Blanche Sweet

Born into a family of show people, Blanche Sweet first appeared on the stage when she was 18 months old. She was a dancer by the time she was four and a talented actress by 1909 when she started work at the Biograph with D.W. Griffith. By 1910, aged 14, she was four years younger than Mary Pickford, but her maturity and appearance soon lead to leading roles. She starred in such films as The Lonedale Operator (1911) and Judith of Bethulia (1914). Unlike most of the frail roles for women of her day, her presence was smart and resourceful. She left Biograph in 1914 and worked with Cecil B. DeMille in The Warrens of Virginia (1915). A popular and independent actress, she worked for many studio's and directors in the age of silent movies. In 1922, she married director Marshall Neilan, who would direct her in Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1924). The marriage ended in divorce in 1929. In 1923, she starred in Anna Christie (1923), directed by John Griffith Wray, the first play by Eugene O'Neill to be filmed. Even before talkies, her career was in decline. She made three talking pictures, including Show Girl in Hollywood (1930). This was to be the last film Sweet appeared in before retiring. Her line, in the movie, about being washed up at 32 in Hollywood, was close to the truth for her. (She was 34.) After that she retired from the screen and returned to the Stage. She appeared in plays on Broadway and with touring companies and also worked in radio during the 1930s. She and co-star Raymond Hackett married in 1936 and remained married until his death in 1958. Both of her marriages were childless.