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Marguerite Clark

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Cause of death
  
Pneumonia

Nationality
  
American

Occupation
  
Actress

Name
  
Marguerite Clark

Siblings
  
Clifton James, Cora James

Resting place
  
Education
  
Years active
  
1900–1921

Role
  
Film actress

Marguerite Clark detail Marguerite Clark in quotBab39s Diaryquot 1917 movie
Full Name
  
Helen Marguerite Clark

Born
  
February 22, 1883 (
1883-02-22
)

Died
  
September 25, 1940, New York City, New York, United States

Spouse
  
Harry Palmerston Williams (m. 1918–1936)

Parents
  
Augustus James, Helen Elizabeth Clark

Movies
  
Snow White, The Amazons, Fortunes of Fifi, The Goose Girl, The Seven Sisters

Similar People
  
J Searle Dawley, Adolph Zukor, Daniel Frohman, Marshall Neilan, Jesse L Lasky

Marguerite Clark in Snow White 1916


The Life of Marguerite Clark


Marguerite Clark (February 22, 1883 – September 25, 1940) was an American stage and silent film actress. As a movie actress, at one time, Clark was second only to Mary Pickford for popularity.

Contents

Marguerite Clark wwwcyranoschspclarkjpg

Early life and theater

Marguerite Clark Marguerite Clark Wikipedia

Born Helen Marguerite Clark in Avondale, Cincinnati, Ohio, she was the third child of Augustus "Gus" James and Helen Elizabeth Clark. She had an older sister, Cora, and an older brother named Clifton. Clark's mother Helen died on January 21, 1893. Her father worked in his self-owned successful haberdashery located in downtown Cincinnati before his death on December 29, 1896. Following the death, Clark's sister Cora was appointed her legal guardian and removed her from public school to further her education at Ursuline Academy.

Marguerite Clark High resolution pictures of the stage and film actress

She finished school at age 16, decided to pursue a career in the theatre and soon made her Broadway debut in 1900. The 17-year-old performed at various venues. In 1903 she was seen on Broadway opposite that hulking comedian DeWolf Hopper in Mr. Pickwick. The 6-foot-6-inch (1.98 m) Hopper dwarfed the nearly 5-foot-tall (1.5 m) Clark in their scenes together. Several adventure-fantasy roles followed. In 1909 Clark starred in the whimsical costume play The Beauty Spot, establishing the fantasy stories for which would soon become her hallmark. In 1910 Clark appeared in The Wishing Ring, a play directed by Cecil DeMille and later made into a motion picture by Maurice Tourneur. That same 1910 season had Clark appearing in Baby Mine, a popular play produced by William A. Brady. In 1912 Clark performed in a lead role with John Barrymore, Doris Keane and Gail Kane in the play The Affairs of Anatol later made into a motion picture by Clark's future movie studio Famous Players-Lasky and directed by Cecil DeMille. Clark's popularity led to her signing a contract in 1914 to make motion pictures with Famous Players-Lasky. Clark had a lead role in a film that defined Clark's persona; the influential film version of Snow White (1916).

Film career

Marguerite Clark Marguerite Clark Silent Movie Star goldensilentscom

At age 31, it was relatively late in life for a film actress to begin a career with starring roles, but the diminutive Clark had a little-girl look, like Mary Pickford, that belied her years. Also, film was not developed or mature enough to showcase Clark at her youthful best at the turn of the century. These were one of the reasons established Broadway stars refused early film offers. Feature films were unheard of when Clark was in her early 20s. She made her first appearance on screen in the short film Wildflower, directed by Allan Dwan.

In 1915 Clark starred as "Gretchen", in a feature-length production of The Goose Girl based on a 1909 best-selling novel by Harold MacGrath. She performed in the feature-length production The Seven Sisters (1915), directed by Sidney Olcott, and she reprised a Broadway role, starring in the first feature-length film version of Snow White (1916).

Clark was directed in this by J. Searle Dawley, as well as in a number of films, notably when she played the characters of both "Little Eva St. Clair" and "Topsy" in the feature Uncle Tom's Cabin (1918).

