Leatrice
Joy (November 7, 1893 - May 13, 1985) was an American
film actress best known for her career in the early
silent film era.
Born Leatrice Joy Zeidler in New Orleans,
Louisiana, Leatrice Joy began her acting career in
stock theater companies and made her film debut for
the little-known small New Orleans based Nola Film
Company in 1915. By 1917 she relocated to the relatively
young film colony in Hollywood, California and was
intially signed under contract with Samuel Goldwyn
Studios where her first role was in 1917s The Pride
of the Clan opposite silent screen star Mary Pickford.
By 1920, Joy's career quickly gained momentum and
she became a highly popular actress with the film-going
public and was given leading lady status opposite
such famous performers as Wallace Beery, Conrad Nagel,
Nita Naldi and Irene Rich.
Joy was often cast by directors in
the role of the strong-willed and independent woman,
and in the liberated atmosphere of the Jazz Age Roaring
Twenties solidified her public popularity, especially
with women film-goers. Her close-cropped hair and
somewhat boyish persona became tremendously fashionable
during the era. With her increasing popularity, Joy
was sought out by Cecil B. DeMille and signed to contract
to Paramount Pictures in 1922 and that same year was
cast in the enormously successul high-society drama
Saturday Night opposite matinee idol Conrad Nagel.
Joy starred in a number of successful realeases for
Paramount and was heavily promoted as one of DeMille's
most prominent protegés.
Leatrice Joy married the enormously
successful film idol John Gilbert in 1922. The union
produced a daughter, Leatrice Gilbert Fountain, but
the tempestuous marriage only lasted two years. The
couple divorced in 1924 on the grounds of Gilbert
being an alleged philanderer. Joy would later marry
William S. Hook in 1931.
In 1925, against the advice of studio
executives, Joy parted ways with Paramount and followed
DeMille to his new film studio Producers Distributing
Corporation and she made a few modestly successful
films for the company, including Lois Weber's last
silent film The Angel of Brodway in 1927. A professional
dispute ended the partnership with DeMille and Joy
in 1928 and Joy was signed with MGM. Joy headline
MGM's second part-talkie effort, The Bellamy Trial
in 1928, opposite Betty Bronson and Margaret Livingston.
By the late 1920s however, Leatrice Joy's career began
to falter with the advent of talkies. It has been
alleged that her career decline rested in part with
her heavy southern accent that was considered unfashionable
in comparison with the refined east coast diction
of the newer actresses. In 1929 Joy had become a freelance
actress without a contract. By the early 1930s, Joy
was in semi-retirement from the motion picture industry;
However, she did make several guest appearances in
a few modestly successful films. One notable appearance
was in the 1951 release Love Nest, which featured
a young Marilyn Monroe.
In her later years Leatrice Joy retired
to Greenwich, Connecticut. She passed away in 1985
of acute anemia in Riverdale, New York and was laid
to rest at the Saint Savior Episcopal Churchyard in
Old Greenwich, Fairfield County, Connecticut, USA.
source from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
More Articles..
