Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American film actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades. A pioneer in the American film industry, she co-founded Pickford–Fairbanks Studios and United Artists, and was one of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Pickford is considered to be one of the most recognisable women in history.
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Tuesday, May 17, 2022. 11:00
Mary Pickford - Actress. producer, screenwriter, businesswoman
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About :
Born Gladys Marie Smith, April 8, 1892, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Died May 29, 1979 (aged 87) Santa Monica, California, U.S., Burial place Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California
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Citizenship British subject (1892–1920)
United States (1920–1979)
Canada (1978–1979)
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Occupation
Actress. producer, screenwriter, businesswoman
Years active 1900–1955
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Spouse(s)
1. Owen Moore - (m. 1911; div. 1920)
2. Douglas Fairbanks - (m. 1920; div. 1936)
Charles "Buddy" Rogers - (m. 1937)
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Children 2
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Parent(s)
Charlotte Hennessey (mother)
Relatives
Lottie Pickford (sister)
Jack Pickford (brother)
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Introduction :
Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American film actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades. A pioneer in the American film industry, she co-founded Pickford–Fairbanks Studios and United Artists, and was one of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Pickford is considered to be one of the most recognisable women in history.
Cited as "America's Sweetheart" during the silent film era, and the "girl with the curls", she was one of the Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood and a significant figure in the development of film acting. She was one of the earliest stars to be billed under her own name, and was one of the most popular actresses of the 1910s and 1920s, earning the nickname "Queen of the Movies". She is credited with having defined the ingénue type in cinema.
She was awarded the second Academy Award for Best Actress for her first sound film role in Coquette (1929). By the late 1920s Pickford's career went into decline. She received an Academy Honorary Award in 1976 in consideration of her contributions to American cinema.
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Early life :
Bust of Mary Pickford on University Avenue, near her Toronto birthplace
Mary Pickford was born Gladys Marie Smith in 1892 (although she later claimed 1893 or 1894 as her year of birth) at 211 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario. Her father, John Charles Smith was the son of English Methodist immigrants, and worked a variety of odd jobs. Her mother, Charlotte Hennessey, was of Irish Catholic descent and worked for a time as a seamstress. She had two younger siblings, Charlotte, called "Lottie" (born 1893), and John Charles, called "Jack" (born 1896), who also became actors. To please her husband's relatives, Pickford's mother baptized her children as Methodists, the religion of their father. John Charles Smith was an alcoholic; he abandoned the family and died on February 11, 1898, from a fatal blood clot caused by a workplace accident when he was a purser with Niagara Steamship.
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When Gladys was four years old, her household was under infectious quarantine as a public health measure. Their devoutly Catholic maternal grandmother (Catherine Faeley Hennessey) asked a visiting Roman Catholic priest to baptize the children. Pickford was at this time baptized as Gladys Marie Smith.
After being widowed in 1899, Charlotte Smith began taking in boarders, one of whom was a Mr. Murphy, the theatrical stage manager for Cummings Stock Company, who soon suggested that Gladys, then age seven, and Lottie, then age six, be given two small theatrical roles – Gladys portrayed a girl and a boy, while Lottie was cast in a silent part in the company's production of The Silver King at Toronto's Princess Theatre (destroyed by fire in 1915, rebuilt, demolished in 1931), while their mother played the organ. Pickford subsequently acted in many melodramas with Toronto's Valentine Stock Company, finally playing the major child role in its version of The Silver King. She capped her short career in Toronto with the starring role of Little Eva in the Valentine production of Uncle Tom's Cabin, adapted from the 1852 novel.
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Career :
Early years
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Mary Pickford, 1914-1915 (digitally restored)
Mary Pickford, 1916
By the early 1900s, theatre had become a family enterprise. Gladys, her mother and two younger siblings toured the United States by rail, performing in third-rate companies and plays. After six impoverished years, Pickford allowed one more summer to land a leading role on Broadway, planning to quit acting if she failed. In 1906 Gladys, Lottie and Jack Smith supported singer Chauncey Olcott on Broadway in Edmund Burke. Gladys finally landed a supporting role in a 1907 Broadway play, The Warrens of Virginia. The play was written by William C. deMille, whose brother, Cecil, appeared in the cast. David Belasco, the producer of the play, insisted that Gladys Smith assume the stage name Mary Pickford. After completing the Broadway run and touring the play, however, Pickford was again out of work.
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On April 19, 1909, the Biograph Company director D. W. Griffith screen-tested her at the company's New York studio for a role in the nickelodeon film Pippa Passes. The role went to someone else but Griffith was immediately taken with Pickford. She quickly grasped that movie acting was simpler than the stylized stage acting of the day. Most Biograph actors earned $5 a day but, after Pickford's single day in the studio, Griffith agreed to pay her $10 a day against a guarantee of $40 a week.
Pickford, like all actors at Biograph, played both bit parts and leading roles, including mothers, ingenues, charwomen, spitfires, slaves, Native Americans, spurned women, and a prostitute. As Pickford said of her success at Biograph:
I played scrub women and secretaries and women of all nationalities ... I decided that if I could get into as many pictures as possible, I'd become known, and there would be a demand for my work.
She appeared in 51 films in 1909 – almost one a week – with her first starring role being in The Violin Maker of Cremona opposite future husband Owen Moore. While at Biograph, she suggested to Florence La Badie to "try pictures", invited her to the studio and later introduced her to D. W. Griffith, who launched La Badie's career.
In January 1910, Pickford traveled with a Biograph crew to Los Angeles. Many other film companies wintered on the West Coast, escaping the weak light and short days that hampered winter shooting in the East. Pickford added to her 1909 Biographs (Sweet and Twenty, They Would Elope, and To Save Her Soul, to name a few) with films made in California.
Actors were not listed in the credits in Griffith's company. Audiences noticed and identified Pickford within weeks of her first film appearance. Exhibitors, in turn, capitalized on her popularity by advertising on sandwich boards that a film featuring "The Girl with the Golden Curls", "Blondilocks", or "The Biograph Girl" was inside.
Pickford left Biograph in December 1910. The following year, she starred in films at Carl Laemmle's Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP). IMP was absorbed into Universal Pictures in 1912, along with Majestic. Unhappy with their creative standards, Pickford returned to work with Griffith in 1912. Some of her best performances were in his films, such as Friends, The Mender of Nets, Just Like a Woman, and The Female of the Species. That year, Pickford also introduced Dorothy and Lillian Gish – whom she had befriended as new neighbors from Ohio[18] – to Griffith,[1] and each became major silent film stars, in comedy and tragedy, respectively. Pickford made her last Biograph picture, The New York Hat, in late 1912.
She returned to Broadway in the David Belasco production of A Good Little Devil (1912). This was a major turning point in her career. Pickford, who had always hoped to conquer the Broadway stage, discovered how deeply she missed film acting. In 1913, she decided to work exclusively in film. The previous year, Adolph Zukor had formed Famous Players in Famous Plays. It was later known as Famous Players-Lasky and then Paramount Pictures, one of the first American feature film companies.
Mary Pickford, 1916
Pickford left the stage to join Zukor's roster of stars. Zukor believed film's potential lay in recording theatrical players in replicas of their most famous stage roles and productions. Zukor first filmed Pickford in a silent version of A Good Little Devil. The film, produced in 1913, showed the play's Broadway actors reciting every line of dialogue, resulting in a stiff film that Pickford later called "one of the worst [features] I ever made ... it was deadly".Zukor agreed; he held the film back from distribution for a year.
