Mary
Pickford (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979) was a
motion picture star and co-founder of United Artists,
known as "America's Sweetheart" and "the
girl with the curls." She was one of the pioneers
of early Hollywood, a seminal figure in the history
of acting, a feminist, the first great movie star, and
(as her fame was established through moving images)
the first great modern celebrity.
Early life
Pickford was born Gladys Louise Smith in Toronto, Ontario,
Canada. Her father, John Charles Smith, was the son
of British Methodist immigrants, and worked at a variety
of odd jobs. Her mother, Charlotte Hennessy, descended
from an Irish Catholic family. To please the relatives,
Pickford's mother baptized Gladys in both the Methodist
and Catholic churches (and used the opportunity to change
her middle name to "Marie"). Gladys's father,
an alcoholic, left his family in 1895, and died three
years later of a cerebral hemorrhage. Charlotte, who
had worked as a seamstress throughout the separation,
began taking in boarders, and through one of these lodgers
Gladys, aged seven, gained a part at Toronto's Princess
Theatre in a stock company production The Silver King.
She subsequently played in many melodramas and became
a popular child-actress in Toronto.
Beginning of career to
stardom
Acting soon became a family enterprise, as Charlotte,
Gladys, and her two younger siblings Jack and Lottie,
toured the United States by rail in rag-tag melodramas.
After six impoverished years of touring, Gladys gave
herself a single summer to land a leading role on Broadway
(she planned to quit acting if she failed). She landed
a supporting role in a 1907 Broadway play, The Warrens
of Virginia. The play was written by William C. de Mille,
whose brother, the then-unknown Cecil B. DeMille, also
appeared in the cast. David Belasco, the producer of
the play, insisted that Gladys Smith assume the stage
name Mary Pickford. But after completing the Broadway
run and touring the play, Pickford was once again out
of work.
On April 19, 1909, the Biograph film
company director D. W. Griffith screen-tested her
for a role in the Biograph "Pippa Passes."
The role went to someone else, but Griffith was immediately
taken with Pickford, and within a few days agreed
to pay her an astronomical $10 a day against a guarantee
of $40 a week. ("Keep it to yourself," he
advised her. "There will be a riot if it leaks
out." Most Biograph actors earned $5 a day.)
Soon, Pickford's comic blend of sweetness and temper
had made her not only Biograph's most important player,
but the most popular star of the nickelodeon era.
In January 1910 she traveled with a Biograph crew
to Los Angeles to set up a West Coast studio and appeared
in a long list of films, including "Ramona,"
"The Twisted Trail" and "The Smoker."
The advent of feature film sent her fame into the
stratosphere. Her appearance in 1914's Tess of the
Storm Country represents the major turning point in
her career. Her effect in this and similar roles was
perfectly summed up by Photoplay magazine: "luminous
tenderness in a steel band of gutter ferocity."
Pickford would go on to become Hollywood's biggest
female star, earning the right to not only act in
her own movies, but produce them and supervise their
distribution.
She was also the first female actor to receive more
than a million dollars per year (the first male actor
who made a million-dollar deal was Charlie Chaplin).
But the arrival of sound was her undoing. She made
four talkies, including "Coquette,"(1929)
for which she received the Academy Award. But the
public failed to respond to her work in roles that
reflected her own age. (In the silents, Pickford played
adolescents and women in their early 20s, with a celebrated
sideline in children's roles.) Then in her 40s, Pickford
was unable to play the teenage spitfires so adored
by her silent-film fans; nor could she play the soigne
heroines of early sound. She retired from acting in
1933, though she continued to produce films for others,
including "Sleep My Love" (1948), an update
of "Gaslight" with Claudette Colbert.
Relationships
Pickford married three times. She first married Owen
Moore (1886 - 1939), an Irish-born silent-film actor,
on January 7, 1911. The couple had numerous marital
problems, notably Moore's alcoholism, and Pickford
became secretly involved in a romantic relationship
with Douglas Fairbanks, an action-adventure film-star.
