Seena Owen

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Seena Owen (around 1920, photography by Albert Witzel)

Seena Owen (actually Signe Auen ; born November 14, 1894 in Spokane , Washington , † August 15, 1966 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American actress of the silent film era and screenwriter .

Life

Seena Owen was the youngest of three children born to Danish immigrants Jens Christensen and Karen Auen. Her older sister was Lillie Hayward , who would later become a successful screenwriter . His father ran a pharmacy in Spokane. Owen attended the Brunot Hall girls' school and also spent some time in Copenhagen in her youth . She lived a well-to-do life before her father's business ran into financial difficulties. To support her family, Owen became an extra at a theater in San Francisco before pursuing a film career in Hollywood . The young actress was discovered by Marshall Neilan , who gave her a job with the Kalem Company .

In her first film appearances, Seena Owen was called Signe Auen before she came up with her stage name, which is based on the phonetic pronunciation of her real name. In 1916, Owen was hired by David Wark Griffith to play the role of Beloved Princess in Intolerance , which was her breakthrough. In the following years she starred in a variety of leading roles. Her entire oeuvre includes over 60 film appearances.

With the advent of talkies, the career of Seena Owen, who was said to have a weak voice, slowly came to an end. Her last major roles included Queen Regina V. in Erich von Stroheim's never-finished silent film Queen Kelly . After finishing her acting career, Owen worked successfully as a screenwriter for films such as Aloma, the daughter of the South Seas . Here she also worked with her sister Lillie Hayward.

Seena Owen was married to actor George Walsh from 1916 until the divorce in 1924 , whom she met while filming Intolerance . Owen's daughter Patricia Noonan came from a second marriage. Seena Owen died on August 15, 1966 at the age of 71 at the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles. She was buried in Hollywood Forever Cemetery .

Filmography (selection)

As an actress

  • 1915: An Image of the Past
  • 1915: The Highbinders
  • 1915: Little Marie
  • 1915: The Lamb
  • 1915: The Penitentes
  • 1916 intolerance (Intolerance)
  • 1919: The Sheriff's Son
  • 1919: Riders of Vengeance
  • 1919: The Life Line
  • 1919: A Fugitive from Matrimony
  • 1919: Victory
  • 1920: The Gift Supreme
  • 1920: The Price of Redemption
  • 1922: Back Pay
  • 1922: The Face in the Fog
  • 1923: The Go-Getter
  • 1923: Unseeing Eyes
  • 1924: The Great Well
  • 1926: The Flame of the Yukon
  • 1928: The Blue Danube
  • 1928: Man-Made Women
  • 1929: The Marriage Playground
  • 1929: Queen Kelly

As a screenwriter

Web links

Commons : Seena Owen  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Seena Owen. In: Find a Grave . November 14, 1999, accessed April 13, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Seena Owen. In: Hollywood Forever. Accessed April 13, 2020 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Owen, Seena
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Auen, Signe (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actress and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH November 14, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Spokane , Washington
DATE OF DEATH 15th August 1966
Place of death Los Angeles , California