Pickford's work in material written for the camera by that time had attracted a strong following. Comedy-dramas, such as In the Bishop's Carriage (1913), Caprice (1913), and especially Hearts Adrift (1914), made her irresistible to moviegoers. Hearts Adrift was so popular that Pickford asked for the first of her many publicized pay raises based on the profits and reviews. The film marked the first time Pickford's name was featured above the title on movie marquees. Tess of the Storm Country was released five weeks later. Biographer Kevin Brownlow observed that the film "sent her career into orbit and made her the most popular actress in America, if not the world".
Her appeal was summed up two years later by the February 1916 issue of Photoplay as "luminous tenderness in a steel band of gutter ferocity". Only Charlie Chaplin, who slightly surpassed Pickford's popularity in 1916, had a similarly spellbinding pull with critics and the audience. Each enjoyed a level of fame far exceeding that of other actors. Throughout the 1910s and 1920s, Pickford was believed to be the most famous woman in the world, or, as a silent-film journalist described her, "the best known woman who has ever lived, the woman who was known to more people and loved by more people than any other woman that has been in all history".
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Stardom :
Mary Pickford, 1920
Pickford starred in 52 features throughout her career. On June 24, 1916, Pickford signed a new contract with Zukor that granted her full authority over production of the films in which she starred, and a record-breaking salary of $10,000 a week. In addition, Pickford's compensation was half of a film's profits, with a guarantee of $1,040,000 (US$19,600,000 in 2022), making her the first actress to sign a million dollar contract. She also became vice-president of Pickford Film Corporation.
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Occasionally, she played a child, in films such as The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917), Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917), Daddy-Long-Legs (1919), and Pollyanna (1920). Pickford's fans were devoted to these "little girl" roles, but they were not typical of her career. Due to her lack of a normal childhood, she enjoyed making these pictures. Given how small she was at under five feet, and her naturalistic acting abilities, she was very successful in these roles. Douglas Fairbanks Jr., when he first met her in person as a boy, assumed she was a new playmate for him, and asked her to come and play trains with him, which she obligingly did.
In August 1918, Pickford's contract expired and, when refusing Zukor's terms for a renewal, she was offered $250,000 to leave the motion picture business. She declined, and went to First National Pictures, which agreed to her terms. In 1919, Pickford, along with D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, and Douglas Fairbanks, formed the independent film production company United Artists. Through United Artists, Pickford continued to produce and perform in her own movies; she could also distribute them as she chose. In 1920, Pickford's film Pollyanna grossed around $1,100,000. The following year, Pickford's film Little Lord Fauntleroy was also a success, and in 1923, Rosita grossed over $1,000,000 as well. During this period, she also made Little Annie Rooney (1925), another film in which Pickford played a child, Sparrows (1926), which blended the Dickensian with newly minted German expressionist style, and My Best Girl (1927), a romantic comedy featuring her future husband Charles "Buddy" Rogers.
A lobby card for Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921)
The arrival of sound was her undoing. Pickford underestimated the value of adding sound to movies, claiming that "adding sound to movies would be like putting lipstick on the Venus de Milo".
She played a reckless socialite in Coquette (1929), her first talkie, a role for which her famous ringlets were cut into a 1920s' bob. Pickford had already cut her hair in the wake of her mother's death in 1928. Fans were shocked at the transformation. Pickford's hair had become a symbol of female virtue, and when she cut it, the act made front-page news in The New York Times and other papers. Coquette was a success and won her an Academy Award for Best Actress, although this was highly controversial. The public failed to respond to her in the more sophisticated roles. Like most movie stars of the silent era, Pickford found her career fading as talkies became more popular among audiences.
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Her next film, The Taming of The Shrew, made with husband Douglas Fairbanks, was not well received at the box office. Established Hollywood actors were panicked by the impending arrival of the talkies. On March 29, 1928, The Dodge Brothers Hour was broadcast from Pickford's bungalow, featuring Fairbanks, Chaplin, Norma Talmadge, Gloria Swanson, John Barrymore, D. W. Griffith, and Dolores del Río, among others. They spoke on the radio show to prove that they could meet the challenge of talking movies.
With Degree Resized
A transition in the roles Pickford selected came when she was in her late 30s, no longer able to play the children, teenage spitfires, and feisty young women so adored by her fans, and was not suited for the glamorous and vampish heroines of early sound. In 1933, she underwent a Technicolor screen test for an animated/live action film version of Alice in Wonderland, but Walt Disney discarded the project when Paramount released its own version of the book. Only one Technicolor still of her screen test still exists.
She retired from film acting in 1933 following three costly failures with her last film appearance being Secrets. She appeared on stage in Chicago in 1934 in the play The Church Mouse and went on tour in 1935, starting in Seattle with the stage version of Coquette. She also appeared in a season of radio plays for NBC in 1935 and CBS in 1936. In 1936 she became vice-president of United Artists and continued to produce films for others, including One Rainy Afternoon (1936), The Gay Desperado (1936), Sleep, My Love (1948; with Claudette Colbert), and Love Happy (1949), with the Marx Brothers.
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The film industry :
Mary Pickford giving President Herbert Hoover a ticket for a film industry benefit for the unemployed, 1931
Pickford used her stature in the movie industry to promote a variety of causes. Although her image depicted fragility and innocence, she proved to be a strong businesswoman who took control of her career in a cutthroat industry.
During World War I she promoted the sale of Liberty Bonds, making an intensive series of fund-raising speeches, beginning in Washington, D.C., where she sold bonds alongside Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Theda Bara, and Marie Dressler. Five days later she spoke on Wall Street to an estimated 50,000 people. Though Canadian-born, she was a powerful symbol of American culture, kissing the American flag for cameras and auctioning one of her world-famous curls for $15,000. In a single speech in Chicago, she sold an estimated five million dollars' worth of bonds. She was christened the U.S. Navy's official "Little Sister"; the Army named two cannons after her and made her an honorary colonel.
Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith, with whom Mary Pickford founded United Artists in 1919
In 1916, Pickford and Constance Adams DeMille, wife of director Cecil B. DeMille, helped found the Hollywood Studio Club, a dormitory for young women involved in the motion picture business. At the end of World War I, Pickford conceived of the Motion Picture Relief Fund, an organization to help financially needy actors. Leftover funds from her work selling Liberty Bonds were put toward its creation, and in 1921, the Motion Picture Relief Fund (MPRF) was officially incorporated, with Joseph Schenck voted its first president and Pickford its vice president. In 1932, Pickford spearheaded the "Payroll Pledge Program", a payroll-deduction plan for studio workers who gave one half of one percent of their earnings to the MPRF. As a result, in 1940, the Fund was able to purchase land and build the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital, in Woodland Hills, California.
An astute businesswoman, Pickford became her own producer within three years of her start in features. According to her Foundation, "she oversaw every aspect of the making of her films, from hiring talent and crew to overseeing the script, the shooting, the editing, to the final release and promotion of each project". She demanded (and received) these powers in 1916, when she was under contract to Zukor's Famous Players in Famous Plays (later Paramount). Zukor acquiesced to her refusal to participate in block-booking, the widespread practice of forcing an exhibitor to show a bad film of the studio's choosing to also be able to show a Pickford film. In 1916, Pickford's films were distributed, singly, through a special distribution unit called Artcraft. The Mary Pickford Corporation was briefly Pickford's motion-picture production company.
Mary Pickford War Funds bungalow, 1943
In 1919, she increased her power by co-founding United Artists (UA) with Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith, and her soon-to-be husband, Douglas Fairbanks. Before UA's creation, Hollywood studios were vertically integrated, not only producing films but forming chains of theaters. Distributors (also part of the studios) arranged for company productions to be shown in the company's movie venues. Filmmakers relied on the studios for bookings; in return they put up with what many considered creative interference.
