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by rolphdd | created - 5 months ago | updated - 3 days ago | Public

1. Janet Gaynor

Actress | A Star Is Born

Janet Gaynor was born Laura Gainor on October 6, 1906, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a child, she & her parents moved to San Francisco, California, where she graduated from high school in 1923. She then moved to Los Angeles where she enrolled in a secretarial school. She got a job at a shoe ...

2. Agnes Ayres

Actress | The Sheik

Extremely popular silent star of the 1920s. Her popularity was enhanced when she co-starred with Rudolph Valentino in The Sheik (1921) and The Son of the Sheik (1926). She made her screen debut at Essanay Studios in 1915. While she was popular in the 1920s (thanks to the patronage of her lover, ...

3. Mary MacLaren

Actress | The Three Musketeers

Mary MacLaren was born on January 19, 1896 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for The Three Musketeers (1921), Creaking Stairs (1919) and Shoes (1916). She was married to Robert S. Coleman and Colonel George Herbert Young. She died on November 9, 1985 in Hollywood, ...

4. May McAvoy

Actress | The Jazz Singer

Silent-screen star May McAvoy was born in an upscale area of New York City. Her well-to-do family owned and operated a large livery stable situated where the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel now stands. She initially wanted to be a teacher but became intrigued with show business after watching a friend ...

5. Greta Nissen

Actress | The Unwritten Law

Greta Ruzt-Nissen was born in Oslo, Norway, on January 30, 1905. As a young girl she studied dance and had intended to make a career out of it. For a while she did, but when she was 19 she appeared in her first big-screen production, The Wanderer (1925). Afterwards she made several more films, but ...

6. Carmel Myers

Actress | Ben-Hur A Tale of the Christ

Though she is little remembered today, silent screen star Carmel Myers had a high-flying career in her heyday and was ranked among the screen's most glamorous and enticing vamps. She was born at the turn of the century in San Francisco, the daughter of immigrant parents. Her father, a rabbi, ...

7. Mary Jane Irving

Actress | The White Lie

Mary Jane Irving was born on October 20, 1913 in Columbia, South Carolina, USA. She was an actress, known for The White Lie (1918), Scotty of the Scouts (1926) and The Godless Girl (1928). She was married to Robert Carson. She died on July 17, 1983 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

8. Mary Boland

Actress | The Women

Lively, buxom character actress Mary Boland made a name for herself playing vacuous or pixilated motherly types during the 1930s. One of her most memorable performances was as the addle-brained Mrs. Rimplegar of Three Cornered Moon (1933), who gives away her family fortune to a swindler because he ...

9. Carol Dempster

Actress | Sally of the Sawdust

Carol Dempster was born on December 9, 1901 in Duluth, Minnesota, USA. She was an actress, known for Sally of the Sawdust (1925), That Royle Girl (1925) and Isn't Life Wonderful (1924). She was married to Edwin S Larsen. She died on February 1, 1991 in La Jolla, California, USA.

10. Dorothy Phillips

Actress | Broadway Love

A former stage actress, Dorothy Phillips was married to actor/director/producer Allen Holubar. They were known as two of the screen's most prominent players--her the star, he the director/producer. Dorothy was well known in Hollywood as one of the most warm-hearted, approachable stars in the ...

11. Vilma Bánky

Actress | The Son of the Sheik

Vilma Bánky appeared in Hungarian, Austrian and French movies between 1920 and 1925, the year in which Samuel Goldwyn signed her, in Budapest, to a Hollywood contract. In Hollywood she was billed as the "The Hungarian Rhapsody". In the mid and late 1920s she was Goldwyn's biggest money maker, ...

12. Lilyan Tashman

Actress | The Matrimonial Bed

Lilyan Tashman was born on October 23, 1896 in Brooklyn, New York to Rose (Cook) from Germany and Morris Tashman from Bialystock, Poland. After toying with stage work, Lilyan made her film debut with Experience (1921), followed the next year by Head Over Heels (1922) (this was at a time when some ...

