Mary Pickford

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 curl." She was one of the Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood. Mary Pickford is mostly known as the first Movie Star in Hollywood.

Beginning of Career to Stardom

Her mother took her to New York, looking for stardom, and she landed a leading role in a 1907 Broadway play, The Warrens of Virginia. The playwright, William C. DeMille, brother of 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. She became the inspiration for countless other blonde-haired ingénues.

Related Topics:
New York - Broadway - Cecil B. DeMille - David Belasco

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Biograph Studios director D. W. Griffith screen-tested and hired her for a part in a one-reel thriller, The Lonely Villa in 1909 and the following January she traveled with a Biograph crew to Los Angeles to set up a West Coast studio and to shoot the film Ramona on location. Most of Pickford's biographers agree that 1917's The Poor Little Rich Girl represents the major turning point in her film career. Pickford would go on to become Hollywood's biggest female star, 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), and one of the few stars to prove successful in both the silent-film era and the sound-film period. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1929, but retired from films four years later, after a series of disappointing roles and the public's inability to accept Pickford in roles that reflected her own age, rather than teenage heroines.

Related Topics:
Biograph Studios - D. W. Griffith - Los Angeles - West Coast - Ramona - The Poor Little Rich Girl - Hollywood - Charlie Chaplin - Academy Award for Best Actress - 1929

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~