She capped her short career in Toronto with the starring role of Little Eva in the Valentine production of Uncle Tom's Cabin, adapted from the 1852 novel. == Career == === Early years === By the early 1900s, theatre had become a family enterprise.
Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American film actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades.
The American Film Institute ranked her as 24th in its 1999 list of greatest female stars of classic Hollywood Cinema. == Early life == Mary Pickford was born Gladys Marie Smith in 1892 (although she later claimed 1893 or 1894 as her year of birth) at 211 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario.
The American Film Institute ranked her as 24th in its 1999 list of greatest female stars of classic Hollywood Cinema. == Early life == Mary Pickford was born Gladys Marie Smith in 1892 (although she later claimed 1893 or 1894 as her year of birth) at 211 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario.
She had two younger siblings, Charlotte, called "Lottie" (born 1893), and John Charles, called "Jack" (born 1896), who also became actors.
Her date of birth is stated on the plaque as April 8, 1893.
The American Film Institute ranked her as 24th in its 1999 list of greatest female stars of classic Hollywood Cinema. == Early life == Mary Pickford was born Gladys Marie Smith in 1892 (although she later claimed 1893 or 1894 as her year of birth) at 211 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario.
She had two younger siblings, Charlotte, called "Lottie" (born 1893), and John Charles, called "Jack" (born 1896), who also became actors.
John Charles Smith was an alcoholic; he abandoned the family and died on February 11, 1898, from a fatal blood clot caused by a workplace accident when he was a purser with Niagara Steamship. When Gladys was four years old, her household was under infectious quarantine as a public health measure.
Pickford was at this time baptized as Gladys Marie Smith. After being widowed in 1899, Charlotte Smith began taking in boarders, one of whom was a Mr.
She capped her short career in Toronto with the starring role of Little Eva in the Valentine production of Uncle Tom's Cabin, adapted from the 1852 novel. == Career == === Early years === By the early 1900s, theatre had become a family enterprise.
In 1906 Gladys, Lottie and Jack Smith supported singer Chauncey Olcott on Broadway in Edmund Burke.
Gladys finally landed a supporting role in a 1907 Broadway play, The Warrens of Virginia.
After completing the Broadway run and touring the play, however, Pickford was again out of work. On April 19, 1909, the Biograph Company director D.
She appeared in 51 films in 1909 – almost one a week – with her first starring role being in The Violin Maker of Cremona opposite future husband Owen Moore.
Pickford added to her 1909 Biographs (Sweet and Twenty, They Would Elope, and To Save Her Soul, to name a few) with films made in California. Actors were not listed in the credits in Griffith's company.
She was one of the earliest stars to be billed under her own name, and was one of the most popular actresses of the 1910s and 1920s, earning the nickname "Queen of the Movies".
Griffith, who launched La Badie's career. In January 1910, Pickford traveled with a Biograph crew to Los Angeles.
Exhibitors, in turn, capitalized on her popularity by advertising on sandwich boards that a film featuring "The Girl with the Golden Curls", "Blondilocks", or "The Biograph Girl" was inside. Pickford left Biograph in December 1910.
Throughout the 1910s and 1920s, Pickford was believed to be the most famous woman in the world, or, as a silent-film journalist described her, "the best known woman who has ever lived, the woman who was known to more people and loved by more people than any other woman that has been in all history". === Stardom === Pickford starred in 52 features throughout her career.
It is rumored she became pregnant by Moore in the early 1910s and had a miscarriage or an abortion.
She married Owen Moore, an Irish-born silent film actor, on January 7, 1911.
IMP was absorbed into Universal Pictures in 1912, along with Majestic.
Unhappy with their creative standards, Pickford returned to work with Griffith in 1912.
Pickford made her last Biograph picture, The New York Hat, in late 1912. She returned to Broadway in the David Belasco production of A Good Little Devil (1912).
In 1913, she decided to work exclusively in film.
The film, produced in 1913, showed the play's Broadway actors reciting every line of dialogue, resulting in a stiff film that Pickford later called "one of the worst [features] I ever made ...