13. Priscilla Dean

Actress | The Dice Woman

Her parents were both stage actors, so Priscilla Dean began her career as an infant in their productions. She made her film debut at age 14 in a series of one-reelers for Biograph and several other studios. In 1911 she was hired by Universal Pictures and soon gained popularity as the female lead in...

14. Bebe Daniels

Actress | 42nd Street

Bebe Daniels already had toured as an actor by the age of four in a stage production of "Richard III". She had her first leading role at the age of seven and started her film career shortly after this in movies for Imperial, Pathe and others. At 14 she was already a film veteran, and was enlisted ...

15. Claudette Colbert

Actress | It Happened One Night

One of the brightest film stars to grace the screen was born Emilie Claudette Chauchoin on September 13, 1903, in Saint Mandé, France where her father owned a bakery at 57, rue de la République (now Avenue Général de Gaulle). The family moved to the United States when she was three. As Claudette ...

16. Evalyn Knapp

Actress | Bachelor Mother

Evalyn Knapp was an American film actress, with a film career spanning the years 1929 to 1943. In the 1930s, she was a leading actress in then-popular B-movie serial films. Her most memorable role was that protagonist Pauline Hargraves in the film serial Perils of Pauline (1933).

In 1906, Knapp was ...

17. Ruth Dwyer

Actress | The Reckless Age

Ruth Dwyer was born on January 25, 1898 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for The Reckless Age (1924), The Lurking Peril (1919) and Seven Chances (1925). She was married to William Jackie. She died on March 2, 1978 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.

18. Mary Brian

Actress | Peter Pan

Dubbed "The Sweetest Girl in Pictures", Mary Brian started life as Louise Byrdie Datzler. She was born in Corsicana, Texas, and went to high school in Dallas. Her widowed mother had big plans for young Louise and took her to California in 1923, with the intention of getting her into the film ...

19. Edna Murphy

Actress | Rose of the Bowery

Like many another pretty girl, Edna Murphy got to Hollywood via modeling. She was a top New York photographer's model when she made her film debut in 1918. By 1920 she had worked her way up to starring roles, and Fox put her in a serial, Fantomas (1920), that was quite well received. She made films...

20. Catherine Dale Owen

Actress | Strictly Unconventional

Lean, fair-haired Catherine Dale Owen, acclaimed as one of the world's ten most beautiful women of 1925, had the dubious distinction of co-starring in the film which did most to ruin John Gilbert's career in talking pictures. For most of the players concerned, His Glorious Night (1929) was anything...

21. Kitty Kelly

Actress | Beginner's Luck

Kitty Kelly was born on April 27, 1902 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Beginner's Luck (1935), So Proudly We Hail! (1943) and Men of Chance (1931). She died on June 29, 1968 in Hollywood, California, USA.

22. Pearl White

Actress | The Perils of Pauline

Born on her father's farm in Green Ridge, Missouri, the youngest of five children. Moved with her family to Springfield, Missouri, where she grew up. Joined the Diemer Theatre Company during her second year of high school, and went on the road with a touring stock company at age 18, in 1907. Signed...

23. Rosemary La Planche

Actress | Strangler of the Swamp

Back in the day, winning the title of "Miss America" sometimes provided a springboard to Hollywood and a film career as a leading lady. This was certainly true in the case of California-born Rosemary La Planche.

Born on October 11, 1923, in the Southern California city of Glendale, Rosemary and her ...

24. Virginia Bruce

Actress | The Invisible Woman

American leading lady of the 1930s and 1940s, Virginia Bruce was born in Minnesota but grew up in Fargo, North Dakota, and came to California to attend college. Her blond good looks got her an entry into films, and after a few extra roles and bit parts she began to make serious inroads as a leading...

25. Louise Brooks

Actress | Die Büchse der Pandora

Mary Louise Brooks, also known by her childhood name of Brooksie, was born in the Midwestern town of Cherryvale, Kansas, on November 14, 1906. She began dancing at an early age with the Denishawn Dancers (which was how she left Kansas and went to New York) and then with George White's Scandals ...

