Jean Acker

Jean Acker (October 23, 1893–August 16, 1978) was an American film actress with a career dating from the silent film era through the 1950s, though she was perhaps most notorious as the estranged wife of silent film star Rudolph Valentino.

Related Topics:
October 23 - 1893 - August 16 - 1978 - American - Actress - Silent film - Rudolph Valentino

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She was born Harriet Acker in Trenton, New Jersey, to a part-Cherokee father and Irish mother. She attended school in New Jersey and performed in vaudeville until she moved to California in 1919. She became lovers with Alla Nazimova, a film actress whose clout and contacts enabled Acker to negotiate a two-hundred-dollar-a-week contract with a movie studio. Acker then also became involved with Grace Darmond, who was younger and a comparative novice in film.

Related Topics:
Trenton, New Jersey - Cherokee - Irish - New Jersey - Vaudeville - California - Alla Nazimova - Grace Darmond

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After meeting and befriending the then-struggling actor Rudolph Valentino at a party, they entered a two-month courtship and married on November 6, 1919. Acker quickly had regrets and locked him out of their hotel bedroom on their wedding night. Acker ran to Darmond's apartment in tears and the marriage was reportedly never consummated. After filing for divorce, Valentino did not wait the requisite period for it to be finalized before marrying his second wife, Natacha Rambova, in Mexico, and he was charged with bigamy when the couple returned to the United States. Acker then sued Valentino for the legal right to call herself "Mrs. Rudolph Valentino," and Valentino remained angry at her for several years. They did mend their friendship before his death in 1926, and Acker wrote a popular song about him soon after he died called We Will Meet at the End of the Trail.

Related Topics:
November 6 - 1919 - Natacha Rambova - Bigamy

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Jean Acker played bit parts in films until the early 1950s and lived with her partner Chloe Carter in Beverly Hills in a building they co-owned. She died in 1978 at the age of eighty-five and is buried next to Carter in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Related Topics:
1950s - Holy Cross Cemetery - Culver City, California

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