United Artists broke from this tradition. It was solely a distribution company, offering independent film producers access to its own screens as well as the rental of temporarily unbooked cinemas owned by other companies. Pickford and Fairbanks produced and shot their films after 1920 at the jointly owned Pickford-Fairbanks studio on Santa Monica Boulevard. The producers who signed with UA were true independents, producing, creating and controlling their work to an unprecedented degree. As a co-founder, as well as the producer and star of her own films, Pickford became the most powerful woman who has ever worked in Hollywood. By 1930, Pickford's acting career had largely faded. After retiring three years later, however, she continued to produce films for United Artists. She and Chaplin remained partners in the company for decades. Chaplin left the company in 1955, and Pickford followed suit in 1956, selling her remaining shares for $3 million.
She had bought the rights to many of her early silent films with the intention of burning them on her death, but in 1970 she agreed to donate 50 of her Biograph films to the American Film Institute. In 1976, she received an Academy Honorary Award for her contribution to American film.
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Personal life :
Mary Pickford, 1921
Pickford was married three times. She married Owen Moore, an Irish-born silent film actor, on January 7, 1911. It is rumored she became pregnant by Moore in the early 1910s and had a miscarriage or an abortion. Some accounts suggest this resulted in her later inability to have children.The couple's marriage was strained by Moore's alcoholism, insecurity about living in the shadow of Pickford's fame, and bouts of domestic violence. The couple lived together on-and-off for several years.
Pickford became secretly involved in a relationship with Douglas Fairbanks. They toured the U.S. together in 1918 to promote Liberty Bond sales for the World War I effort. Around this time, Pickford also suffered from the flu during the 1918 flu pandemic. Pickford divorced Moore on March 2, 1920, after she agreed to his $100,000 demand for a settlement ($1.4 million in 2021, adjusted for inflation).
She married Fairbanks just days later on March 28, 1920, in what was described as the "marriage of the century" and they were referred to as the King and Queen of Hollywood. They went to Europe for their honeymoon; fans in London and in Paris caused riots trying to get to the famous couple. The couple's triumphant return to Hollywood was witnessed by vast crowds who turned out to hail them at railway stations across the United States.
The Mark of Zorro (1920) and a series of other swashbucklers gave the popular Fairbanks a more romantic, heroic image. Pickford continued to epitomize the virtuous but fiery girl next door. Even at private parties, people instinctively stood up when Pickford entered a room; she and her husband were often referred to as "Hollywood royalty". Their international reputations were broad. Foreign heads of state and dignitaries who visited the White House often asked if they could also visit Pickfair, the couple's mansion in Beverly Hills.
Dinners at Pickfair became celebrity events. Charlie Chaplin, Fairbanks' best friend, was often present. Other guests included George Bernard Shaw, Albert Einstein, Elinor Glyn, Helen Keller, H. G. Wells, Lord Mountbatten, Fritz Kreisler, Amelia Earhart, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Noël Coward, Max Reinhardt, Baron Nishi, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Austen Chamberlain, Sir Harry Lauder, and Meher Baba, among others. However, the public nature of Pickford's second marriage strained it to the breaking point. Both she and Fairbanks had little time off from producing and acting in their films. They were also constantly on display as America's unofficial ambassadors to the world, leading parades, cutting ribbons, and making speeches. When their film careers both began to flounder at the end of the silent era, Fairbanks' restless nature prompted him to overseas travel (something which Pickford did not enjoy). When Fairbanks' romance with Sylvia, Lady Ashley became public in the early 1930s, he and Pickford separated. They divorced January 10, 1936. Fairbanks' son by his first wife, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., claimed his father and Pickford long regretted their inability to reconcile.
On June 24, 1937, Pickford married her third and last husband, actor and band leader Charles "Buddy" Rogers. They adopted two children: Roxanne (born 1944, adopted 1944) and Ronald Charles (born 1937, adopted 1943, a.k.a. Ronnie Pickford Rogers). A PBS American Experience documentary described Pickford's relationship with her children as tense. She criticized their physical imperfections, including Ronnie's small stature and Roxanne's crooked teeth. Both children later said their mother was too self-absorbed to provide real maternal love. In 2003, Ronnie recalled that "Things didn't work out that much, you know. But I'll never forget her. I think that she was a good woman."
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Political views :
Pickford supported Thomas Dewey in the 1944 United States presidential election, Barry Goldwater in the 1964 United States presidential election and Ronald Reagan in his race for governor in 1966.
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Later years and death :
Mary Pickford in Star Night at the Cocoanut Grove (1934), her only film appearance in Technicolor
After retiring from the screen, Pickford became an alcoholic, as her father had been. Her mother Charlotte died of breast cancer in March 1928. Her siblings, Lottie and Jack, both died of alcohol-related causes in 1936 and 1933, respectively. These deaths, her divorce from Fairbanks, and the end of silent films left Pickford deeply depressed. Her relationship with her adopted children, Roxanne and Ronald, was turbulent at best. Pickford withdrew and gradually became a recluse, remaining almost entirely at Pickfair and allowing visits only from Lillian Gish, her stepson Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and a few select others.
In 1955, she published her memoirs, Sunshine and Shadows. She had previously published Why Not Try God in 1934, an essay on spirituality and personal growth, My Rendevouz of Life (1935), an essay on death and her belief in an afterlife and also a novel in 1935, The Demi-Widow. She appeared in court in 1959, in a matter pertaining to her co-ownership of North Carolina TV station WSJS-TV. The court date coincided with the date of her 67th birthday; under oath, when asked to give her age, Pickford replied: "I'm 21, going on 20.
In the mid-1960s, Pickford often received visitors only by telephone, speaking to them from her bedroom. Charles "Buddy" Rogers Charles "Buddy" Rogers often gave guests tours of Pickfair, including views of a genuine western bar Pickford had bought for Douglas Fairbanks, and a portrait of Pickford in the drawing room. A print of this image now hangs in the Library of Congress. When Pickford received an Academy Honorary Award in 1976, the Academy sent a TV crew to her house to record her short statement of thanks – offering the public a very rare glimpse into Pickfair Manor. Charitable events continued to be held at Pickfair, including an annual Christmas party for blind war veterans, mostly from World War I.
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Mary Pickford posing with a group of employees during her visit to the General Engineering Company (Canada) munitions factory on June 5, 1943
Pickford believed that she had ceased to be a British subject when she married Fairbanks, an American citizen, in 1920. Thus, she never acquired Canadian citizenship when it was first created in 1947. However, Pickford held and traveled under a British/Canadian passport which she renewed regularly at the British/Canadian consulates in Los Angeles, and she did not take out papers for American citizenship. She also owned a house in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Toward the end of her life, Pickford made arrangements with the Canadian Department of Citizenship to officially acquire Canadian citizenship because she wished to "die as a Canadian". Canadian authorities were not sure that she had ever lost her Canadian citizenship, given her passport status, but her request was approved and she officially became a Canadian citizen.
The tomb of actress Mary Pickford in the Garden of Memory, Forest Lawn Glendale
On May 29, 1979, Pickford died at a Santa Monica, California, hospital of complications from a cerebral hemorrhage she had suffered the week before. She was interred in the Garden of Memory of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park cemetery in Glendale, California.
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Legacy :
*Pickford was awarded a star in the category of motion pictures on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6280 Hollywood Blvd.
*Her handprints and footprints are displayed at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California.
*She is represented in Hergé's Tintin in America.
*The Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study at 1313 Vine Street in Hollywood, constructed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, opened in 1948 as a radio and television studio facility.
