Ruth Roland | |
|---|---|
 Photographic portrait, c. 1920 | |
| Born | August 26, 1892 |
| Died | September 22, 1937 (aged 45) |
| Occupation(s) | Actress, producer |
| Years active | 1911–1936 |
| Spouses | |
Ruth Roland (August 26, 1892 – September 22, 1937) was an American stage and film actress and film producer. [1]
Roland was born in San Francisco, California to Elizabeth Lillian Hauser and Jack Roland. Her father managed a theatre, and she became a child actress who went on to work in vaudeville. At age 12, she was the youngest student at Hollywood High School, having attended the school around 1904 or 1905 (there is debate on this date). Roland was Hollywood High School's first homegrown movie star. [2]
She was hired by director Sidney Olcott who had seen her on stage in New York City. She appeared in her first film, A Chance Shot, for Kalem Studios in 1911, becoming the leading actress of their new West Coast studio. [3]
Roland left Kalem and went on to even more fame at Balboa Films, where she was under contract from 1914 to 1917. In 1915 she appeared in a 14-episode adventure film serial titled The Red Circle . A shrewd businessperson, she established her own production company, Ruth Roland Serials, and signed a distribution deal with Pathé to make seven new multi-episode serials that proved very successful.[ citation needed ]
Between 1909 and 1927, Roland appeared in more than 200 films. She appeared in an early color feature film Cupid Angling (1918) made in the Natural Color process invented by Leon F. Douglass, and filmed in the Lake Lagunitas area of Marin County, California.[ citation needed ]
Roland worked the film business until 1930 when she made her first talkie. Although her voice worked well enough on screen, now entering her forties she returned to performing in live theatre, making only one more film appearance in 1936.[ citation needed ]
Roland was married to Lionel T. Kent on May 16, 1917. [4] The marriage was short-lived: they separated on September 2, 1918, and divorced on April 2, 1919. [5] [6] On February 14, 1929 she married fellow actor Ben Bard, who also had a stage acting background, and ran a Hollywood acting school after they married. [7] They were together until the end of Roland's life.
Ruth Roland died of cancer in 1937, aged 45, in Hollywood and is interred near her husband in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. [8]
For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Ruth Roland received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6220 Hollywood Boulevard on February 8, 1960. [9] [10] In 1979, a concrete box containing Roland's personal film collection was discovered buried in the backyard of Roland's house, and donated to the UCLA Film Archives by her heirs in 1980. [11]
Elsie Jane Wilson was a cinema actress, director, and writer during the early film era. She took part in the productions of the silent film era and starred in over thirty films. Between the years of 1916 and 1919, Wilson was credited for producing, writing two films, and directing eleven films. She was best known in the genres of dramas and comedy dramas.
Anna Quirentia Nilsson was a Swedish-American actress who achieved success in American silent movies.
Helen Holmes was an American silent film actress, producer, director, screenwriter and stuntwoman. She is most notable for starring in the 1914–1917 serial The Hazards of Helen.
Marion Fairfax was an American screenwriter, playwright, actress, and producer.
Marshall Ambrose "Mickey" Neilan was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, whose work in films began in the early silent era.
Katherine Agnew MacDonald was an American stage and film actress, film producer, and model. She was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and was the older sister of actresses Miriam MacDonald and Mary MacLaren.
Seena Owen was an American silent film actress and screenwriter.
May Allison was an American actress whose greatest success was achieved in the early part of the 20th century in silent films, although she also appeared on stage.
Cleo Ridgely-Horne was a star of silent and sound motion pictures. Her career began early in the silent film era, in 1911, and continued for forty years. She retired in the 1930s but later returned to make more movies. Her final film was Hollywood Story (1951), in which she had a bit part.
Helen Jerome Eddy was a movie actress from New York City. She was noted as a character actress who played genteel heroines in films such as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917).
Frank Spottiswoode Aitken was a Scottish-American actor of the silent era. He played Dr. Cameron in D. W. Griffith's epic drama The Birth of a Nation.
Mignon Anderson was an American film and stage actress. Her career was at its peak in the 1910s.
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.
Pauline Curley was a vaudeville and silent film actress from Holyoke, Massachusetts. Her film career spanned much of the silent era, from 1915 to 1928.
Cleo Madison was a theatrical and silent film actress, screenwriter, producer, and director who was active in Hollywood during the silent era.
Hal Clements was an American actor and director of silent films. He starred in dozens of silent films. He married writer Olga Printzlau.
Rosetta Dewart Brice, known professionally as Betty Brice, was an American actress in many silent films.
Astra Film Corp was an American film production company that produced silent films. Louis J. Gasnier was the company's president. George B. Seitz co-founded it. It was making films by 1916. It became Louis J. Gasnier Productions after Seitz left.
Helen Leslie was an American actress active in Hollywood during the silent era. She was briefly married to writer/director Jacques Jaccard.
Sherwood MacDonald (1880–1968) was an American film director of the silent era. He worked for studios such as Mutual Film, Pathe Exchange and FBO Pictures. He made several films with the child actress Gloria Joy. He directed the 1915 serial The Red Circle.
those Motion Picture Classic covers, published from at least July, 1921 through August, 1922, were actually done by Benjamin Eggleston...(PDF version book released by Platnick's son).
{{cite book}}: External link in |quote=
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
