- Mary Miles Minter
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Mary Miles Minter 
Mary Miles Minter circa 1917.Born Juliet Reilly
April 1, 1902
Shreveport, Louisiana, U.S.Died August 4, 1984 (aged 82)
Santa Monica, California, U.S.Spouse Brandon O'Hildebrandt (1957–1965) (his death) Mary Miles Minter (April 1, 1902 – August 4, 1984) was an American film actress of the silent film era.
Contents
Early life and rise to stardom
Born Juliet Reilly in Shreveport, Louisiana, Minter was the daughter of Broadway actress Charlotte Shelby. At the age of five, she accompanied older sister Margaret on an audition only because no baby sitter was available, was noticed by the director and given her first part. After this she was frequently employed, widely noted for both her talent and visual appeal. In 1912, to avoid child labour laws in Chicago while her 10 year-old daughter was appearing in a play, Shelby obtained the birth certificate of a cousin and changed Juliet's name to Mary Miles Minter. She made her first feature film in 1915 at the age of 13, after which her career steadily grew.
Minter specialised in playing demure young women. With her photogenic "registration[clarification needed]", even features, "periwinkle blue eyes" and curly hair, she emulated and later rivaled Mary Pickford.
Her first film for director William Desmond Taylor was Anne of Green Gables in 1919. The picture was well-received and Taylor actively promoted Minter as a star. A romantic relationship developed between them, which she later described as "a beautiful white flame." However, according to Minter (who had grown up fatherless), Taylor had reservations from the outset and later curtailed the romance, citing the thirty-year difference in their ages.[1]
Scandal
In 1922, Taylor was murdered in his home. In a 1970 interview during which she described Taylor as her "mate," Minter recalled how she broke down and sobbed when she was allowed to view (and touch) the director's body in a morgue.
The ensuing scandal, coming in the wake of the Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle murder trial, was the subject of widespread media speculation and embellishment. Newspapers reported that coded love letters written by Minter had been found in his bungalow after his death (these were later shown to have been written three years earlier, in 1919). Minter was at the height of her success, having starred in more than 50 films and sensationalistic newspaper revelations of the twenty-year-old film star's association with a forty-nine-year-old murdered director caused rolling scandals.
There were several suspects (including her mother Charlotte Shelby) in the long investigation of Taylor's murder. In 1937, Minter publicly announced to the Los Angeles Examiner newspaper, "Now I demand that I either be prosecuted for the murder committed fifteen years ago, or exonerated completely. If the District Attorney has any evidence, he should prosecute. If not, then I should be exonerated... Shadows have been cast upon my reputation".[2]
Later life
In late 1922, several months following Taylor's death, Minter became romantically involved for a time with then-Los Angeles news correspondent and film critic Louis Sherwin, who had at one time been married to actress Maude Fealy.[3] Minter made four more films for Paramount, with her last film, The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, being released in 1923. When the studio did not renew her contract, she received many other offers but declined them all, saying she had never been happy as an actress. In 1925, she sued her mother for an accounting of the money Shelby had received for her during her screen career.[4] The case was settled out of court, with the settlement being signed by Minter and Shelby at the American Consulate in Paris, France, on January 24, 1927.[5]
Minter commented she was content to live without her Hollywood career. She reconciled fully with her mother and proclaimed her love for Taylor throughout her long life. Minter had invested in Los Angeles real estate and seems to have lived in relative comfort and prosperity, although she was later the victim of several robberies during the 1970s and early 1980s. Police described her as a frail old woman and people were often shocked to learn she had once been a famous movie star. She died in 1984 from a stroke in Santa Monica.
For her contributions to the motion picture industry, Mary Miles Minter has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1724 Vine Street.
