Mildred Moore | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | January 22, 1895 New Albany, Indiana, USA |
| Died | August 12, 1941 (aged 46) New York, New York, USA |
| Other names | Mildred Lee |
| Occupation | Actress |
Mildred Moore (also known as Mildred Lee) [1] was a silent film actress who appeared in a string of Hollywood westerns and serials in 1919 and 1920, often starring alongside Hoot Gibson. [2] [3] [4] [5] Her career came to an abrupt end in 1920 with a drug scandal. [5]
Born in New Albany, Indiana, [6] and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Mildred won a beauty contest in St. Louis as a teenager, and she eventually made her way to New York City to pursue a career after winning a screen test via a Photoplay beauty contest. [7] [8] She first found work as a dancer at the Roof Garden Review and later as a Ziegfeld girl at Cocoanut Grove. A skilled musician who played the piano, harp, accordion, banjo, and oboe, she was eventually spotted by a director from Los Angeles and recruited to appear in silent comedies. [9]
Starting with the 1917 short Roaring Lions and Wedding Bells — in which she appeared alongside a trio of real lions — she appeared in a string of Fox Sunshine silent comedies [10] [11] using the name Mildred Lee (which may or may not be her birth name). [12] She also appeared in shorts by Eddie Lyons and Lee Moran.
Mildred was eventually poached by Universal to become a Western star, reinventing herself as Mildred Moore. [9] [1] In 1919 and 1920, she starred alongside big names like Hoot Gibson and Art Acord. [13] [14] [15]
Her career was cut short in 1920, when she and actor Jay Belasco — her rumored boyfriend — were arrested in an apartment in Los Angeles for possession of cocaine and heroin. [16] [17] [18] Cornered in Belasco's apartment at Wilcox and Hollywood Boulevard by the police, she reportedly tried to commit suicide by swallowing a large quantity of morphine. [17] She later pled guilty to the charges and was sent to a sanitorium to dry out. [19]
In subsequent interviews with reporters, Moore explained that she had been an addict for many years, having been introduced to the drug in New York City when she first began acting. [5] Despite her professed intent to return to filmmaking after she was released from jail, she does not appear to have notched any credits after she was let out on probation in October 1920. [16] Belasco, on the other hand, continued to accrue roles through the mid-1930s.
She reportedly died of a heart attack in New York City in August 1941. [6]
Alice Joyce Brown was an American actress who appeared in more than 200 films during the 1910s and 1920s. She is known for her roles in the 1923 film The Green Goddess and its 1930 remake of the same name.
Mildred Harris was an American stage, film, and vaudeville actress during the early part of the 20th century. Harris began her career in the film industry as a child actress when she was age 10. She was also the first wife of Charlie Chaplin.
Grace Cunard was an American actress, screenwriter and film director. During the silent era, she starred in over 100 films, wrote or co-wrote at least 44 of those productions, and directed no fewer than eight of them. In addition, she edited many of her films, including some of the shorts, serials, and features she developed in collaboration with Francis Ford. Her younger sister, Mina Cunard, was also a film actress.
Bessie Barriscale was an American actress who gained fame on the stage and in silent films.
Margaret Campbell was an American character actress in silent films. In her later years, she was the secretary of the Baháʼí Spiritual Assembly of Los Angeles.
Norman Kerry was an American actor whose career in the motion picture industry spanned twenty-five years, beginning in 1916 and peaking during the silent era of the 1920s. Changing his name from the unmistakably German "Kaiser" at the onset of World War I, he rose quickly in his field, becoming "the Clark Gable of the [1920s]."
Ethel Shannon was an American actress. She appeared in over 30 silent movies in the early 20th century.
Ida Darling was an American actress of the stage and in silent motion pictures.
Vola Vale was a silent film actress.
Ann Little, also known as Anna Little, was an American film actress whose career was most prolific during the silent film era of the early 1910s through the early 1920s. Today, most of her films are lost, with only 12 known to survive.
Beatrice Van was an American silent film actress. She was also a screenwriter for both silent and sound films.
Sylvia Poppy Bremer, known professionally as Sylvia Breamer, was an Australian actress who appeared in American silent motion pictures beginning in 1917.
Viola Barry was an American silent film actress who starred in a number of films during the 1910s.
Ethel Grey Terry was an American actress of the silent era. She is best remembered for her role in The Penalty with Lon Chaney.
Mildred Considine (1887–1933) was an American screenwriter and actress active during Hollywood's silent era.
Ethelyn Gibson (1897–1972), sometimes credited as Ethlyn Gibson, was an American stage and screen actress who featured in films and productions in the 1910s and 1920s. First joining the theatre through becoming a member of The Charlie Chaplin Revue in 1911, she then became involved in other revue productions as a member of the Ziegfeld Follies. She joined the silent-film industry beginning in 1917, appearing with Oliver Hardy before acting as a leading lady in multiple Billy West films. Later, she also appeared in works with Charley Chase. One of her most famous roles was acting as the title character in the Winnie Winkle series of films from 1926 to 1928.
Minerva Bussenius, known professionally as Roberta Arnold, was an American stage and silent film actress. She started in Los Angeles before moving to New York, appeared in leading roles in several Broadway plays and received positive reception.
Gertrude Selby was an American actress who was active in Hollywood in the silent era. She appeared in dozens of films between 1914 and 1920, mostly short comedies.
Goldie Colwell was an American film actress and journalist who starred in more than 80 films during Hollywood's silent era. She was Tom Mix's leading lady in many Selig westerns.
Universal City Zoo was a private animal collection in southern California that provided animals for silent-era Universal Pictures adventure films, circus pictures, and animal comedies, and to "serve as a point of interest" for tourists visiting Universal City. The animals were also leased to other studios. The zoo was closed in 1930, after cinema's transition to synchronized sound complicated the existing systems for using trained animals onscreen.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
