Mary Pickford biography:
 Mary Pickford was born in 1892 as Gladys Smith in Toronto. She was the oldest kid of the family. She had a brother and a sister: Jack Pickford (1896-1933) and Lottie Pickford (1895-1936). Her father died when Gladys was six. Her mother was her best friend: Charlotte Smith (1873-1928). The family was so poor that they wanted to put Gladys on adoption. Gladys fought hard back, and finally, the idea canceled. In 1900, Gladys acted on old, bad theatres because they had to earn money. Charlotte saw this as prostitution. Gladys earned 8 dollars a week.
Seven Years later, Gladys quit. She was discovered and named by David Belasco (1853-1931). She was now a famous theater actress. In 1909 she played in movies. She liked it a lot, because she had to play with Owen Moore (1886-1939). Charlotte didn't like Owen because he was a drunk; so Mary had to marry with Owen in secret. She married with him in 1911. Months later, Mary told her mother. She was furious. Mary earned now a lot more, because she was the most famous female actress! Her salary a week was 225 dollars! Mary signed with Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company in 1914. She worked for the bad reputated man: Adolph Zukor (1873-1976). Mary's salary growned to thousands of dollars. in 1918 Mary left Famous Players-Lasky. Meanwhile, Owen was really bad to Mary. She was so afraid of him, sometimes she stayed months away of him. Only then, Mary was happy. In 1919, Mary made her own production; United Artists. She joined it with best friends and #1 stars: Douglas Fairbanks (1883-1939), Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) and D.W Griffith (1875-1948). They had to work really hard but they had a lot of fun. All the movies were big hits.
Her salary of the United Artists movies was $350,000 a movie! Mary was also really in love with Douglas. He was everything Owen was not. Douglas was kind, funny and he didn't drink. Asking a divorce in 1920's was really tough, but Mary succeeded. She divorced and only 3 weeks later she was married to Douglas. Their honeymoon was in Europe. For the movies she now made, Mary only hired the best writers, producers, directors etc. In 1928, Mary's mother died. Her heart was broken. Her best friend and mother died. Charlotte liked Mary's long hair, but Mary didn't.
Shortly after her mother died, Mary cut her hair. Her fans were realy surprised...in a bad way. Mary was ditched, but Mary didn't want her long hair back. And when the camera introduced sound, everyone could hear Mary's voice. Everyone was shocked. The little 5' 0½" sized silent screen actress who played 12-year old girls with beautiful hair, turned into a grownup woman with a voice. Mary's career was over. The 1930's was a bad year for Mary. Her brother died in 1933 because of alcohol, and her sister died in 1936 because of a heart attack. Douglas began a secret affair with Lady Ashley in 1936; Mary found out and divorced Douglas.
A year later, in 1937, Mary married Charles "Buddy" Rogers (1904-1999). Mary was 12 years older. Mary called Charles (accidentaly) Douglas, even in public. Charles and Mary adopted 2 children: Ronnie and Roxanne In 1953, Mary had to sell her United Artists shares. She didn't liked this. Mary liked to be alone, and she almost never came out of her house. If there came visit, Charles had to talk with them. When she got an award in 1976, the people where shocked to see the 84-year old Mary. 3 years later, she died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Santa Monica, California. She was 87 years old.
Mary Pickford quote: |
~1930~