26. Marion Davies

Actress | Little Old New York

Marion Davies was one of the great comedic actresses of the silent era and into the 1930s.

Marion Cecelia Douras was born in the borough of Brooklyn, New York on January 3, 1897, the daughter of Rose (Reilly) and Bernard J. Douras, a lawyer and judge. Her parents were both of Irish descent. Marion ...

27. Lois Wilson

Actress | The Covered Wagon

A schoolteacher who became a stage actress (briefly), Lois Wilson entered films in 1916 at Paramount (her sisters, Diana Kane and Connie Lewis, also worked as actresses). Wilson played leading roles well into the sound era, and after she retired from the screen she worked sporadically in television...

28. Betty Compson

Actress | Street Girl

A mining engineer's daughter, blond, blue-eyed Betty Compson began in show business playing the violin in a Salt Lake City vaudeville establishment for $15 a week. Following that, she went on tour, accompanied by her mother, with an act called 'The Vagabond Violinist'. Aged eighteen, she appeared ...

29. Mary Doran

Actress | Movie Crazy

Mary Doran was a graduate of New York's Columbia University where she excelled in drama classes. Having abandoned initial aspirations of becoming a teacher, the wavy-haired, blonde then attended the respected Ned Wayburn Dancing Academy - like countless other hopeful actresses - to learn tap ...

30. Constance Collier

Actress | Rope

In a career that covered six decades, Constance Collier evolved into one of Broadway and London's finest tragediennes during the first half of the 1900s. While the regal, dark-featured beauty who bore classic Romanesque features enjoyed a transcontinental career like a number of her contemporaries,...

31. Leila Hyams

Actress | Freaks

Leila Hyams was one of the top leading ladies of the early talkie pre-code years. She was a likable, pleasing actress with a charming presence. She had much spark, personality and charisma, and a touch of down-to-earthiness and naturalness that won over movie fans; they could relate to her. A ...

32. Nina Mae McKinney

Actress | Hallelujah

Nina Mae McKinney is known as the seductress "Chick" from Hallelujah (1929), the first all-black, all-sound musical. Even though she was acknowledged as a great actress, singer and dancer by audiences in the U.S. and Europe, today she is mostly forgotten. She certainly had the looks, enthusiasm, ...

33. Gwen Lee

Actress | A Lady of Chance

She was one of the archetypal flappers of the Jazz Age. Blonde, blue-eyed and impeccably coiffured, we recall Gwen Lee as tall, blonde flibbertigibbets and gold-digging vamps in films of the late 1920s and early '30s. Gwen was born in Nebraska and attended school in Omaha. Having suitably shortened...

34. Mona Maris

Actress | A Date with the Falcon

Sultry, sleepy-eyed Argentine brunette Mona Maris was born Rosa Emma Mona Maria Marta Capdevielle, of Spanish-French parentage. Her well-to-do background ensured a quality education with an emphasis on foreign languages. Mona mastered three of them, but, alas, English was not among them. This ...

35. Marion Shilling

Actress | Captured in Chinatown

Creamy-complexioned brunette Marion Shilling was a beauty inclined to be overlooked when recalling those fairly well-known "B" leading ladies of the 1930s. Born in 1910, the Denver-born actress started her career promisingly enough with a featured role in MGM's Wise Girls (1929). From there she ...

36. Gladys George

Actress | The Roaring Twenties

One of the finest, if relatively short-lived, character actresses of Hollywood, during the 1930s and 1940, Gladys George was born into an acting family who were literally on the road at the time of her birth.

Her parents were actually English and touring with a Shakespearean theater company in ...

37. Astrid Holm

Actress | Körkarlen

Trained as a ballet dancer she turned to acting. Stage work at Det ny Teater and Det kongelige Teater without much success. Started acting in films in 1917 with much more appeal. In her silent film career, she worked with some of the worlds most prominent directors. Her low key but intense acting ...

38. Phyllis Crane

Actress | Three Little Pigskins

Phyllis Crane was born on August 7, 1914 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She was an actress, known for Three Little Pigskins (1934), So This Is College (1929) and The Forward Pass (1929). She died on October 12, 1982 in New York City, New York, USA.

