Lillian Drew | |
---|---|
Born | Lillian Margaret Flannery August 1882 Chicago, Illinois |
Died | February 4, 1924 (aged 41) Chicago, Illinois |
Occupation | Actress |
Spouse | E. H. Calvert |
Lillian Drew (August 1882 – February 4, 1924), born Lillian Margaret Flannery, was an American actress during the silent film era.
Lillian Margaret Flannery was born in Chicago, [1] [2] the daughter of Patrick J. Flannery and Marguerite M. Flannery. All of her grandparents were born in Ireland.
Drew made more than eighty silent films, mostly short films, for Essanay Studios in Chicago and Chattanooga. [3] [4] She was known for her riding skills, [5] and preference for "heavy dramatic" roles. [2] Her first film was The Broken Heart (1913) with Ruth Stonehouse. She appeared with Gloria Swanson in The Fable of Elvira and Farina and the Meal Ticket (1915). Other films with Drew include Blind Man's Bluff (1914), [2] The Clutch of Circumstance (1915), In the Palace of the King (1915), A Million for a Baby (1916), [3] Money to Burn (1916), [6] The Secret of the Night (1916), The Other Man (1916), [7] My Country, 'Tis of Thee (1916) [8] The Woman Always Pays (1916), [9] Vultures of Society (1916), Uneasy Money (1918), and Ruggles of Red Gap (1918). Her last movie was Children of Jazz (1923) with Ricardo Cortez. She worked as a dressmaker in her last years. [10]
Lillian Drew married fellow actor and director E. H. Calvert in 1907. They had a son, William Calvert, who became a child actor. The Calverts were separated, and she was recovering from an injury, when she died in Chicago in 1924, from an overdose of barbital, aged 41 years. [10] Her death was ruled accidental by a coroner's jury. [11] [12]
Essanay Studios, officially the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company, was an early American motion picture studio. The studio was founded in 1907 in Chicago by George Kirke Spoor and Gilbert M. Anderson, originally as the Peerless Film Manufacturing Company, then as Essanay on August 10, 1907. Essanay is probably best known today for its series of Charlie Chaplin comedies produced in 1915-1916. In late 1916, it merged distribution with other studios and stopped issuing films in the fall of 1918. According to film historian Steve Massa, Essanay is one of the important early studios, with comedies as a particular strength. Founders Spoor and Anderson were subsequently awarded special Academy Awards for pioneering contributions to film.
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Reina Valdez was a silent film actress active in Hollywood in the 1910s.
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Frances "Frankie" Mann was an American actress, who appeared in over forty silent films between 1913 and 1925.
Lillian GonzalesKohlhamer, also known as Lillian Gottlieb Kohlhamer, was an American suffragist and peace activist, based in Chicago. She was one of the American delegates to the International Congress of Women held in The Hague in 1915, and at the International Woman Suffrage Alliance conference in Geneva in 1920.
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