Murphy, the theatrical stage manager for Cummings Stock Company, who soon suggested that Gladys, then age seven, and Lottie, then age six, be given two small theatrical roles – Gladys portrayed a girl and a boy, while Lottie was cast in a silent part in the company's production of The Silver King at Toronto's Princess Theatre (destroyed by fire in 1915, rebuilt, demolished in 1931), while their mother played the organ.
Biographer Kevin Brownlow observed that the film "sent her career into orbit and made her the most popular actress in America, if not the world". Her appeal was summed up two years later by the February 1916 issue of Photoplay as "luminous tenderness in a steel band of gutter ferocity".
Only Charlie Chaplin, who slightly surpassed Pickford's popularity in 1916, had a similarly spellbinding pull with critics and the audience.
On June 24, 1916, Pickford signed a new contract with Zukor that granted her full authority over production of the films in which she starred, and a record-breaking salary of $10,000 a week.
Navy's official "Little Sister"; the Army named two cannons after her and made her an honorary colonel. In 1916, Pickford and Constance Adams DeMille, wife of director Cecil B.
She demanded (and received) these powers in 1916, when she was under contract to Zukor's Famous Players in Famous Plays (later Paramount).
In 1916, Pickford's films were distributed, singly, through a special distribution unit called Artcraft.
Douglas Fairbanks Jr., when he first met her in person as a boy, assumed she was a new playmate for him, and asked her to come and play trains with him, which she obligingly did. In August 1918, Pickford's contract expired and, when refusing Zukor's terms for a renewal, she was offered $250,000 to leave the motion picture business.
together in 1918 to promote Liberty Bond sales for the World War I effort.
Around this time, Pickford also suffered from the flu during the 1918 flu pandemic.
In 1919, Pickford, along with D.
The Mary Pickford Corporation was briefly Pickford's motion-picture production company. In 1919, she increased her power by co-founding United Artists (UA) with Charlie Chaplin, D.
She was one of the earliest stars to be billed under her own name, and was one of the most popular actresses of the 1910s and 1920s, earning the nickname "Queen of the Movies".
Throughout the 1910s and 1920s, Pickford was believed to be the most famous woman in the world, or, as a silent-film journalist described her, "the best known woman who has ever lived, the woman who was known to more people and loved by more people than any other woman that has been in all history". === Stardom === Pickford starred in 52 features throughout her career.
In 1920, Pickford's film Pollyanna grossed around $1,100,000.
Pickford underestimated the value of adding sound to movies, claiming that "adding sound to movies would be like putting lipstick on the Venus de Milo". She played a reckless socialite in Coquette (1929), her first talkie, a role for which her famous ringlets were cut into a 1920s' bob.
Pickford and Fairbanks produced and shot their films after 1920 at the jointly owned Pickford-Fairbanks studio on Santa Monica Boulevard.
Pickford divorced Moore on March 2, 1920, after she agreed to his $100,000 demand for a settlement.
She married Fairbanks just days later on March 28, 1920 in what was described as the "marriage of the century" and they were referred to as the King and Queen of Hollywood.
Charitable events continued to be held at Pickfair, including an annual Christmas party for blind war veterans, mostly from World War I. Pickford believed that she had ceased to be a British subject when she married an American citizen upon her marriage to Fairbanks in 1920.
Leftover funds from her work selling Liberty Bonds were put toward its creation, and in 1921, the Motion Picture Relief Fund (MPRF) was officially incorporated, with Joseph Schenck voted its first president and Pickford its vice president.
The following year, Pickford's film Little Lord Fauntleroy was also a success, and in 1923, Rosita grossed over $1,000,000 as well.
I think that she was a good woman." ===Political views=== In 1926, while in Italy, she (together with Fairbanks) met fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Pickford supported Thomas Dewey in the 1944 United States presidential election, Barry Goldwater in the 1964 United States presidential election and Ronald Reagan in his race for governor in 1966. === Later years and death === After retiring from the screen, Pickford became an alcoholic, as her father had been.
