Gertrude McCoy

Former vaudeville child performer McCoy left home at a very young age to chase the movies. Fair-haired, blue-eyed, and tall, she was considered an imposing figure, and she soon began working for Biograph, claiming that D.W. Griffith did her makeup when she first appeared on camera and fondly remembering co-starring with Mary Pickford in The Peachbasket Hat (1909). In 1910 she signed to the Edison Company, for whom, over a period of around five years, she appeared in scores of one- and two-reel comedies and melodramas. After which she went freelance, covering both the USA and Europe with companies like Famous-Players, Pathé, Gaumont, Broadwest, and British Actors,' contributing her acting skills as well as writing, and for Sam's Kid (1922) she traveled to South Africa. In 1919 she married British actor Duncan McRae, and they had four children, remaining together until his death in 1931, by which time she had retired from the screen, her last credit being Nelson (1926). She is perhaps best remembered for playing 'Light' in Maurice Tourneur production of The Blue Bird (1918).