39. Mary Treen

Actress | It's a Wonderful Life

About as reliable as one could ever find, character actress Mary Treen was a familiar face to most and could always be counted on to bring a bit of levity to any film scene. A minor actress for much of her career, she managed to secure a plain, unassuming niche for herself in 40s, 1950s/60s ...

40. Joan Peers

Actress | Applause

Joan Peers was born on August 19, 1909 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Applause (1929), Around the Corner (1930) and Tol'able David (1930). She died on July 11, 1975 in San Francisco, California, USA.

41. Judith Furse

Actress | Black Narcissus

Judith Furse was born on March 4, 1912 in Camberley, Surrey, England, UK. She was an actress and producer, known for Black Narcissus (1947), Carry on Spying (1964) and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939). She died on August 29, 1974 in Canterbury, Kent, England, UK.

42. Mary Astor

Actress | The Maltese Falcon

Mary Astor was born Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke on May 3, 1906 in Quincy, Illinois to Helen Marie Vasconcellos, an American of Portuguese and Irish ancestry from Illinois, and Otto Ludwig Langhanke, a German immigrant. Mary's parents were very ambitious for her and wanted something better for her...

43. Isabel Jewell

Actress | Gone with the Wind

Isabel Jewell, like other actresses in Hollywood in the 1930s, suffered from chronic typecasting. The diminutive, platinum-haired daughter of a doctor and medical researcher seemed to be often playing hard-boiled, tough-talking broads: gangster's molls, dumb blondes, prostitutes and, of course, ...

44. Rosalind Marquis

Actress | Gold Diggers of 1937

Rosalind Marquis was born on September 11, 1915 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936), Talent Scout (1937) and Marked Woman (1937). She was married to William L Waller, Thomas E. Saxe Jr and Edwin Diamond Axton II. She died on June 12, 2006 in Naples, ...

45. Mayo Methot

Actress | Jimmy the Gent

Mayo Methot was born on March 3, 1904 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Jimmy the Gent (1934), Virtue (1932) and Counsellor at Law (1933). She was married to Humphrey Bogart, Percy Tredegar Morgan Jr. and John M. La Mond. She died on June 9, 1951 in Portland, Oregon, USA.

46. Ruth Chatterton

Actress | Dodsworth

Beginning as a chorus girl at age 14, Ruth Chatterton became a Broadway star with "Daddy Long Legs" in 1914. She appeared in such shows as "Mary Rose" and "Come Out of the Kitchen" before moving to Hollywood in 1925. As her film career faded in the late 1930s, she returned to the stage in revivals,...

47. Merna Kennedy

Actress | The Circus

Merna Kennedy was born on September 7, 1908 in Kankakee, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for The Circus (1928), Ghost Valley (1932) and The Big Chance (1933). She was married to Forrest Brayton and Busby Berkeley. She died on December 20, 1944 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

48. Madge Bellamy

Actress | White Zombie

Madge was born as Margaret Philpott in Texas. She got her start in theater working with a stock company in Denver. Put under a personal contract by a Broadway producer, Madge got her big break when she replaced Helen Hayes in the Broadway play "Dear Brutus". Her success as a stage actress led to ...

49. Joan Marsh

Actress | Rainbow Over Broadway

A brassy, blue-eyed platinum blonde of the 1930s in the Jean Harlow tradition. Joan was the daughter of Hollywood cinematographer Charles Rosher and appeared as a child in Mary Pickford movies (on which her father worked as cameraman) billed as Dorothy Rosher. She acted in some amateur dramatics as...

50. Dolores Costello

Actress | The Sea Beast

Dolores Costello was once known as the Goddess of the Silent Screen but is probably best remembered today as Drew Barrymore's grandmother. She was born in 1905 to actors Maurice Costello and Mae Costello. Her father began his film career in 1908 and soon became the most popular matinée idol of his ...