Clark starred in Come Out of the Kitchen (1919), which was filmed in Pass Christian, Mississippi, at Ossian Hall. The same year, she enrolled as a yeowoman in the naval reserves. Clark made all but one of her 40 films with Famous Players-Lasky, her last with them in 1920 titled Easy to Get, in which she starred opposite silent film actor Harrison Ford. Her next film, in 1921, was made by her own production company for First National Pictures distribution. As one of the most popular actresses going into the 1920s, and one of the industry's best paid, her name alone was enough to ensure reasonable box office success. As such, Scrambled Wives was made under her direction, following which she retired at age 38 to be with her husband at their country estate in New Orleans.

Personal life

On August 15, 1918, Clark married New Orleans, Louisiana plantation owner and millionaire businessman Harry Palmerston Williams, a marriage that ended with the death of Williams' on May 19, 1936 in an aircraft crash. After his death, Clark was the owner of the Wedell-Williams Air Service Corporation, which had built and flown air racers, along with other aviation enterprises until sold in 1937.

Death

After the death of her husband, Clark moved to New York City where she lived with her sister Cora. On September 20, 1940, she entered LeRoy Sanitarium where she died five days later of pneumonia. A private funeral was held at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel on September 28. She was cremated and buried with her husband in Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans.

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Marguerite Clark has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6304 Hollywood Boulevard.

Filmography

Actress
1921
Scrambled Wives as
Miss Mary Lucille Smith
1920
Easy to Get as
Molly Morehouse
1920
All of a Sudden Peggy as
Peggy O'Hara
1919
A Girl Named Mary as
Mary Healey
1919
Luck in Pawn as
Annabel Lee
1919
Widow by Proxy as
Gloria Grey
1919
Girls as
Pamela Gordon
1919
Come Out of the Kitchen as
Claudia Daingerfield
1919
Let's Elope as
Eloise Farrington
1919
Three Men and a Girl as
Sylvia Weston
1919
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch as
Lovey Mary
1918
Little Miss Hoover as
Ann Craddock
1918
The Biggest and the Littlest Lady in the World (Short) as
The Little Lady
1918
Out of a Clear Sky as
Countess Celeste de Bersek et Krymm
1918
Uncle Tom's Cabin as
Little Eva St. Clair / Topsy
1918
Prunella as
Prunella
1918
Rich Man, Poor Man as
Betty Wynne
1917
The Seven Swans as
Princess Tweedledee
1917
Bab's Matinee Idol as
Bab Archibald
1917
Bab's Burglar as
Bab Archibald
1917
Bab's Diary as
Bab Archibald
1917
The Amazons as
Lord Tommy
1917
The Valentine Girl as
Marion Morgan
1917
The Fortunes of Fifi as
Fifi
1916
Snow White as
Snow White
1916
Miss George Washington as
Bernice Somers
1916
Little Lady Eileen as
Eileen Kavanaugh
1916
Silks and Satins as
Felicite
1916
Molly Make-Believe as
Molly
1916
Out of the Drifts as
Elise
1916
Mice and Men as
Peggy
1915
The Prince and the Pauper as
Prince Edward / Tom Canty
1915
Still Waters as
Nesta
1915
Helene of the North as
Helene Dearing
1915
The Seven Sisters as
Mici
1915
The Pretty Sister of Jose as
Pepita
1915
Gretna Green as
Dolly Erskine
1915
The Goose Girl as
Gretchen
1914
The Crucible as
Jean
1914
Wildflower as
Letty Roberts
Producer
1921
Scrambled Wives (producer)
Self
1921
Screen Snapshots, Series 1, No. 20 (Documentary short) as
Self
1918
The Screen Telegram, No. 14 (Short) as
Self
Archive Footage
-
Maurice Tourneur, tisseur de rêve (Documentary) (post-production)
1939
Screen Snapshots Series 18, No. 12 (Documentary short) as
Self
1931
The House That Shadows Built (Documentary)

References

Marguerite Clark Wikipedia


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