Pickford had already cut her hair in the wake of her mother's death in 1928.
On March 29, 1928, The Dodge Brothers Hour was broadcast from Pickford's bungalow, featuring Fairbanks, Chaplin, Norma Talmadge, Gloria Swanson, John Barrymore, D.
Her mother Charlotte died of breast cancer in March 1928.
By 1930, Pickford's acting career had largely faded.
When Fairbanks' romance with Sylvia, Lady Ashley became public in the early 1930s, he and Pickford separated.
Murphy, the theatrical stage manager for Cummings Stock Company, who soon suggested that Gladys, then age seven, and Lottie, then age six, be given two small theatrical roles – Gladys portrayed a girl and a boy, while Lottie was cast in a silent part in the company's production of The Silver King at Toronto's Princess Theatre (destroyed by fire in 1915, rebuilt, demolished in 1931), while their mother played the organ.
In 1932, Pickford spearheaded the "Payroll Pledge Program", a payroll-deduction plan for studio workers who gave one half of one percent of their earnings to the MPRF.
In 1933, she underwent a Technicolor screen test for an animated/live action film version of Alice in Wonderland, but Walt Disney discarded the project when Paramount released its own version of the book.
Only one Technicolor still of her screen test still exists. She retired from film acting in 1933 following three costly failures with her last film appearance being Secrets.
Her siblings, Lottie and Jack, both died of alcohol-related causes in 1936 and 1933, respectively.
She appeared on stage in Chicago in 1934 in the play The Church Mouse and went on tour in 1935, starting in Seattle with the stage version of Coquette.
She had previously published Why Not Try God in 1934, an essay on spirituality and personal growth, My Rendevouz of Life (1935), an essay on death and her belief in an afterlife and also a novel in 1935, The Demi-Widow.
She appeared on stage in Chicago in 1934 in the play The Church Mouse and went on tour in 1935, starting in Seattle with the stage version of Coquette.
She also appeared in a season of radio plays for NBC in 1935 and CBS in 1936.
She had previously published Why Not Try God in 1934, an essay on spirituality and personal growth, My Rendevouz of Life (1935), an essay on death and her belief in an afterlife and also a novel in 1935, The Demi-Widow.
She also appeared in a season of radio plays for NBC in 1935 and CBS in 1936.
In 1936 she became vice-president of United Artists and continued to produce films for others, including One Rainy Afternoon (1936), The Gay Desperado (1936), Sleep, My Love (1948; with Claudette Colbert) and Love Happy (1949), with the Marx Brothers. === The film industry === Pickford used her stature in the movie industry to promote a variety of causes.
They divorced January 10, 1936.
Her siblings, Lottie and Jack, both died of alcohol-related causes in 1936 and 1933, respectively.
Fairbanks' son by his first wife, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., claimed his father and Pickford long regretted their inability to reconcile. On June 24, 1937, Pickford married her third and last husband, actor and band leader Buddy Rogers.
They adopted two children: Roxanne (born 1944, adopted 1944) and Ronald Charles (born 1937, adopted 1943, a.k.a.
As a result, in 1940, the Fund was able to purchase land and build the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital, in Woodland Hills, California. An astute businesswoman, Pickford became her own producer within three years of her start in features.
They adopted two children: Roxanne (born 1944, adopted 1944) and Ronald Charles (born 1937, adopted 1943, a.k.a.
This can only be assumed to be because her date of birth was never registered; throughout her life, beginning as a child, she led many people to believe that she was a year younger than her real age, so that she appeared to be more of an acting prodigy and continued to be cast in younger roles, which were more plentiful in the theatre. The family home had been demolished in 1943, and many of the bricks delivered to Pickford in California.
They adopted two children: Roxanne (born 1944, adopted 1944) and Ronald Charles (born 1937, adopted 1943, a.k.a.