51. Mae Clarke

Actress | Frankenstein

Vivacious, blonde Mae Clarke was exposed to cinema from an early age, her father being an organist in a motion picture cinema. Growing up in Atlantic City, New Jersey, she learned how to dance. At the tender age of 13 she was already performing in nightclubs and amateur theatricals. In 1924, she ...

52. Dorothy Jordan

Actress | The Searchers

Brunette Dorothy Jordan was a graduate of Southwestern University and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Trained as a ballerina, she first graced the stage as a chorus girl in top flight musicals, like "Funny Face" (1927), with Fred Astaire, and "Treasure Girl" (1928), with Gertrude Lawrence and...

53. Adrienne Dore

Actress | Beyond London Lights

Adrienne Dore was born on May 23, 1910 in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, USA. She was an actress, known for Beyond London Lights (1928), The Famous Ferguson Case (1932) and The Rich Are Always with Us (1932). She was married to Burt Kelly. She died on November 26, 1992 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, ...

54. Loretta Blake

Actress | Ghosts

Loretta Blake was born on April 17, 1898 in Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for Ghosts (1915), A Little Princess (1917) and The Absentee (1915). She was married to Nat G. Deverich. She died on July 30, 1981 in Los Angeles California, USA.

55. Laura La Plante

Actress | God's Gift to Women

Laura La Plante was 15 years old when she entered films as a Christie Comedy Bathing Beauty. By 1921, she had played a number of roles including a Tom Mix Western called The Big Town Round-Up (1921) for Fox and The Old Swimmin' Hole (1921) for First National. Laura, now 17, next signed with ...

56. Mary Duncan

Actress | Kismet

Virginia-born Mary Duncan went to Hollywood after critics praised her acting in the lead in "The Shanghai Gesture" on Broadway. While making Five and Ten (1931), she became friends with the film's lead, Marion Davies. The two women attended a polo match, where Davies introduced Duncan to Stephen "...

57. Manya Roberti

Actress | The Spider

Manya Roberti was born on March 2, 1908 in Kiev, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire. She was an actress, known for The Spider (1931) and Delicious (1931). She was married to Louis Schneider and Irvin Russell Deibert. She died in December 1983.

58. Jean Parker

Actress | Little Women

Jean Parker was born Lois Mae Green in 1915. Her father was Lewis Green, a gunsmith and hunter, and her mother was Pearl Melvina Burch (later known professionally as Mildred Brenner), one of 18 children of a pioneer family that came to Montana from Missouri and Iowa. Jean's maternal grandfather was...

59. Mary Eaton

Actress | Glorifying the American Girl

Born in January, 1901, Mary Eaton was one of 'The Seven Little Eatons' famous in the '20s and '30s. In fact, she received the greatest fame of her fellow performing brothers Joseph Eaton and Charles Eaton and sisters Pearl Eaton and Doris Eaton. Sister Evelyn was a stage manager and brother Robert ...

60. Nancy Drexel

Actress | Mason of the Mounted

Nancy Drexel was born on April 6, 1910 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Mason of the Mounted (1932), Partners (1932) and Speed Madness (1932). She was married to Thomas H. Ince Jr.. She died on November 19, 1989 in San Juan Capistrano, California, USA.

61. Virginia Valli

Actress | A Lady of Quality

Virginia got her start with a Milwaukee stock company and also did some film work with Essanay Studios in 1917 Chicago. Back in the theater, it would be 3 more years before she was brought out to Hollywood to act as leading lady to Bert Lytell. Virginia would continue to appear in films throughout ...

62. Dixie Lee

Actress | Redheads on Parade

Dixie Lee was born on November 4, 1909 in Harriman, Tennessee, USA. She was an actress, known for Redheads on Parade (1935), Love in Bloom (1935) and Night Life in Reno (1931). She was married to Bing Crosby. She died on November 1, 1952 in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.

63. Thelma Todd

Actress | Horse Feathers

Thelma Todd was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, an industrial city near the New Hampshire state line. She was a lovely child with good academic tendencies, so much so that she decided early on to become a schoolteacher. After high school she went on to college but at her mother's insistence ...