The phrase "by the clock" became a secret
message of their love; as the couple was driving and
Fairbanks was discussing the recent death of his mother,
the clock stopped.
Pickford finally divorced Moore on
March 2, 1920 and married Fairbanks on March 28 of
the same year. Together they gained the status of
"Hollywood Royalty" and their entertaining
at their estate Pickfair became legendary. However,
Pickford's second marriage was fraught with problems.
Her stressful business schedule and Fairbanks' extra-marital
affair with another woman led to their divorce on
January 10, 1936.
On June 24, 1937, Mary Pickford married
her last husband, actor and bandleader Charles 'Buddy'
Rogers. They had two adopted children, Roxanne and
Ronald. They stayed together for over four decades
until Pickford's death from a cerebral hemorrhage
at the age of 87.
The film industry
In 1921, the Motion Picture Relief Fund (MPRF) was
incorporated with Joseph Schenck voted its first president
and Mary Pickford as its vice president. In 1932,
Pickford spearheaded the "Payroll Pledge Program,"
a payroll deduction plan for studio workers who gave
one-half of one percent of their earnings to the MPRF.
As a result, in 1940 the Fund was able to purchase
the land and build the Motion Picture Country House
and Hospital.
Mary Pickford also became one of the
film industry's most successful producers. According
to her Foundation, "from early in her career,
she oversaw every aspect of the making of her films,
from hiring talent and crew to overseeing the script,
the shooting, the editing, to the final release and
promotion of each project."
An astute business person, in 1919
she co-founded United Artists (UA) with Charlie Chaplin,
D. W. Griffith, and her soon-to-be husband, Douglas
Fairbanks. At the time, the Hollywood studios were
vertically integrated, not only producing films but
forming chains of theatres in which to show them.
Filmmakers relied on the studios for bookings; in
return they put up with what many considered creative
interference. United Artists did not produce films;
it was solely a distribution company, offering producers
access to its own screens as well as the rental of
temporarily unbooked cinemas owned by other companies.
The producers who signed with UA were true independents,
producing, creating and controlling their work to
an unprecedented degree. As a co-founder, as well
as the producer and star of her own films, Pickford
became the most powerful woman who has ever worked
in Hollywood.When she retired from acting in 1933,
Pickford continued to produce films for United Artists,
and she and Charlie Chaplin remained partners in the
company for thirty-five years until her retirement
in 1954.
Later years
For the last 50-odd years of her life, Pickford suffered
from alcoholism, which also afflicted her first husband
and both of her parents. She became somewhat of a
recluse, remaining at Pickfair in her final decades,
only allowing visits from Lillian Gish, her stepson
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and a few select others.
The "Pickford Center for Motion
Picture Study" at 1313 Vine Street in Hollywood,
constructed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences, opened in 1948 as a radio and television
studio facility. The "Mary Pickford Theater"
at the United States Library of Congress was named
in her honor.
Mary Pickford received an Academy Honorary Award for
a lifetime of achievements. The Academy sent a TV
crew to her house to record her reaction to the award.
Her frail appearance and her nearly unintelligible
speech shocked the general public (who remembered
Pickford from the movies she had made in her prime).
Before her death, Pickford petitioned the Canadian
government to restore her Canadian citizenship which
she believed had been lost when she became a U.S.
citizen on her marriage to Fairbanks in 1920. Due
to the byzantine immigration laws of the '20s, the
Canadian government wasn't sure she had ever lost
her citizenship; nevertheless, they officially declared
her to be a Canadian.
Thus, long before it became fashionable to do so,
Pickford became a dual citizen. She died on May 29,
1979 at age 87, and lies buried in the Garden of Memory
of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale,
California. Buried alongside her in the Pickford private
family plot are her mother Charlotte, her scandal-prone
siblings Lottie and Jack Pickford and the family of
Elizabeth Watson, Charlotte's sister, who had helped
raise Mary in Toronto.Mary Pickford received a posthumous
star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto in 1999.