Film legacy
By 1999, all prints of her film Anne of Green Gables were believed to have been lost. A print of her 1919 film, The Ghost of Rosy Taylor surfaced in New Zealand in the 1990s. This film depicted her as an orphaned French girl buffeted from job to job and escaping from a workhouse prison. Other known surviving films include Youth's Endearing Charm (1916), A Dream or Two Ago (1916), Innocence of Lizette (1916), The Eyes of Julia Deep (1918), Nurse Marjorie (1920), A Cumberland Romance (1920) and The Little Clown (1921).[6][7]
Filmography
Year Film Role Notes 1912 The Nurse - as Juliet Shelby 1915 The Fairy and the Waif Viola Drayton, the Fairy Always in the Way Dorothy North Emmy of Stork's Nest Emmy Garrett Barbara Frietchie Barbara, Mrs. Frietchie's granddaughter 1916 Rose of the Alley Nell Drogan Dimples Dimples Lovely Mary Mary Lane Youth's Endearing Charm Mary Wade Dulcie's Adventure Dulcie Faith Faith A Dream or Two Ago Millicent Hawthorne Innocence of Lizette Lizette 1917 The Gentle Intruder Sylvia Environment Liz Simpkins Annie-for-Spite Annie Johnson Periwinkle Periwinkle Melissa of the Hills Melissa Stark Somewhere in America Rose Dorgan Charity Castle Charity Her Country's Call Jess Slocum Peggy Leads the Way Peggy Manners Extant The Mate of the Sally Ann Sally 1918 Beauty and the Rogue Roberta Lee Powers That Prey Sylvia Grant A Bit of Jade Phyllis King Social Briars Iris Lee The Ghost of Rosy Taylor Rhoda Eldridge Sayles The Eyes of Julia Deep Julia Deep Extant Rosemary Climbs the Heights Rosemary Van Voort Wives and Other Wives Robin Challoner 1919 The Amazing Impostor Joan Hope The Intrusion of Isabel Isabel Trevor A Bachelor's Wife Mary O'Rourke Yvonne from Paris Yvonne Halbert Anne of Green Gables Anne Shirley Lost 1920 Judy of Rogue's Harbor Judy Lost Nurse Marjorie Lady Marjorie Killonan Jenny Be Good Jenny Riano A Cumberland Romance Easter Hicks Sweet Lavender Lavender Eyes of the Heart Laura 1921 All Souls' Eve Alice Heath/Nora O'Hallahan The Little Clown Pat Don't Call Me Little Girl Jerry Moonlight and Honeysuckle Judith Baldwin Her Winning Way Ann Annington 1922 Tillie Tillie Getz The Heart Specialist Rosalie Beckwith South of Suva Phyllis Latimer The Cowboy and the Lady Jessica Westoon 1923 Drums of Fate Carol Dolliver The Trail of the Lonesome Pine June Tolliver References
- ^ Statement of Mary Miles Minter (LAPD) 7 Feb 1922 (retrieved 28 Aug 2007)[1]
- ^ Los Angeles Examiner (February 3, 1937), reprinted in Taylorology 74.[2]
- ^ 'Miss Minter Reported Engaged', The New York Times (December 6, 1922)[3]
- ^ 'Mother is Sued by Miss Minter', Los Angeles Times (January 30, 1925).
- ^ Los Angeles Examiner (May 29, 1936). The settlement was entered into evidence in a 1936 lawsuit against an investment firm.
- ^ Filmmuseum Biënnale "A Dream or Two ago" and "Innocence of Lizette" on the showing programm
- ^ Classic Images Surviving Films of Mary Miles Minter
External links
- Mary Miles Minter at the Internet Movie Database
- Mary-Miles-Minter.com
- Transcript of Minter's interview with the LAPD 5 days after Taylor's body was found.
- 1970 audio interview
- Mary Miles Minter as a 10 year old child in the Broadway play The Littlest Rebel (1912)(Univ. of Washington, Sayre collection)
Categories:- Deaths from stroke
- American actors
- American film actors
- American silent film actors
- Actors from Louisiana
- People from Shreveport, Louisiana
- 1902 births
- 1984 deaths
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