Pearl white
Pearl Fay White (born March 4, 1889 in Green Ridge , Missouri , † August 4, 1938 in Neuilly-sur-Seine , Île-de-France ) was an American silent film actress . She was one of the first women in the action film genre .
Life
Pearl White grew up in Springfield , Missouri, and has been with a local theater company since high school. Later, while working full time as an actress, she toured the American Midwest with the Trousedale Stock Company. In 1907 she married a fellow actor, but they separated again after a short time.
In 1910, Pearl White got the offer to play in The Girl From Arizona , the Pathé Frères' first film in their American film studio in Bound Brook , New Jersey . She then worked for Lubin Manufacturing Company and various other independent film companies until she appeared in a number of short films for the Crystal Film Company in Manhattan .
When she had achieved a certain level of notoriety, offered her Louis J. Gasnier (1875-1963), the director of Pathé in the United States, the lead role in The Perils of Pauline (1914), a film based on a play by Charles W. Goddard (1879-1951). The Perils of Pauline consisted of a total of 20 action-packed episodes and became a box office hit. Pearl White was soon earning $ 3,000 a week. The sequel The Exploits of Elaine was an even bigger success for the new action heroine White. She shot four other serials of a similar character, sustaining numerous injuries as she did most of her stunts herself.
Pearl White had made considerable fortune with her film work by 1919. She married the world war veteran Wallace McCutcheon Jr. , who had also entered the film industry . (1880-1928). However, the marriage lasted only two years. In 1923 she made her last film in the United States.
Then she went to France, where she also appeared on the stage ( Montmartre ). She invested in a successful Parisian nightclub, hotel and casino in Biarritz and in racehorses. She lived in the exclusive Paris suburb of Passy and owned a villa in Rambouillet .
Due to her steadily increasing alcohol abuse due to pain from injuries sustained in her stunts, she had several hospitalizations in the 1930s. She died of cirrhosis of the liver in an American hospital in Neuilly. She is buried in the Passy cemetery.
Pearl White shot exclusively in film studios on the east coast. Her film The Exploits of Elaine was included in the US National Film Registry in 1994 . A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame recognizes her contribution to the film industry. The film Pauline, Let Kissing Be (1947) is loosely based on her life; she was embodied by Betty Hutton .
Filmography
- 1910: The Woman Hater
- 1914: The Perils of Pauline
- 1914: The Exploits of Elaine
- 1915: The New Exploits of Elaine
- 1915: The Romance of Elaine
- 1916: The Iron Claw
- 1916: Pearl of the Army
- 1917: The Fatal Ring
- 1918: The House of Hate
- 1919: The Lightning Raider
- 1920: The Thief
- 1923: Plunder
- 1924: Perils of Paris
Web links
- Pearl White in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Images by Pearl White In: Virtual History
- Biography (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | White, Pearl |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | White, Pearl Fay (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American silent film actress |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 4, 1889 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Green Ridge , Missouri , United States |
| DATE OF DEATH | 4th August 1938 |
| Place of death | Neuilly-sur-Seine , Île-de-France , France |