*The Mary Pickford Theater at the James Madison Memorial Building of the Library of Congress is named in her honor.
*The Mary Pickford Auditorium at Claremont McKenna College is named in her honor.
*In 1948, Mary Pickford built a seven-bedroom, eight-bathroom, 6,050-square-foot (562 m2) estate on 2.12 acres (8,600 m2) at the B Bar H Ranch, California where she lived and then later sold.
*A first-run movie theatre in Cathedral City, California is called The Mary Pickford Theatre, which was established on May 25, 2001. The theater is a grand one with several screens and is built in the shape of a Spanish Cathedral, complete with bell tower and three-story lobby. The lobby contains a historic display with original artifacts belonging to Pickford and Buddy Rogers, her last husband. Among them are a rare and spectacular beaded gown she wore in the film Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall (1924) designed by Mitchell Leisen, her special Oscar, and a jewelry box.
*The 1980 stage musical The Biograph Girl, about the silent film era, features the character of Pickford.
*In 2007, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences sued the estate of the deceased Buddy Rogers' second wife, Beverly Rogers, in order to stop the public sale of one of Pickford's Oscars.
*A bust and historical plaque marks her birthplace in Toronto, now the site of the Hospital for Sick Children. The plaque was unveiled by her husband Buddy Rogers in 1973. The bust by artist Eino Gira was added ten years later. Her date of birth is stated on the plaque as April 8, 1893. This can only be assumed to be because her date of birth was never registered; throughout her life, beginning as a child, she led many people to believe that she was a year younger than her real age, so that she appeared to be more of an acting prodigy and continued to be cast in younger roles, which were more plentiful in the theatre.
*The family home had been demolished in 1943, and many of the bricks delivered to Pickford in California. Proceeds from the sale of the property were donated by Pickford to build a bungalow in East York, Ontario, which was then a Toronto suburb. The bungalow was the first prize in a lottery in Toronto to benefit war charities, and Pickford unveiled the home on May 26, 1943.
*In 1993, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to her.
*Pickford received a posthumous star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto in 1999.
*Pickford was featured on a Canadian postage stamp in 2006.
*From January 2011 until July 2011, the Toronto International Film Festival exhibited a collection of Mary Pickford memorabilia in the Canadian Film Gallery of the TIFF Bell LightBox building.
*In February 2011, the Spadina Museum, dedicated to the 1920s and 1930s era in Toronto, staged performances of Sweetheart: The Mary Pickford Story, a one-woman musical based on the life and career of Pickford.
*In 2013, a copy of an early Pickford film that was thought to be lost (Their First Misunderstanding) was found by Peter Massie, a carpenter tearing down an abandoned barn in New Hampshire. It was donated to Keene State College and is currently undergoing restoration by the Library of Congress for exhibition. The film is notable as being the first in which Pickford was credited by name.
*On August 29, 2014, while presenting Behind The Scenes (1914) at Cinecon, film historian Jeffrey Vance announced he is working with the Mary Pickford Foundation on what will be her official biography.
*The Google Doodle of April 8, 2017 commemorated Mary Pickford's 125th birthday.
*The Girls in the Picture, a 2018 novel by Melanie Benjamin, is a historical fiction about the friendship of Mary Pickford and screenwriter Frances Marion.
*On August 20, 2019, the Toronto International Film Festival announced Mati Diop as the recipient of the first Mary Pickford Award.
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Pickford's handprints and footprints at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California
Pickford's star on the Walk of Fame in Toronto
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Mary Pickford filmography :
Advertisement, 1916.
Mary Pickford (1892–1979) was a Canadian-American motion picture actress, producer, and writer. During the silent film era she became one of the first great celebrities of the cinema and a popular icon known to the public as "America's Sweetheart".
Pickford was born Gladys Louise Smith in Toronto and began acting on stage in 1900. She started her film career in the United States in 1909. Initially with the Biograph film company, she moved to the Independent Motion Picture Company (IMP) in 1911, then briefly to the Majestic Film Company later that same year, followed by a return to Biograph in 1912. After appearing in over 150 short films during her years with these studios she began working in features with Zukor's Famous Players Film Company, a studio which eventually became part of Paramount Pictures. By 1916 Pickford's popularity had climbed to the point that she was awarded a contract that made her a partner with Zukor and allowed her to produce her own films. In 1919 Pickford teamed with D.W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, and Douglas Fairbanks to create United Artists, an organization designed to distribute their own films. Following the release of Secrets (1933) Pickford retired from acting in motion pictures. However, she remained active as a producer for several years afterwards. She sold her stock in United Artists in 1956.
Pickford won two Academy Awards in her lifetime. The first was in 1929 when she won the award for Best Actress for her performance in Coquette. The second was in 1975 when she was presented with an Honorary Academy Award "in recognition of her unique contributions to the film industry and the development of film as an artistic medium".
As of 2009 two of Pickford's films have been added to the National Film Registry: Tess of the Storm Country (1914) and The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917). For her work in motion pictures Pickford received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6280 Hollywood Boulevard.
Unless otherwise referenced, the information presented here is derived from the web site of the American Film Institute, the filmography prepared by Library of Congress historian Christel Schmidt, and the books Mary Pickford Rediscovered by Kevin Brownlow, Mary Pickford: From Here to Hollywood by Scott Eyman, and Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood by Eileen Whitfield.
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Box Office Ranking
1912 - 11
1913 - 15
1914 - 3
1915 - 2
1916 - 2
1917 - 4
1918 - 2
1919 - 3
1920 - 6
1921 - 1
1922 - 1
1923 - 4
1924 - 7
1925 - 4
1926 - 7
1927 - 23
1928 - 18
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"The best known woman who has ever lived, the woman who was known to more people and loved by more people than any other woman that has been in all history."
Adela Rogers St. Johns, 1981
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Short Films :
Biograph (1909)
Mary Pickford began working for the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company in April 1909 and remained with the company until the end of 1910. During this period Pickford made 43 films released in 1909, plus a 44th film that was not released. Most of these films are one-reelers while the remaining films are split-reelers (i.e. one of two films released on the same reel).
