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.

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, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and a few select others.

Related Topics:
Alcoholism - Pickfair - Lillian Gish - Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

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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.

Related Topics:
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - United States Library of Congress

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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 had been lost when she became a U.S. citizen on her marriage to Fairbanks in 1920, and it did so. Thus, she became, long before it became fashionable to do so, a dual citizen. She died on May 29, 1979 at age 87, and lies buried, along with her scandal-prone brother Jack Pickford, in the Pickford private family plot in the Garden of Memory of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Related Topics:
Academy Honorary Award - 1920 - May 29 - 1979 - Jack Pickford - Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery - Glendale - California

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Mary Pickford received a posthumous star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto in 1999.

Related Topics:
Canada's Walk of Fame - Toronto

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