64. Dorothy Appleby

Actress | Paradise Express

This pretty, apple-cheeked brunette was in many supporting roles in many 1930s and 1940s films. She is best remembered as a supporting player in Columbia two-reel comedies, opposite such legends as the Three Stooges, Buster Keaton, Andy Clyde, and Harry Langdon. Dorothy made her stage debut at the ...

65. Wynne Gibson

Actress | Children of Pleasure

Wynne Gibson was born on July 3, 1898 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Children of Pleasure (1930), The Crosby Case (1934) and Double Cross (1941). She was married to John Gallaudet. She died on May 15, 1987 in Laguna Niguel, California, USA.

66. Leatrice Joy

Actress | The Ace of Hearts

Making her film debut as an extra in 1917, Leatrice Joy soon graduated to playing opposite comics Billy West and Oliver Hardy. Director Cecil B. DeMille took her under his wing and starred her in several of his films. Often playing career girls dressed in mannish suits, or sophisticated society ...

67. Nora Swinburne

Actress | Quo Vadis

Known for her genteel ways and stately beauty in tea service drama, British actress Nora Swinburne was born Elinore Johnson on July 24, 1902, in Bath, England. Performing on stage as both actress and dancer from the age of 10, her father, Henry Swinburne Johnson, manufactured toys for a living.

She ...

68. Virginia Grey

Actress | Airport

Born into a show-business family--her father was a director and her mother was a film cutter--Virginia Grey made her film debut at age 10 as Eva in Uncle Tom's Cabin (1927). After a few more films as a child actress, she left the business to finish her schooling. Returning to films as an adult in ...

69. Colleen Moore

Actress | So Big

Colleen Moore was born Kathleen Morrison in Port Huron, Michigan. Her father was an irrigation engineer and his job was good enough to provide the family a middle-class environment. She was educated in parochial schools and studied at the famed Detroit Conservatory. Colleen's family moved to ...

70. Pola Negri

Actress | Bella Donna

Pola Negri was born in Lipno, Poland, and moved to Warsaw as a child. Living in poverty with her mother, a teenage Pola auditioned and was accepted to the Imperial Ballet. Due to an illness that ended her dancing career, she soon switched to the Warsaw Imperial Academy of Dramatic Arts and became ...

71. Joyzelle Joyner

Actress | Just Imagine

Joyzelle Joyner was born on August 27, 1905 in Alabama, USA. She was an actress, known for Just Imagine (1930), The Sea Beast (1926) and Close Harmony (1929). She was married to Phil Rosen. She died on November 30, 1980 in California, USA.

72. Thelma Hill

Actress | Fooling Casper

Thelma Hill was born Thelma Floy Hillerman in Emporia, Kansas. Her family moved to Los Angeles, California during her early teen years. Living just blocks from the Mack Sennett studio, Thelma became one of the star struck, wide eyed girls who hung out near the studio peering through the gates. It ...

73. Sally Starr

Actress | Not So Dumb

Sally Starr was born in Pittsburgh. She first attracted attention as a chorus girl in George White's 'Scandals'. (She announced scenes and said 'thankyou'). Gus Edwards caught her singing and dancing in a Los Angeles revue. He introduced Starr to director Sam Wood who cast her opposite Robert ...

74. Natalie Kingston

Actress | Tarzan the Tiger

She traced her lineage back to the first Spanish governor of California. Her great-grandfather on her mother's side was Hungarian-born Agoston Haraszthy, dubbed the father of Californian viticulture. Leggy, olive-complexioned Natalia Ringstrom grew up and was educated in the San Francisco Bay area....

75. Ruth Hiatt

Actress | Sunset Trail

Pert, curly-haired Ruth Hiatt was born Ruth Redfern, a WAMPAS Baby Star of 1924, former child actress, dancer and comedienne. She had moved with her family from San Diego and made her screen bow at age eleven. Ruth was briefly under contract with the Lubin company in 1915, later moving on to ...

76. Mary Ann Jackson

Actress | Love Business

Mary Ann Jackson was born on January 14, 1923. She was one of the earliest child stars of the twenties and thirties. Although she was better known as one of the child performers from the famed "Our Gang" comedies that are still popular today, Mary Ann began her film career at the age of four in ...

