Biography

Marvel Rea was born Marvel Luciel Rea on November 9, 1901, in Ainsworth, Nebraska. Her family moved to California when she was a child. Marvel grew into a beautiful teenager and in 1917 she became a Mack Sennett bathing beauty. The following year she married banker Henry Page Wells. Unfortunately he was a drug addict and she divorced him less than a year later. Marvel appeared in more than thirty films including Her Screen Idol and The Summer Girls. She never became a major star and in 1921 she quit acting. Her final role was in the short film For Land's Sake. Marvel married her second husband Edwin J. Wilkinson in 1936 but her happiness was short-lived. On September 2, 1936 she was kidnapped and assaulted by three men. They were caught and Marvel had to testify at the headline-making trial. Sadly she never fully recovered from the attack. She committed suicide on June 17, 1937 by ingesting ant poison. Marvel was only 35 years old. She is buried at Pacific Crest Cemetery in Redondo Beach, California.