Partial chronology
1909: discovered by David Wark Griffith at Biograph,
worked for $5 a day
1910: I.M.P., $175 a week
1911: Majestic Film Corp.
1912: back to Biograph
1913: appeared (with Lillian Gish) in Belasco's Broadway
production A Good Little Devil
1913: Famous Players, $20,000 a year
1915: worked for various companies, $1000 to $2000
a week
1916: founded "The Mary Pickford Corporation"
as a part of Paramount Pictures, she earned about
$10,000 a week. She became the first actress to produce
her own films.
1917: starred in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and The
Poor Little Rich Girl, among other films. She toured
the United States of America with Fairbanks and others,
supporting U.S. involvement in World War I and promoting
Liberty Bonds.
1918: played two starring roles in Stella Maris, in
performances that Adolph Zukor reluctantly judged
her best yet. She earned $675,000 (about $10 million
in 2005-terms) for three films with First National,
plus 50% of all profits, plus a signing bonus of $50,000
and complete control over her films, ranging from
script to the final cut.
1919: co-founded United Artists
1923: Pickford, wanting to work with a strong director,
convinced Ernst Lubitsch to direct her next film.
After considering alternatives, they settled on Rosita,
with a performance which critics praised but her fans
avoided. (Though the role catered to her gift for
playing sweet-but-fiery women in rags, it introduced
an unwelcome note of sexual sophistication.)
1927 United Artists, under Pickford's direction, opens
their flagship Spanish Gothic movie theatre in downtown
Los Angeles. Pickford became deeply involved in the
design of the theatre, and two Anthony Heinsbergen
murals in the auditorium feature her. Theatre architect
Howard Crane opened two other UA theatres in the same
year, in Chicago and Detroit. The Los Angeles theatre
has become known as the University Cathedral of Dr.
Eugene Scott.
1929: Pickford becomes the first major actress to
star in a sound film, Coquette, a production that
did well at the box office, earning $1.4 million.
Her performance earned her an Oscar.
1933: Pickford stars in Secrets, a money-losing film
which proved her last.
1937: Pickford founds Mary Pickford Cosmetics, a beauty
company.
1941: Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Walt Disney, Orson
Welles, Samuel Goldwyn, David O. Selznick, Alexander
Korda, and Walter Wanger found the Society of Independent
Motion Picture Producers.
1949: Pickford and her husband form Pickford-Rogers-Boyd,
a radio and television-production company.
1976: Pickford receives an Academy Honorary Award
for a lifetime of achievements.
Mary Pickford has a star on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame at 6280 Hollywood Boulevard. Her hand- and footprints
can be seen in the courtyard of Hollywood's Chinese
Theater
Filmography
One Reels
1. The Violin Maker of Cremona. 6/7/09.
2. The Lonely Villa. 6/10/09.
3. The Son's Return. 6/14/09.
4. Faded Lilies. 6/14/09.
5. Her First Biscuits. 6/17/09.
6. The Peach-Basket Hat. 6/24/09.
7. The Way of Man. 6/28/09.
8. The Necklace. 7/1/09.
9. The Country Doctor. 7/8/09.
10. The Cardinal's Conspiracy. 7/12/09.
11. The Renunciation. 7/19/09.
12. Sweet and Twenty. 7/22/09.
13. The Slave. 7/29/09.
14. A Strange Meeting. 8/2/09.
15. They Would Elope. 8/9/09.
16. His Wife's Visitor. 8/19/09.
17. The Indian Runner's Romance. 8/23/09.
18. Oh, Uncle! 8/26/09.
19. The Seventh Day. 8/26/09.
20. The Little Darling. 9/2/09.
21. The Sealed Room. 9/2/09.
22. 1776 or The Hessian Renegades.
9/6/09.