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Release date Title Credited as Director Notes
Writer Producer Actress Role
May 24, 1909 Two Memories Yes Marion's sister D.W. Griffith Split-reel
May 31, 1909 His Duty Yes One of the children on the street D.W. Griffith Split-reel
June 7, 1909 The Violin Maker of Cremona Yes Giannina, Taddeo's Daughter D.W. Griffith
June 10, 1909 The Lonely Villa Yes One of the Cullison Children D.W. Griffith Split-reel
June 14, 1909 The Son's Return Yes Mary Clark D.W. Griffith
June 17, 1909 Faded Lilies Yes Girl at Party D.W. Griffith Split-reel
June 17, 1909 Her First Biscuits Yes Biscuit Victim D.W. Griffith Split-reel
The first film that Pickford made
June 24, 1909 The Peach-Basket Hat Yes Woman on the Street and in Store D.W. Griffith Split-reel
June 28, 1909 The Way of Man Yes Winnie, Mabel's Cousin D.W. Griffith
July 1, 1909 The Necklace Yes The Maid in the Pawnshop D.W. Griffith
July 8, 1909 The Country Doctor Yes Poor Mother's Elder Daughter D.W. Griffith
July 12, 1909 The Cardinal's Conspiracy Yes The Señorita D.W. Griffith
July 15, 1909 Tender Hearts Yes Nellie D.W. Griffith Split-reel
July 19, 1909 The Renunciation Yes Kittie Ryan D.W. Griffith
July 22, 1909 Sweet and Twenty Yes Alice D.W. Griffith Split-reel
July 29, 1909 The Slave Yes A Young Girl at Court D.W. Griffith
August 9, 1909 They Would Elope Yes Bessie D.W. Griffith
August 19, 1909 His Wife's Visitor Yes Bessie Wright D.W. Griffith
August 23, 1909 The Indian Runner's Romance Yes Blue Cloud's Wife D.W. Griffith
August 26, 1909 "Oh, Uncle!" Yes Bessie D.W. Griffith Split-reel
August 26, 1909 The Seventh Day Yes The Maid D.W. Griffith Split-reel
September 2, 1909 The Little Darling Yes The Little Darling D.W. Griffith
September 2, 1909 The Sealed Room Yes A Lady-in-Waiting D.W. Griffith
September 6, 1909 The Hessian Renegades Yes A member of the soldier's family D.W. Griffith
September 13, 1909 Getting Even Yes Yes Miss Lucy D.W. Griffith Split-reel
September 16, 1909 The Broken Locket Yes Ruth King D.W. Griffith
September 20, 1909 In Old Kentucky Yes Homecoming Party D.W. Griffith
September 30, 1909 The Awakening Yes Yes The Widow's Daughter D.W. Griffith
October 11, 1909 The Little Teacher Yes The Little Teacher D.W. Griffith
October 18, 1909 His Lost Love Yes Mary D.W. Griffith
October 25, 1909 In the Watches of the Night Yes Girl at Brainard's D.W. Griffith
October 28, 1909 Lines of White on a Sullen Sea Yes Second Couple D.W. Griffith
November 1, 1909 The Gibson Goddess Yes Girl on Sidewalk D.W. Griffith Split-reel
November 1, 1909 What's Your Hurry? Yes Mary D.W. Griffith Split-reel
November 8, 1909 The Restoration Yes Alice Ashford D.W. Griffith
November 11, 1909 The Light That Came Yes Vivian and Daisy D.W. Griffith
November 18, 1909 A Midnight Adventure Yes Eleanor D.W. Griffith Split-reel
November 25, 1909 The Mountaineer's Honor Yes Harum-Scarum, a Mountain Girl D.W. Griffith
November 29, 1909 The Trick That Failed Yes Nellie Burt D.W. Griffith Split-reel
December 6, 1909 Through the Breakers Yes An extra D.W. Griffith
December 16, 1909 The Test Yes Bessie D.W. Griffith
December 27, 1909 To Save Her Soul Yes Agnes Hailey D.W. Griffith
December 30, 1909 The Day After Yes D.W. Griffith Split-reel
December 31, 1909 The Heart of an Outlaw Yes The Outlaw's Daughter D.W.--- Griffith
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Biograph (1910)
Pickford appeared in 34 Biograph films released in 1910. All of these films are one-reelers.
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Release date Title Credited as Director Notes
Writer Producer Actress Role
January 15, 1910 All on Account of the Milk Yes The Young Woman Frank Powell
February 3, 1910 The Woman from Mellon's Yes Mary Petersby, the Daughter D.W. Griffith
February 17, 1910 The Englishman and the Girl Yes The Girl D.W. Griffith Lost
March 3, 1910 The Newlyweds Yes Alice Vance D.W. Griffith
March 7, 1910 The Thread of Destiny Yes Myrtle D.W. Griffith
March 24, 1910 The Twisted Trail Yes Molly Hendricks D.W. Griffith
March 31, 1910 The Smoker Yes George's Wife Frank Powell[15]
April 4, 1910 As It Is In Life Yes George Forrester's Daughter, as an Adult D.W. Griffith
April 7, 1910 A Rich Revenge Yes Jennie D.W. Griffith
April 11, 1910 A Romance of the Western Hills Yes Indian D.W. Griffith
May 5, 1910 The Unchanging Sea Yes The Daughter as an Adult D.W. Griffith
May 9, 1910 Love Among the Roses Yes The Lacemaker D.W. Griffith
May 12, 1910 The Two Brothers Yes A Mexican D.W. Griffith
May 23, 1910 Ramona Yes Ramona D.W. Griffith Based on the novel by Helen Hunt Jackson
June 2, 1910 In the Season of Buds Yes Mabel D.W. Griffith
June 9, 1910 A Victim of Jealousy Yes The Wife's Friend D.W. Griffith
June 20, 1910 Never Again Yes The Girl Frank Powell[16]
June 20, 1910 May and December Yes Yes May Frank Powell[14]
June 27, 1910 A Child's Impulse Yes Grace D.W. Griffith
June 30, 1910 Muggsy's First Sweetheart Yes Mabel Brown D.W. Griffith
July 11, 1910 What the Daisy Said Yes Martha D.W. Griffith
July 25, 1910 The Call to Arms Yes A Messenger D.W. Griffith Unique male role of her career
August 1, 1910 An Arcadian Maid Yes Priscilla D.W. Griffith
August 15, 1910 When We Were In Our Teens Yes Mary Frank Powell[17]
August 22, 1910 The Sorrows of the Unfaithful Yes Mary D.W. Griffith
August 25, 1910 Wilful Peggy Yes Peggy D.W. Griffith
September 1, 1910 Muggsy Becomes a Hero Yes Mabel Frank Powell[18]
October 6, 1910 A Gold Necklace Yes Mazie Frank Powell[19]
October 13, 1910 The Lucky Toothache Yes Bessie Frank Powell[20]
November 5, 1910 Waiter No. 5 Yes The Chief of Police's Son's Fiancée D.W. Griffith
November 14, 1910 Simple Charity Yes Miss Wilkins D.W. Griffith
November 21, 1910 The Song of the Wildwood Flute Yes Dove Eyes D.W. Griffith
November 28, 1910 A Plain Song Yes Edith D.W. Griffith
December 22, 1910 White Roses Yes Betty Frank Powell
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Biograph (1911)
Pickford left the Biograph Company at the end of 1910. The last films that she made for them before her departure were released in early 1911. All of these five films are one-reelers.
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Release date Title Credited as Director Notes
Writer Producer Actress Role
January 5, 1911 When A Man Loves Yes Tessie D.W. Griffith
January 9, 1911 The Italian Barber Yes Alice D.W. Griffith
February 2, 1911 Three Sisters Yes Mary D.W. Griffith
March 6, 1911 A Decree of Destiny Yes Mary D.W. Griffith
August 17, 1911 Madame Rex Yes D.W. Griffith
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Selig (1911)
In a 1913 interview Pickford claimed to have written two screenplays for the Selig Polyscope Company. Neither film is known to survive.
Release date Title Credited as Director Notes
Writer Producer Actress Role
March 3, 1911 The Medallion Yes (unknown) Lost
July 31, 1911 Caught in the Act Yes (unknown) Lost
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IMP (1911–1912)
In December 1910 Carl Laemmle signed Pickford to his Independent Motion Picture Company (IMP). All of her IMP titles are one-reelers. The names of Pickford's characters are given if known. Only 13 of Pickford's 41 IMP films are known to survive complete, while fragments of two others exist.
