Full Name Muriel Harding Name Olga Petrova | Years active 1911–1928 Role Actress | |
Born May 10, 1884 ( 1884-05-10 ) UK Occupation Actress, screenwriter, playwright Spouse Louis Willoughby (m. ?–1968) Movies Departure of a Grand Old Man, Daughter of Destiny Books The White Peacock: A Play in Three Acts, The black virgin, and other stories Similar People Alice Guy‑Blache, Clarence Brown, Yakov Protazanov, Maurice Tourneur, George Irving | ||
Madame Olga Petrova - promo pictures
Olga Petrova (May 10, 1884 – November 30, 1977) was a British-American actress, screenwriter and playwright.
Contents
Life and career
Born Muriel Harding in England, she moved to the United States and became a star of vaudeville using the stage name Olga Petrova. Petrova starred in a number of films for Solax Studios and was Metro Pictures first diva, usually given the role of a femme fatale. During her seven years in film, Petrova appeared in more than two dozen films and wrote the script for several others. Most of her films are now lost.
Petrova left the film industry in 1918 but continued to act in Broadway productions. During the 1920s, she wrote three plays and toured the country with a theater troupe. In 1942, she published her autobiography, Butter With My Bread. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
She made several visits to Saranac Lake, New York at the height of her fame, at the request of theatrical agent William Morris. In the summer of 1921, she turned the first shovel of earth for a housing project sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, at a lot on Lake Street donated by Walter Jenkins.
The Petrova School on Petrova Avenue bears the name of this famous visitor to Saranac Lake, New York.
Olga Petrova died in 1977 in Clearwater, Florida, aged 93. She had no children.
