Mary
Pickford
was born in Toronto, Canada on 8th April,
1893.
Her father died when she was four years old and the family experienced
considerable poverty. Pickford moved to New York and in 1907, with
help from the producer, David
Belasco, managed to get a couple of roles on Broadway.
In 1909 Pickford was discovered by D.W.
Griffith who gave her the leading role in the picture
The
Little Teacher
(1910). This established Pickford in Hollywood and earning $10,000
a week, she made a series of highly successful films including Friends
(1912), Such
a Little Queen
(1914), Madame
Butterfly
(1915), The
Foundling (1916), A
Little Princess (1917) and
Johanna Enlists (1918).
In 1919 Pickford joined with D.W. Griffith,
Charlie Chaplin and her husband, Douglas
Fairbanks, to form United
Artists,
a company that enabled the stars to distribute their films without
studio interference. Films made by Pickford during this period included
Pollyanna
(1920), The
Love Light
(1921),
Rosita
(1923), Sparrows
(1926) and My
Best Girl
(1927).
In 1929 made her first talkie, Coquette,
a film where she won the Academy Award
as best actress. However, her next film, The
Taming of the Shrew (1929), with her husband Douglas
Fairbanks, was a financial disaster.
Pickford and Charlie
Chaplin bought out Douglas
Fairbanks and D.W.
Griffith and in 1935 sold
United
Artists for $12,000,000. Pickford retired from the cinema but frequently
appeared on radio. She also produced two
movies, The
Gay Desperado
(1936) and Sleep,
My Love
(1948). Mary
Pickford
died in Santa Monica, California, on 28th May, 1979.
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