I think that she was a good woman." ===Political views=== In 1926, while in Italy, she (together with Fairbanks) met fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Pickford supported Thomas Dewey in the 1944 United States presidential election, Barry Goldwater in the 1964 United States presidential election and Ronald Reagan in his race for governor in 1966. === Later years and death === After retiring from the screen, Pickford became an alcoholic, as her father had been.
Thus, she never acquired Canadian citizenship when it was first created in 1947.
Chaplin left the company in 1955, and Pickford followed suit in 1956, selling her remaining shares for $3 million. She had bought the rights to many of her early silent films with the intention of burning them on her death, but in 1970 she agreed to donate 50 of her Biograph films to the American Film Institute.
Pickford withdrew and gradually became a recluse, remaining almost entirely at Pickfair and allowing visits only from Lillian Gish, her stepson Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and few other people. In 1955, she published her memoirs, Sunshine and Shadows.
Chaplin left the company in 1955, and Pickford followed suit in 1956, selling her remaining shares for $3 million. She had bought the rights to many of her early silent films with the intention of burning them on her death, but in 1970 she agreed to donate 50 of her Biograph films to the American Film Institute.
She appeared in court in 1959, in a matter pertaining to her co-ownership of North Carolina TV station WSJS-TV.
I think that she was a good woman." ===Political views=== In 1926, while in Italy, she (together with Fairbanks) met fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Pickford supported Thomas Dewey in the 1944 United States presidential election, Barry Goldwater in the 1964 United States presidential election and Ronald Reagan in his race for governor in 1966. === Later years and death === After retiring from the screen, Pickford became an alcoholic, as her father had been.
I think that she was a good woman." ===Political views=== In 1926, while in Italy, she (together with Fairbanks) met fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Pickford supported Thomas Dewey in the 1944 United States presidential election, Barry Goldwater in the 1964 United States presidential election and Ronald Reagan in his race for governor in 1966. === Later years and death === After retiring from the screen, Pickford became an alcoholic, as her father had been.
Chaplin left the company in 1955, and Pickford followed suit in 1956, selling her remaining shares for $3 million. She had bought the rights to many of her early silent films with the intention of burning them on her death, but in 1970 she agreed to donate 50 of her Biograph films to the American Film Institute.
The plaque was unveiled by her husband Buddy Rogers in 1973.
She is credited with having defined the ingénue type in cinema. She was awarded the second Academy Award for Best Actress for her first sound film role in Coquette (1929), and she also received an Academy Honorary Award in 1976 in consideration of her contributions to American cinema.
In 1976, she received an Academy Honorary Award for her contribution to American film. == Personal life == Pickford was married three times.
When Pickford received an Academy Honorary Award in 1976, the Academy sent a TV crew to her house to record her short statement of thanks – offering the public a very rare glimpse into Pickfair Manor.
Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American film actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades.
Canadian authorities were not sure that she had ever lost her Canadian citizenship, given her passport status, but her request was approved and she officially became a Canadian citizen. On May 29, 1979, Pickford died at a Santa Monica, California, hospital of complications from a cerebral hemorrhage she had suffered the week before.
The 1980 stage musical The Biograph Girl, about the silent film era, features the character of Pickford. In 2007, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences sued the estate of the deceased Buddy Rogers' second wife, Beverly Rogers, in order to stop the public sale of one of Pickford's Oscars. A bust and historical plaque marks her birthplace in Toronto, now the site of the Hospital for Sick Children.
The American Film Institute ranked her as 24th in its 1999 list of greatest female stars of classic Hollywood Cinema. == Early life == Mary Pickford was born Gladys Marie Smith in 1892 (although she later claimed 1893 or 1894 as her year of birth) at 211 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario.
In 2003, Ronnie recalled that "Things didn't work out that much, you know.
The 1980 stage musical The Biograph Girl, about the silent film era, features the character of Pickford. In 2007, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences sued the estate of the deceased Buddy Rogers' second wife, Beverly Rogers, in order to stop the public sale of one of Pickford's Oscars. A bust and historical plaque marks her birthplace in Toronto, now the site of the Hospital for Sick Children.
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