77. Alice Day

Actress | Two-Fisted Law

Alice Day began her film career as a Mack Sennett Bathing Beauty in her mid-teens, and by age 18 was starring in features. Her younger sister, Marceline Day, was also an actress, but Alice never managed to eclipse her sister's career. She was soon working mainly in B pictures and shorts, and ...

78. Karen Morley

Actress | Scarface

Born Mildred Linton in Ottumwa, Iowa on December 12, 1909, Karen Morley was adopted by a well-to-do family who moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1920s. She enrolled at Hollywood High School and studied for a career in medicine at UCLA, but a class in theater changed her career ambitions.

After ...

79. Charlotte Henry

Actress | Babes in Toyland

Charlotte acted on stage from the age of five. At thirteen, she made her Broadway debut in 'Courage' (1928), two year later reprising her role for the screen version. Paramount wanted to cast an unknown actress in the title role of Alice in Wonderland (1933) and picked Charlotte from 7000 ...

80. Lila Lee

Actress | The Unholy Three

A performer since childhood (she was widely known then as "Cuddles"), pert and pretty, raven-haired Lila Lee was brought to Hollywood by Paramount mogul Jesse L. Lasky and debuted in a starring role with The Cruise of the Make-Believes (1918) as a poor girl supported by a rich admirer. Following ...

81. Anita Louise

Actress | The Little Princess

An actress from the age of 6, Anita appeared with Walter Hampden in the Broadway production of Peter Ibbetson. As a juvenile actor, Anita used the name Louise Fremault and made her film debut at 9 in the film The Sixth Commandment (1924). She continued to make films as a child actor, and in 1929, ...

82. Katherine Grant

Actress | The Wolf of Placer

Katherine Grant was born on May 1, 1904 in Los Angeles, California. Her parents divorced and her father passed away in 1921. At the age of eighteen she won the Miss Los Angeles beauty contest and competed in the Miss America pageant. Katherine worked as a professional dancer and to make extra money...

83. Lassie Lou Ahern

Actress | The Forbidden Woman

Lassie Lou Ahern, who enjoyed a substantial career in 1920s Hollywood working with the likes of Will Rogers, Charley Chase, Helen Holmes, and the team of Ronald Colman and Vilma Banky, has passed away in Prescott, Arizona, USA, due to complications of the flu. After decades of relative obscurity, ...

84. Dorothy Granger

Actress | I've Been Around

Dorothy Granger was one of the first members of SAG when the Screen Actors Guild was founded in 1933. A Texas beauty contest winner at the age of thirteen, Dorothy's career ran from a long-running two-reel series, as the wife of Leon Errol for RKO, to the long-running television series Death Valley...

85. Mitzi Green

Actress | The Marriage Playground

Mitzi Green, also known as Mitze Green, was born Elizabeth Keno in The Bronx on October 22, 1920. At age 3, she began appearing in her parents' vaudeville act. In the early 1930s, she starred in several popular films with Paramount Pictures, including Tom Sawyer (1930) and Huckleberry Finn (1931). ...

86. Constance Bennett

Actress | Topper

Independent, outspoken Constance Bennett, the first of the Bennett sisters to enter films, appeared in New York-produced silents before a chance meeting with Samuel Goldwyn led to her Hollywood debut in Cytherea (1924). She abandoned a burgeoning career in silents for marriage to Philip Plant in ...

87. Dorothy Gulliver

Actress | Troopers Three

As an avid movie fan, Dorothy got her chance to go to Hollywood when she won a Salt Lake City beauty contest sponsored by Universal Pictures. Signed by Universal after her successful screen test, Dorothy became one of the many contract actors working in small bit parts. She became well known due to...

88. Marguerite De La Motte

Actress | The Mark of Zorro

Marguerite de la Motte was trained as a dancer, reputedly by the great ballerina Anna Pavlova, and entered films in 1918. She played opposite Douglas Fairbanks in many of his productions. Like many performers of the silent era, however, she was not able to sustain her career with the coming of ...