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Release date Title Credited as Director Notes
Writer Producer Actress Role
January 9, 1911 Their First Misunderstanding Yes Yes Mae Darcy Thomas Ince Extant
January 23, 1911 The Dream Yes Yes The Wife Thomas Ince
George Loane Tucker preserved; Library of Congress
January 30, 1911 Maid or Man Yes Jimmie's sister Thomas Ince
February 9, 1911 The Mirror Yes Dorothy Thomas Ince
February 9, 1911 When The Cat's Away Yes Dorothy, the wife Thomas Ince
February 13, 1911 Her Darkest Hour Yes Ruth Thomas Ince Lost
February 16, 1911 The Convert Yes Agnes Boyd Thomas Ince Lost
February 23, 1911 Artful Kate Yes Artful Kate Stanley Thomas Ince preserved; Library of Congress
February 27, 1911 A Manly Man Yes Walk-on Thomas Ince
March 6, 1911 Tracked Yes Unknown role Thomas Ince Lost
March 9, 1911 The Message in the Bottle Yes Walk-on Thomas Ince Lost
March 13, 1911 The Secret of the Palm Yes Unknown role Thomas Ince Lost
March 16, 1911 The Fisher-Maid Yes Paula, the Fisher-Maid Thomas Ince Lost
March 20, 1911 In Old Madrid Yes Walk-on Thomas Ince
March 27, 1911 Sweet Memories Yes Polly Biblett Thomas Ince preserved at the Library of Congress
April 17, 1911 The Stampede Yes Nello, the Bandit's Daughter Thomas Ince Lost
April 24, 1911 While There Is Hope, There Is Life Yes Unknown role Thomas Ince Lost
May 1, 1911 Second Sight Yes Gertrude Edgar Thomas Ince Lost
May 8, 1911 The Fair Dentist Yes Edith Morton Thomas Ince Lost
May 11, 1911 For Her Brother's Sake Yes Madge Spotwood Thomas Ince Lost
May 15, 1911 The Master and the Man Yes Elsie Graham Thomas Ince Lost
May 18, 1911 The Lighthouse Keeper Yes Polly Berry, the Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter Thomas Ince
June 8, 1911 Back to the Soil Yes Sadie Allen Thomas Ince Lost
July 3, 1911 In the Sultan's Garden Yes Haidee Thomas Ince
July 6, 1911 For the Queen's Honor Yes Princess Gilda Thomas Ince Lost
July 10, 1911 A Gasoline Engagement Yes Flora Powell Thomas Ince Lost
July 13, 1911 At a Quarter of Two Yes Mrs. Warren Thomas Ince Fragment survives
July 24, 1911 Science Yes Mrs. Crawford Thomas Ince Lost
July 31, 1911 The Skating Bug Yes The Girl Thomas Ince Lost
August 13, 1911 The Call of the Song Yes Amy Gordon Thomas Ince Lost
August 24, 1911 As a Boy Dreams Yes The Girl Thomas Ince
August 31, 1911 The Toss of a Coin Yes Alice Barton, the Farmer's Daughter Thomas Ince Lost
September 29, 1911 'Tween Two Loves Yes Grace Thomas Ince
October 2, 1911 The Rose's Story Yes Unknown role Thomas Ince Lost
October 9, 1911 The Sentinel Asleep [fr] Yes Unknown role Thomas Ince Lost
October 12, 1911 The Better Way Yes Lilian Garvey, a Salvation Army Lass Thomas Ince Lost
October 30, 1911 His Dress Shirt Yes Mrs. Kirby Thomas Ince Lost
December 28, 1911 The Portrait Yes Little Vera, the Model
1911 (exact date unknown) How Mary Fixed It Yes Mary
March 11, 1912 A Timely Repentance Yes Heroine of the Movie Within the Movie, The Wife's Desertion Thomas Ince Fragment survives
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Majestic (1911–1912)
After leaving IMP, Pickford signed with Harry H. Aiken's Majestic Film Company. During her brief time with this studio she made five one-reelers. Only one of these films is known to survive.
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Release date Title Credited as Director Notes
Writer Producer Actress Role
November 25, 1911 The Courting of Mary Yes Mary George Loane Tucker Lost
December 3, 1911 Love Heeds Not the Showers Yes Unknown role Owen Moore Lost
December 17, 1911 Little Red Riding Hood Yes Little Red Riding Hood Owen Moore
December 31, 1911 The Caddy's Dream Yes Unknown role Owen Moore Lost
February 9, 1912 Honor Thy Father Yes Mary Fuller Owen Moore Lost
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Biograph (1912–1913)
Pickford returned to the Biograph Company in January 1912, where she remained until the end of the year. Except where noted all 26 films from this period are one-reelers.
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Release date Title Credited as Director Notes
Writer Producer Actress Role
February 15, 1912 The Mender of Nets Yes The Net-Mender D.W. Griffith
March 11, 1912 A Timely Repentance Yes The Movie Heroine D.W. Griffith
March 14, 1912 Iola's Promise Yes Iola D.W. Griffith
April 8, 1912 Fate's Interception Yes The Mexican Girl D.W. Griffith
April 15, 1912 The Female of the Species Yes The Miner's Wife's Sister D.W. Griffith
April 18, 1912 Just Like a Woman Yes The Young Woman D.W. Griffith
April 22, 1912 Won By a Fish Yes The Woman Mack Sennett[14]
May 6, 1912 The Old Actor Yes The Old Actor's Daughter D.W. Griffith
May 9, 1912 A Lodging for the Night Yes The Mexican Girl D.W. Griffith
May 27, 1912 A Beast at Bay Yes The Young Woman D.W. Griffith
June 6, 1912 Home Folks Yes The Young Woman D.W. Griffith
June 17, 1912 Lena and the Geese Yes Yes Lena D.W. Griffith
June 27, 1912 The School Teacher and the Waif Yes Nora, the Waif D.W. Griffith
July 8, 1912 An Indian Summer Yes The Widow's Daughter D.W. Griffith
August 1, 1912 The Narrow Road Yes Mrs. Jim Holcomb D.W. Griffith
August 12, 1912 The Inner Circle Yes The Rich Italian's Daughter D.W. Griffith
August 19, 1912 With the Enemy's Help Yes Faro Kate Wilfred Lucas[27]
August 29, 1912 A Pueblo Legend Yes The Indian Girl D.W. Griffith Two reels
September 23, 1912 Friends Yes Dora (the orphan) D.W. Griffith
September 30, 1912 So Near, yet So Far Yes The Young Woman D.W. Griffith
October 3, 1912 A Feud in the Kentucky Hills Yes The Daughter D.W. Griffith
October 21, 1912 The One She Loved Yes The Wife D.W. Griffith
November 14, 1912 My Baby Yes The Wife D.W. Griffith
November 21, 1912 The Informer Yes The Confederate Captain's Sweetheart D.W. Griffith
December 6, 1912 The New York Hat Yes Miss Mollie Goodhue (the girl) D.W. Griffith The last film that Pickford made for Biograph
March 15, 1913 The Unwelcome Guest Yes The Slavey D.W. Griffith
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Features
State rights (1913–1914)
After leaving Biograph at the end of 1912, Pickford returned to stage acting in the Broadway production of David Belasco's play A Good Little Devil. In May 1913 she resumed acting in motion pictures when she signed with Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company. The first five features she made for Zukor were released in the United States on a state rights basis, where regional organizations in each state handled the distribution of each film. Only one of these films is known to survive complete.
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Release date Title Credited as Director Notes
Writer Producer Actress Role
September 10, 1913 In the Bishop's Carriage Yes Nance Olden Edwin S. Porter Lost
November 10, 1913 Caprice Yes Mercy Baxter J. Searle Dawley Lost
February 10, 1914 Hearts Adrift Yes Nina Edwin S. Porter Lost
March 1, 1914 A Good Little Devil Yes Juliet Edwin S. Porter incomplete; One reel survives
March 30, 1914 Tess of the Storm Country Yes Tessibel Skinner Edwin S. Porter
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Paramount (1914–1916)
In 1914 Paramount Pictures began handling the release of Zukor's Famous Players Film Company. Pickford made 17 features prior to beginning with Artcraft. Ten of these films survive complete while six are lost and one survives incomplete.
