Lina Basquette

infobox actress
birthname=Lena Copeland Baskette
birthdate=birth date|1907|4|19
birthplace=San Mateo, California
deathdate=death date and age|1994|9|30|1907|4|19
deathplace=Wheeling, West Virginia
occupation=Film actress

Lina Copeland Basquette (April 19, 1907 – September 30, 1994) was an American actress.

Dancer

Lina Basquette was born in San Mateo, California, to Frank and Gladys (nee Rosenberg) Baskette. Basquette was a half-sister of Marge Champion and danced in the Ziegfeld Follies in New York City at a young age before she began making movies.

Film career

ilent films

Basquette began working in motion pictures around age 9, in 1916.Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 97.] Her first appearance was in "What Can Love Do". In 1928, she was named one of thirteen WAMPAS Baby Stars. In 1929, Basquette made "The Godless Girl" with Cecil B. DeMille and "The Younger Generation", directed by Frank Capra. In the former she played "Judith", leader of a high school atheist society. Her character forces members to renounce The Bible while placing a hand on the head of a live monkey. In the climactic scene, Director DeMille insisted on realism in filming a last shot of the reformatory going up in flames and Basquette's eyebrows and eyelashes were singed. Her eyelashes grew back but her eyebrows did not. In 1923, Ziegfeld Follies producers officially dubbed her "America's Prima Ballerina."Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 96.]

Marriage

In 1925, Basquette began an affair with Sam Warner of Warner Brothers; The couple married on July 4, 1925.Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 98.] She was a mother at nineteen,Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 115.] and a widow at 20, when Sam Warner died from a brain abscess complicated by pneumonia. Warner left her $100,000.00 of his money and $40,000 from a life insurance policy, a car, the household goods, and $85 a week from one of Warner's trust funds.Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 135-136.]

ound years

After appearing in "The Godless Girl", Basquette soon became a star in future DeMille films.Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 161-162.] While working for Demille, Basquette began an affair with DeMille's chief camera man, J. Peverell Marley. During the affair, Basquette lost much of the $40,000.00 insurance money on stocks that were duds, leaving her unable to afford insurance for her daughter Lita in the future. After this, she agreed to marry Marley, and the two were married in 1928.Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 265.] By 1930, Basquette was broke and spent a good amount of her time partying with fellow actresses Jean Harlow, Clara Bow, and Carole Lombard.

Loss of custody

When Basquette began to party, Warner's older brother, Harry, filed for legal guardianship of Lita Warner, becoming so on March 30, 1930.Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 163.] Basquette was never financially stable enough regain custody of her daughter. In 1931, Basquette, now divorced from Marley and depressed without her daughter, tried to commit suicide by taking poison. Basquette would only see Lita on two occasions over the next twenty years: in 1935, when Harry Warner and his family moved to Los Angeles, and when Lita was married to Dr. Nathan Hiatt in 1947.Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 164.]

Affair with Jack Dempsey

In her autobiography, "Lina: Demille's Godless Girl" (1990), Basquette recounts her tmpestuous affair with former world heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey. The relationship came after Basquette discovered that her current husband, Theodore Hayes, whom she married on October 31, 1931, was a bigamist. Hayes was Dempsey's former trainer and Basquette's manager in theatrical affairs. On September 10, 1932, the actress was granted a Mexican divorce from Hayes. The divorce was given on a plea of desertion for more than six months in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. ["Lina Basquette Is Divorced From Business Agent." "Zanesville Signal". September 11, 1932, Page 1.]

Notorious friendship

Basquette knew Adolf Hitler personally.Fact|date=June 2008 Later in life Basquette traveled, giving talks about director DeMille, her career which endured for 75 years, and her seven marriages.Fact|date=June 2008

Later years

Film comeback

In 1991, Lina was cast as "Nada" in filmmaker Danny Boyd's "Paradise Park". ["1920s silent film star returns to movies with Paradise Park." "Chicago Daily Herald". October 3, 1991, Section 5, Page 8.] She played a grandmother who dreamed God was coming to grant a wish to residents of an Appalachian trailer park. The film features country music stars Porter Wagoner, as the governor of West Virginia, and Johnny Paycheck. Boyd was a communications professor at West Virginia State University. He met the actress at a Charleston, West Virginia film festival.

Lina Basquette died in Wheeling, West Virginia of cancer.

Filmography

As Lina Basquette

*A Night for Crime (1943)
*Four Men and a Prayer (1938)
*Rose of the Rio Grande (1938)
*Ebb Tide (1937)
*The Final Hour (1936)
*Stolen Harmony (1935)
*The Chump (1934)
*The Phantom Express (1932)
*Hello Trouble (1932)
*The Midnight Lady (1932)
*Arm of the Law (1932)
*Mounted Fury (1931)
*Trapped (1931)
*Morals for Women (1931)
*Hard Hombre (1931)
*Arizona Terror (1931)
*Pleasure (1931)
*Goldie (1931)
*The Dude Wrangler (1930)
*Come Across (1929)
*The Godless Girl (1929)
*The Younger Generation (1929)
*Show Folks (1928)
*Celebrity (1928)
*Wheel of Chance (1928)
*The Noose (1928)
*Serenade (1927)
*Ranger of the North (1927)
*Penrod (1922)
*The Weaker Vessel (1919)

As Lena Basquette

*Little Marian's Triumph (1917)
*A Prince for a Day (1917)
*A Romany Rose (1917)
*A Dream of Egypt (1917)
*The Star Witness (1917)
*The Gates of Doom (1917)
*His Wife's Relatives (1917)
*Polly Put the Kettle On (1917)
*The Caravan (1916)
*The Human Cactus (1916)
*The Grip of Crime (1916)
*Brother Jim (1916)
*The Dance of Love (1916)
*Juvenile Dancer (1916)

References

Bibliography

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External links

*imdb name|id=0060012|name=Lina Basquette
*amg name|2:4440
*findagrave|8762246

Persondata
NAME= Basquette, Lina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Baskette, Lena Copeland
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Film actress

DATE OF BIRTH=1907-4-19
PLACE OF BIRTH=San Mateo, California
DATE OF DEATH=1994-9-30
PLACE OF DEATH=Wheeling, West Virginia