23. Getting Even. 9/13/09.
24. The Broken Locket. 9/16/09.
25. In Old Kentucky. 9/20/09.
26. The Awakening. 9/30/09.
27. The Little Teacher. 10/11/09.
28. His Lost Love. 10/18/09.
29. In the Watches of the Night. 10/25/09.
30. What's Your Hurry? 11/1/09.
31. The Gibson Goddess. 11/2/09.
32. The Restoration. 11/8/09.
33. The Light That Came. 11/11/09.
34. A Midnight Adventure. 11/18/09.
35. The Mountaineer's Honor. 11/25/09.
36. The Trick That Failed. 11/29/09.
37. The Test. 12/16/09.
38. To Save Her Soul. 12/27/09.
39. All on Account of the Milk. 1/15/10.
40. The Woman From Mellon's. 2/3/10
41. The Englishman and the Girl. 2/17/10.
42. The Newlyweds. 3/3/10.
43. The Thread of Destiny. 3/7/10.
44. The Twisted Trail. 3/24/10.
45. The Smoker. 3/31/10.
46. As It Is In Life. 4/4/10.
47. A Rich Revenge. 4/7/10.
48. A Romance of the Western Hills.
4/11/10.
49. The Unchanging Sea. 5/5/10.
50. Love Among the Roses. 5/9/10.
51. The Two Brothers. 5/14/10.
52. Ramona 5/23/10.
53. In the Season of Buds. 6/2/10.
54. A Victim of Jealousy. 6/9/10.
55. A Child's Impulse. 6/27/10.
56. May and December. 6/30/10.
57. Muggsy's First Sweetheart. 6/30/10.
58. Never Again! 6/30/10.
59. What the Daisy Said. 7/11/10.
60. The Call to Arms. 7/25/10.
61. An Arcadian Maid. 8/1/10.
62. When We Were In Our 'Teens. 8/15/10.
63. The Sorrows of the Unfaithful.
8/22/10.
64. Wilful Peggy. 8/25/10.
65. Muggsy Becomes a Hero. 9/1/10.
66. A Gold Necklace. 10/6/10.
67. The Masher. 10/13/10.
68. A Lucky Toothache. 10/14/10.
69. Waiter No. 5. 11/5/10.
70. Simple Charity. 11/14/10.
71. Song of the Wildwood Flute. 11/21/10.
72. A Plain Song. 11/28/10.
73. White Roses. 12/22/10.
74. When A Man Loves. 1/5/11.
75. The Italian Barber. 1/9/11.
76. Three Sisters. 2/2/11.
77. A Decree of Destiny. 3/6/11.
78. Their First Misunderstanding.
1/9/11.
79. The Dream. 1/23/11.
80. Maid or Man. 1/30/11.
81. At the Duke's Command. 2/6/11.
82. The Mirror. 2/9/11.
83. While The Cat's Away. 2/9/11.
84. Her Darkest Hour. 2/13/11.
85. Artful Kate. 2/23/11.
86. A Manly Man. 2/27/11.
87. The Message in the Bottle. 3/9/11.
88. The Fisher-Maid. 3/16/11.
89. In Old Madrid. 3/20/11.
90. Sweet Memories. 3/27/11.
91. The Stampede. 4/17/11.
92. Second Sight. 5/1/11.
93. The Fair Dentist. 5/8/11.
94. For Her Brother's Sake. 5/11/11.
95. The Master and the Man. 5/15/11.
96. The Lighthouse Keeper. 5/18/11.
97. Back to the Soil. 6/8/11.
98. In the Sultan's Garden. 7/3/11.
99. For the Queen's Honor. 7/6/11.
100. A Gasoline Engagement. 7/10/11.
101. At a Quarter of Two. 7/13/11.
102. Science. 7/24/11.
103. The Skating Bug. 7/31/11.
104. The Call of the Song. 8/13/11.
105. The Toss of a Coin. 8/31/11.
106. 'Tween Two Loves. 9/28/11.