89. Anna Q. Nilsson

Actress | The Greater Glory

Anna Quirentia Nilsson, popularly known as "Anna Q", who was born on March 30th, 1888, in Ystad, Sweden, emigrated to the United States in 1905. The 5'7" Nilsson used her blonde beauty to become a famous model for well-known fashion photographers and fine artists. In 1907 she was chosen the most ...

90. Bessie Love

Actress | The Broadway Melody

Bessie Love was born in Texas. Her cowboy father moved the family to Hollywood, where he became a chiropractor. As the family needed money, Bessie's mother sent her to Biograph Studios, hoping she would become an actress. D.W. Griffith saw she was pretty and had some acting talent, and put her in ...

91. Ynez Seabury

Actress | The Girl of the Golden West

Ynez Seabury was born on June 26, 1907 in Portland, Oregon, USA. She was an actress, known for The Girl of the Golden West (1938), Madam Satan (1930) and When a Girl Loves (1924). She was married to Vernon Keith White and Walter William Costello. She died on April 11, 1973 in Sherman Oaks, ...

92. Marceline Day

Actress | The Cameraman

The younger sister of actress Alice Day, Marceline achieved stardom in the mid-1920s, appearing opposite such stars as John Barrymore and Lon Chaney. Adept at comedy, she also starred with such top comics as Buster Keaton and Harry Langdon. Her career faltered in the early 1930s, however, and she ...

93. Peggy Cartwright

Actress | A Lady of Quality

Peggy Cartwright was born on November 14, 1912 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She was an actress, known for A Lady of Quality (1924), Magic Night (1932) and The Third Generation (1920). She was married to Bill Walker and Phil Baker. She died on June 13, 2001 in Victoria, British Columbia, ...

94. Gertrude Short

Actress | Love Birds

Married to director/writer Scott Pembroke, daughter of actor Lew Short and sister of actress Florence Short. Gertrude Short was in vaudeville for five years then moved to the legit stage and onto Hollywood in 1922. From 1924 to 1925, Short played in a series of "Telephone Girl" comedies, directed ...

95. Sally O'Neil

Actress | Sally, Irene and Mary

Cute-as-a-button, diminutive (5'2"), green-eyed brunette Sally O'Neil (sometimes billed as Sally O'Neill was a silent and early sound leading lady who maintained her leading status throughout her movie career. Born on October 23, 1908, in Bayonne, New Jersey, her father, Thomas Francis Patrick ...

96. Nora Lane

Actress | The Western Code

Nora Bennett Schilling was born in Chester, Illinois. She grew up and went to school near St. Louis. After modeling for a time, she went to visit a friend in California and was noticed by someone in the film industry. She successfully passed her screen test and began playing small parts in silent ...

97. Marjorie Beebe

Actress | The Fighting Deputy

Marjorie Beebe grew up in Missouri before coming to California as a teenager with her mother. By 1924 she had been hired by Universal but it was only when she joined Fox that her career took off. Her talent for comedy became apparent. She played support in a number of Fox features before being ...

98. Lillian Hall-Davis

Actress | The Ring

Lilian Hall Davis was born June 23, 1898, in Mile End, London, England, the daughter of a London cab driver. For publicity purposes, she changed the spelling of her name to to the tonier Lillian Hall-Davis and reported her birthplace as the more fashionable Hampstead, London. She began acting in ...

99. Jessie Matthews

Actress | Waltzes from Vienna

Born to a huge, poor family in Soho in London's West End, Jessie Matthews became a big stage star in the late 1920s and 1930s, enjoying some crossover success in musical films. Her career never quite relaunched after the war, though, but she staged a comeback when she replaced the lead actress in ...

100. Francine Larrimore

Actress | The Royal Pauper

French-born Francine Larrimore arrived in the United States as a child and first appeared on stage at the age of 12 in 'Where There's a Will' in 1910. A member of the Adler dynasty of actors (cousin of Luther, Stella and Jay Adler), she had her first major theatrical successes in the Rudolf Friml ...



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