Marvel Rea
Marvel Luciel Rea (born November 9, 1901 in Ainsworth , Brown County , Nebraska , † June 17, 1937 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American film actress .
Life
Childhood and youth
Marvel Rea was born in Nebraska to John Thomas Rea and his wife Nellie Thurman Rea. Her older brother Thomas Rea (1898–1957) was a cameraman for feature films in the 1920s . In 1910, when Marvel Rea was nine years old, the family moved from Nebraska to Los Angeles.
Career and personal life
Since it was always her wish to become an actress, they signed the famous Keystone Studios in 1917 , which offered her a supporting role in the short film Dangers of a Bride alongside Gloria Swanson in the same year . Although Rea continued to receive film offers after that, she was mostly only present as a supporting actress. It wasn't until 1918 that she appeared in front of the camera in a larger role in Her Screen Idol together with Ford Sterling . Her only leading role she impersonated in 1919 Why Beaches Are Popular , directed by F. Richard Jones . By 1921, Rea stood in front of the camera in 27 short films. Probably it was her move to 20th Century Fox that suddenly ended her career.
Rea married Henry Page Wells at the age of 17 in October 1918, from whom they separated in November 1918. Rea accused her husband of using most of his $ 800 income to buy drugs. The divorce became final in August 1922.
In August 1936, she announced her engagement to Edwin J. Wilkinson, whom she married in the early fall of that year.
Assault and death
The day that changed her life forever was September 2nd, 1936. At a time when not every actor had a bodyguard, Marvel Rea was out on the streets of Los Angeles unaccompanied that day, as a Car stopped with three young men next to her. They offered the actress to drive her home, but she refused. Then everything happened quickly. The three men overpowered her, dragged her into her vehicle, and drove her into a ditch in South Los Angeles . Here they raped Rea and covered her body with broken glass. It was only when Rea fell into a comatose state that the men gave up on the actress. Rea came to four hours after the rape and filed a complaint with the Los Angeles Police Department a short time later . The three men could soon be traced and were sentenced in January 1937 to imprisonment between one year and 50 years.
Marvel Rea was never able to process the experience psychologically. In June 1937, nine months after the attack, she committed suicide by ingesting insecticide orally .
Incomprehensible to her relatives and friends, her rapists were released from prison in 1939 because they were able to successfully appeal their sentences.
Web links
- Marvel Rea in the Internet Movie Database (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Rea, Marvel |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Rea, Marvel Luciel (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American film actress |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 9, 1901 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Ainsworth , Brown County , Nebraska |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 17, 1937 |
| Place of death | Los Angeles , California |