Born on her father's farm in Green Ridge, Missouri, the youngest of
five children. Moved with her family to Springfield, Missouri, where
she grew up. Joined the Diemer Theatre Company during her second year
of high school, and went on the road with a touring stock company at
age 18, in 1907. Signed by the Powers Film Co. in New York in 1910, and
proceeded to work thereafter for many companies in starring roles. In
1914, she starred in Pathe's The Perils of Pauline, the fifth serial
chapter play ever made. She became an international star therein and
was the leading heroine of serial films for the next several years.
Following an unsuccessful attempt to achieve the same success in
feature films, and with her health deteriorating, she retired in 1923,
living in France until her death in 1938.
Terror(1924)as Hélène Lorfeuil
Plunder(1923)as Pearl Travers
Without Fear(1922)as Ruth Hamilton
The Broadway Peacock(1922)as Myrtle May
Any Wife(1922)as Myrtle (Mrs. John Hill)
Hearst-Pathé News, No. 56(1917)as Self
Catalogue of Ships(2008)as Pauline Marvin
Anna May Wong, Frosted Yellow Willows: Her Life, Times and Legend(2007)as Pauline Marvin (clip from The Perils of Pauline (1914))
The Woman with the Hungry Eyes(2006)as Self
Decasia(2002)as Laughing Woman
Biography(1987)as Self
