalila * 2004 Começar de Novo - Sonya Karamazov Film * 2007 Tropa de Elite - Maria * 2007 Inesquecível - Wife Theatre * 2006 O Beijo no Asfalto

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 …

(From Wikipédia) Jessica Phyllis Lange (born April 20, 1949) is an American stage and screen actress. With a career that has spanned thirty-five years and six Academy Award nominations (including two wins), she may be most notable for her performances in Frances, Tootsie, Sweet Dreams, Blue Sky, and Grey Gardens. Lange, the third of four children, was born in Cloquet, Minnesota, the daughter of Dorothy Florence (née Sahlman) and Albert John Lange, who was a teacher and salesman. Her maternal grandparents were of Finnish descent, while her paternal grandparents were German and Dutch.She studied art briefly at the University of Minnesota before going to Paris, France, whe…

Ann Marie Blyth (born August 16, 1928) is an American actress and singer, often cast in Hollywood musicals, but also successful in dramatic roles. Her performance as Veda Pierce in the 1945 film Mildred Pierce was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Life and career Blyth was born in Mount Kisco, New York, to parents who divorced shortly after her birth. She was raised a devout Roman Catholic by her mother. Blyth began her acting career initially as "Anne Blyth," changing the spelling of her name back to the original (Ann) at the beginning of her film career. Her first acting role was on Broadway in Watch on the Rhine (from 1941 until 1942). She w…

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…

Chelsea Kane Staub (born September 15, 1988[1]) is an American actress and singer. Her first starring role was in the 2007 film Bratz: The Movie. She is best known for playing Stella Malone on the Disney Channel sitcom Jonas and now entitled Jonas L.A.. She also appeared in the Disney Channel Original Movies, Minutemen and Starstruck. She will also co-star in Disney Channel animated series Fish Hooks coming this Fall.

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 …

Marisa Allasio (born Maria Luisa Lucia Allasio in Turin on 14 July 1936), is a retired Italian actress of the 1950s. She appeared in nearly twenty pictures between 1952 and 1959. She left her acting career in 1958, year of her marriage with Count Pier Francesco Calvi di Bergolo (b. 2 dec 1933, Turin), son of Princess Iolanda di Savoia, first-born of Vittorio Emanuele III and Elena del Montenegro. They had two children: - Carlo Giorgio Dmitri Drago Maria Laetitia, dei Conti Calvi di Bergolo (b. 1959, Rome) - Anda Federica Angelica Maria, dei Conti Calvi di Bergolo (b. 1962, Rome)

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), …