107. The Rose's Story. 10/2/11.
108. The Sentinel Asleep. 10/9/11.
109. The Better Way. 10/12/11.
110. His Dress Shirt. 10/30/11.
111. From the Bottom of the Sea. 11/20/11
112. The Courting of Mary. 11/26/11.
113. Love Heeds Not the Showers. 12/3/11.
114. Little Red Riding Hood. 12/17/11.
115. The Caddy's Dream. 12/31/11.
116. Honor Thy Father. 2/9/12.
117. The Mender of Nets. 2/15/12.
118. Iola's Promise. 3/14/12.
119. Fate's Interception. 4/8/12.
120. The Female of the Species. 4/15/12.
121. Just Like a Woman. 4/18/12.
122. Won By a Fish. 4/22/12.
123. The Old Actor. 5/6/12.
124. A Lodging for the Night. 5/9/12.
125. A Beast at Bay. 5/27/12.
126. Home Folks. 6/6/12.
127. Lena and the Geese. 6/17/12.
128. The School Teacher and the Waif.
6/27/12.
129. An Indian Summer. 7/8/12.
130. The Narrow Road. 8/1/12.
131. The Inner Circle. 8/12/12.
132. With the Enemy's Help. 8/19/12.
133. A Pueblo Legend. 8/29/12.
134. Friends. 9/23/12.
135. So Near, Yet So Far. 9/30/12.
136. A Feud in the Kentucky Hills.
10/3/12.
137. The One She Loved. 10/21/12.
138. My Baby. 11/14/12.
139. The Informer. 11/21/12.
140. The New York Hat. 12/6/12.
141. The Unwelcome Guest. 3/15/13.
Feature Length
1. In the Bishop's Carriage 9/10/13.
2. Caprice11/10/13.
3. Hearts Adrift 2/10/14.
4. A Good Little Devil 3/1/14.
5. Tess of the Storm Country 3/30/14.
6. The Eagle's Mate 7/1/14.
7. Such a Little Queen 9/21/14.
8. Behind the Scenes 8/26/14.
9. Cinderella 12/28/14.
10. Mistress Nell 2/1/15.
11. Fanchon, The Cricket 5/10/15.
12. The Dawn of a Tomorrow 6/7/15.
13. Little Pal 7/1/15.
14. Rags 8/2/15.
15. Esmeralda 9/6/15.
16. A Girl of Yesterday 10/7/15.
17. Madame Butterfly 11/8/15.
18. The Foundling 1/2/16.
19. Poor Little Peppina 3/2/16.
20. The Eternal Grind 4/17/16.
21. Hulda From Holland 7/31/16.
22. Less Than the Dust 11/2/16.
23. The Pride of the Clan 1/8/17.
24. The Poor Little Rich Girl 3/5/17.
25. A Romance of the Redwoods 5/14/17.
26. The Little American 7/2/17.
27. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm 9/3/17.
28. The Little Princess 11/12/17.
29. Stella Maris 1/21/18.
30. Amarilly of Clothes-line Alley
3/10/18.
31. M'Liss 5/12/18.
32. How Could You, Jean? 6/23/18.
33. Johanna Enlists 5 reels. 9/15/18.
34. Captain Kidd, Jr. 4/21/19.
35. Daddy-Long-Legs 5/12/19.
36. The Hoodlum 9/1/19.
37. The Heart o' the Hills 12/1/19.
38. Pollyanna 1/18/20.
39. Suds 6/27/20.
40. The Love Light 1/9/21.
41. Through the Back Door 5/17/21.
42. Little Lord Fauntleroy 9/16/21.
43. Tess of the Storm Country 11/12/22.
44. Rosita 9/3/23.
45. Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall
5/25/24.
46. Little Annie Rooney 9/18/25.
47. Sparrows 9/26/26.
48. My Best Girl 11/13/27.
Talkies
49. Coquette 3/30/29.
50. The Taming of the Shrew 10/26/29.
51. Kiki 3/14/31.
52. Secrets 3/16/33.
source from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
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