Mary Pickford

Mary Pickford Filmography
Mary Pickford Gallery

Mary Pickford was born Gladys Smith on 8th April 1892 in Toronto, Canada. After moving to the USA she worked on the stage as a child for producer David Belasco. Her film career began when she joined the Biograph company, working with DW Griffith. In 1913 Mary left Biograph moving from studio to studio, by the mid teens she was the highest paid actor in Hollywood and the most famous face in the world. In 1919 Mary formed United Artists with Griffith, Fairbanks and Chaplin and had complete licence over her own productions. She married Douglas Fairbanks in 1920 and had unequalled success throughout the 1920`s. Although Mary won an academy award for best actress in 1929 for "Coquette" she was another casualty of talking films and she retired from the screen in 1933. Mary and Doug were divorced in 1936 and she later married Charles "Buddy" Rogers star of "Wings" and her co star in "My Best Girl" (1927)

Mary spent the next years with charitable works and in 1976 received a life achievement award at the academy awards. Mary died in May 1979. Having recently viewed "Tess Of The Storm Country" (1922) "Stella Maris" (1918) and "Suds" (1920) I was amazed at the talent of Mary Pickford and contrary to popular belief the diversity of her acting roles. 1999 has been a good year for Mary Pickford material with the release of Milestone Videos Mary Pickford series and two new books "Pickford The Woman Who Made Hollywood" by Eileen Whitfield and "Mary Pickford Rediscovered" a book of rare silent photos by Kevin Brownlow, this is the best book on a silent artist I have seen.