Release date Title Credited as Director Notes
Writer Producer Actress Role
July 1, 1914 The Eagle's Mate Yes Anemone Breckenridge James Kirkwood
August 26, 1914 Behind the Scenes Yes Dolly Lane James Kirkwood
September 21, 1914 Such a Little Queen Yes Queen Anna Victoria Hugh Ford Lost
December 28, 1914 Cinderella Yes Cinderella James Kirkwood
February 1, 1915 Mistress Nell Yes Mistress Nell James Kirkwood
May 10, 1915 Fanchon the Cricket Yes Fanchon, the cricket James Kirkwood Survives incomplete; 3½ of 5 reels survive
June 7, 1915 The Dawn of a Tomorrow Yes Glad James Kirkwood
July 1, 1915 Little Pal Yes "Little Pal" James Kirkwood
August 2, 1915 Rags Yes Rags / Alice McCloud James Kirkwood
September 6, 1915 Esmeralda Yes Esmerelda Rogers James Kirkwood Lost
October 7, 1915 A Girl of Yesterday Yes Yes Jane Stuart Allan Dwan Lost
November 8, 1915 Madame Butterfly Yes Cho-Cho-San Sidney Olcott
Unreleased The Foundling Yes Molly O Allan Dwan Lost; negative destroyed in a studio fire.[29]
January 2, 1916 The Foundling Yes Molly O John B. O'Brien
March 2, 1916 Poor Little Peppina Yes Peppina Sidney Olcott
April 17, 1916 The Eternal Grind Yes Louise John B. O'Brien
July 31, 1916 Hulda from Holland Yes Hulda John B. O'Brien
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Artcraft (1916–1918)
Pickford signed a new contract with Adolph Zukor in June 1916. Among the agreements in the contract was that she would now be producing her own films and they would be distributed through a special division of Paramount Pictures called Artcraft. Pickford made 13 films for Artcraft of which 11 survive complete.
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Release date Title Credited as Director Notes
Writer Producer Actress Role
November 2, 1916 Less Than the Dust Yes Yes Radha John Emerson
January 8, 1917 The Pride of the Clan Yes Yes Marget MacTavish Maurice Tourneur
March 5, 1917 The Poor Little Rich Girl Yes Yes Gwendolyn Maurice Tourneur
May 14, 1917 A Romance of the Redwoods Yes Yes Jenny Lawrence Cecil B. DeMille
July 2, 1917 The Little American Yes Yes Angela Moore Cecil B. DeMille
September 3, 1917 Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm Yes Yes Rebecca Randall Marshall Neilan
November 12, 1917 A Little Princess Yes Yes Sara Crewe Marshall Neilan
January 21, 1918 Stella Maris Yes Yes Miss Stella Maris / Unity Blake Marshall Neilan
March 10, 1918 Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley Yes Yes Amarilly Jenkins Marshall Neilan
May 12, 1918 M'Liss Yes Yes Melissa "M'liss" Smith Marshall Neilan
June 23, 1918 How Could You, Jean? Yes Yes Jean Mackaye William Desmond Taylor Lost
September 15, 1918 Johanna Enlists Yes Yes Johanna Rensselaer William Desmond Taylor
April 21, 1919 Captain Kidd, Jr. Yes Yes Mary MacTavish William Desmond Taylor Incomplete print survives
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War propaganda (1917–1918)
During World War I Pickford appeared in four short propaganda films.
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Release date Title Credited as Director Notes
Writer Producer Actress Role
October 1917 All-Star Production of Patriotic Episodes for the Second Liberty Loan Yes Herself Marshall Neilan
October 5, 1918 100% American Yes Mayme Arthur Rosson Released in Canada under the title 100% Canadian.[23]
November 1, 1918 United States Fourth Liberty Loan Drive Yes Herself Frank Lloyd
November 1918 Canadian Victory Loan Drive Yes Herself
First National (1918–1920)
In November 1918 Pickford ended her contractual obligations with Adolph Zukor and Paramount. She then signed a three-picture deal with First National to distribute her productions.
Release date Title Credited as Director Notes
Writer Producer Actress Role
May 12, 1919 Daddy-Long-Legs Yes Yes Yes Jerusha "Judy" Abbott Marshall Neilan
September 1, 1919 The Hoodlum Yes Yes Amy Burke Sidney Franklin
December 1, 1919 Heart o' the Hills Yes Yes Mavis Hawn Sidney Franklin
United Artists (silent films, 1920–1927)
In 1919 Pickford co-founded United Artists with Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffith, and Douglas Fairbanks. Pickford starred in 11 silent films for United Artists release and co-produced three films starring her brother, Jack Pickford, and one with their sister, Lottie Pickford. Mary Pickford also made unbilled cameo appearances in three other films during this time.
Release date Title Credited as Director Notes
Writer Producer Actress Role
January 18, 1920 Pollyanna Yes Yes Pollyanna Whittier Paul Powell A Mary Pickford Production
Released by United Artists
January 27, 1920 Suds Yes Yes Amanda Afflick John Francis Dillon A Mary Pickford Production
Released by United Artists
January 9, 1921 The Love Light Yes Yes Angela Carlotti Frances Marion A Mary Pickford Production
Released by United Artists
May 17, 1921 Through the Back Door Yes Yes Jeanne Alfred E. Green
Jack Pickford A Mary Pickford Production
Released by United Artists
August 17, 1921 They Shall Pay Yes Martin Justice A Playgoer Picture
Released by Associated Exhibitors
Starring Lottie Pickford
September 16, 1921 Little Lord Fauntleroy Yes Yes Cedric Errol / Widow Errol Alfred E. Green
Jack Pickford A Mary Pickford Production
Released by United Artists
November 12, 1922 Tess of the Storm Country Yes Yes Tessibel "Tess" Skinner John S. Robertson A Mary Pickford Production
Released by United Artists
January 23, 1923 Garrison's Finish Yes Arthur Rossen A Jack Pickford Production
Released by Allied Producers and Distributors
August 19, 1923 Hollywood Yes Herself (unbilled cameo) James Cruze A Paramount Picture;
Lost
September 3, 1923 Rosita Yes Yes Rosita, a street singer Ernst Lubitsch A Mary Pickford Production
Released by United Artists
March 15, 1924 The Hill Billy Yes George W. Hill Jack Pickford–Allied Producers and Distributors
May 25, 1924 Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall Yes Yes Dorothy Vernon Marshall Neilan A Mary Pickford Production
Released by United Artists
March 29, 1925 Waking Up the Town Yes James Cruze A Jack Pickford Production
Released by Allied Producers and Distributors
September 18, 1925 Little Annie Rooney Yes Yes Yes Annabelle "Little Annie" Rooney William Beaudine A Mary Pickford Production
Released by United Artists
March 8, 1926 The Black Pirate Yes Billie Dove's kissing stand-in (unbilled cameo) Albert Parker An Elton Corporation Production
Released by United Artists
Filmed in Technicolor
September 26, 1926 Sparrows Yes Yes Molly William Beaudine A Mary Pickford Production
Released by United Artists
September 9, 1927 A Kiss from Mary Pickford ("Поцелуй Мэри Пикфорд") Yes Herself (cameo) Sergei Komarov A Mezhrabpom–Rus & Sovkino Production
November 4, 1927 The Gaucho Yes Virgin Mary (unbilled cameo) F. Richard Jones An Elton Corporation Production
Released by United Artists
November 13, 1927 My Best Girl Yes Yes Maggie Johnson Sam Taylor A Mary Pickford Production
Released by United Artists
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United Artists (sound films, 1929–1949)
Pickford starred in four sound films (excluding the uncompleted Forever Yours). After Secrets, her final film as an actress, she continued working as a producer, including two films in collaboration with Jesse L. Lasky. In 1945, she and her third husband, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, co-founded Comet Productions to produce "B" pictures for United Artists. Her role as producer in these later films was generally uncredited.
Release date Title Credited as Director Notes
Writer Producer Actress Role
March 30, 1929 Coquette Yes Yes Norma Besant Sam Taylor A Mary Pickford Production
Released by United Artists
Academy Award for Best Actress
October 26, 1929 The Taming of the Shrew Yes Yes Katherine Sam Taylor A Mary Pickford and Elton Corporation Production
Released by United Artists
Not released (filmed in 1930) Forever Yours Yes Yes Mary Carlton / Mary Marlow Marshall Neilan A Mary Pickford Production
Not completed; 3½ minutes survive
March 14, 1931 Kiki Yes Kiki Sam Taylor An Art Cinema Production
Released by United Artists
March 16, 1933 Secrets Yes Yes Mary Carlton / Mary Marlow Frank Borzage A Mary Pickford Production
Released by United Artists
May 13, 1936 One Rainy Afternoon Yes Rowland V. Lee A Mary Pickford–Jesse Lasky Production
Released by United Artists
October 2, 1936 The Gay Desperado Yes Rouben Mamoulian A Mary Pickford–Jesse Lasky Production
Released by United Artists
October 20, 1946 Little Iodine Yes Reginald Le Borg A Comet Production
Released by United Artists
December 13, 1946 Susie Steps Out Yes Reginald Le Borg A Comet Production
Released by United Artists
May 9, 1947 The Adventures of Don Coyote Yes Reginald Le Borg A Comet Production
Released by United Artists
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Filmed in Cinecolor
June 21, 1947 Stork Bites Man Yes Cy Endfield A Comet Production
Released by United Artists
February 18, 1948 Sleep, My Love Yes Douglas Sirk A Triangle Production
Released by United Artists
November 19, 1948 White Cradle Inn Yes Harold French Peak Films–United Artists
October 12, 1949 Love Happy Yes David Miller An Allied Alliance Production
Released by United Artists
Cameos and erroneous credits
Cameo appearances in short films
Pickford made cameo appearances as herself in the following short films:
Year Title Ref
1928 Holiday in Mexico
1933 Hollywood on Parade No. B-10
1934 Star Night at the Cocoanut Grove
1941 Picture People No. 3: Hobbies of the Stars
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Erroneous credits:
Three Biograph titles, The Usurer (August 15, 1910), The Affair of an Egg (September 1, 1910), and Examination Day at School (September 2, 1910), and two IMP titles, At the Duke's Command (February 6, 1911) and From the Bottom of the Sea (October 20, 1911), have been erroneously listed in Mary Pickford filmographies. Pickford historian Christel Schmidt has confirmed that the actress does not appear in these films. The Internet Movie Database lists Pickford as appearing in the Biograph shorts entitled Mrs. Jones Entertains (January 9, 1909), The Fascinating Mrs. Francis (January 21, 1909) and The Deception (March 22, 1909). However, Pickford did not begin with Biograph until the end of April 1909. Mary Pickford is credited with appearing in the movie Pictureland in 1911 but a recently discovered copy shows that she is not in the film. The stars are Isabel Rae and King Baggot and the film was likely directed by Thomas Ince.
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ABOUT MARY PICKFORD : TRIBUTE
On the set of Sparrows Mary Pickford (1892-1979) was a multifaceted pioneer of early cinema. She was a talented performer, a creative producer and a savvy businesswoman who helped shape the film industry as we know it today.
Mary Pickford rose steadily to fame at a time when there was no path to follow. Actresses who came after her, such as Joan Crawford and Jean Harlow, cut pictures from fan magazines, pinned them to their walls and dreamed of stardom. Mary was known as “the girl with the curls” and “the Biograph girl” before audiences learned her name; fan magazines were created because of stars like Mary Pickford. In fact, the very first issue of Photoplay in 1912 featured Mary dressed in character for Little Red Riding Hood. Her first film director was D.W. Griffith and she went on to work with most of the greats of her era such as Cecil B. De Mille, Allan Dwan, James Kirkwood, Marshall Neilan, Sidney Franklin, Maurice Tourneur and Ernst Lubitsch. Her career was buoyed by fellow professionals who were also friends, including the cinematographer Charles Rosher and the screenwriter Frances Marion, at a time when the art form was in a near constant state of change.
Mary and Charlotte on the Poor Little Rich Girl set, 1916Between 1912 and 1919, Mary Pickford jumped between a variety of studios, increasing her paychecks astronomically each time until she risked it all by joining with Douglas Fairbanks, D.W. Griffith and Charlie Chaplin to form United Artists. The reaction from studio bosses is summed up by the oft repeated line, “The inmates have taken over the asylum” and it was not a smooth road, but they found the success that was most important to them because they totally controlled their own product. Mary would risk her career again the following year when she made the decision that instead of being “America’s sweetheart, I want to be one man’s sweetheart.” At a time when stars were told they could not be divorced and still be big box office, Mary divorced Owen Moore and married Doug Fairbanks in 1920. But instead of being a pariah, her popularity, and that of her new husband, soared as their union was greeted as a storybook marriage and they were hailed as Hollywood royalty. They would reign from their Beverly Hills home, dubbed Pickfair, until she filed for divorce in 1933.
Tess of the Storm Country, Pickford Studio -- L to R: G.V. Kilgore, painting department; Frank Ormston, art director; Mary Pickford.By then, Mary was working behind the scenes as a producer and a board member of United Artists. She was a founder of the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers in 1941 and she was the last of the original United Artists founders to sell her interest in the mid-1950s. Her final film as an actress, Secrets, was released in 1933, the same week that newly elected President Roosevelt declared a bank holiday, closing down all financial institutions at the height of the Depression. She had already established herself as one of the most successful actresses of all time, won an Academy Award for her first “talkie,” Coquette, and went on to receive an honorary Oscar for her contribution to motion pictures in 1976. Mary Pickford was also an early leader in the film preservation movement and an ardent supporter of creating a museum devoted to the art of moviemaking.
Mary and Doug at Pickfair, 1920Philanthropy was also a hallmark of Mary Pickford’s long life. As the renowned film historian Kevin Brownlow says, “Mary herself did an incredible amount for charity, the full extent of which will probably never be known.” While much of her giving was done quietly, to friends or friends-of-friends in need, it was when she was selling war bonds in 1918 that she first learned how she could use her influence and popularity to inspire others to give, and she would go on to leverage that power in a variety of endeavors. She was a hands-on contributor to organizations supporting the creative community. She was one of the original founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and a founder and first vice-president of the Motion Picture Relief Fund. In 1932, before the creation of the Screen Actors Guild, Mary spearheaded the Payroll Pledge Program which financed the Relief Fund by deducting one half of one percent from the salaries of those making over two hundred dollars a week. A decade later, she was there with shovel in hand to break ground for what would be the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital.
We still have much to learn from both the work and life of Mary Pickford. As D.W. Griffith said about Mary in 1928: “She has tremendous driving power in her … and a most remarkable talent for self-appraisal. She never ‘kids’ herself. The thing that most attracted me the day I first saw her was the intelligence that shone in her face. I found she was thirsty for work and information. She could not be driven from the studio while work was going on. She was – and is – a sponge for experience.”
In the words of journalist Herbert Howe in a 1924 Photoplay, “No role she can play on the screen is as great as the role she plays in the motion picture industry. Mary Pickford the actress is completely overshadowed by Mary Pickford the individual.”
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