Acting
Blanche Sweet
From Wikipedia Sarah Blanche Sweet (June 18, 1896 – September 6, 1986) was an American silent film actress who began her career in the earliest days of the Hollywood motion picture film industry. Sweet is renowned for her energetic, independent roles, at variance with the 'ideal' Griffith type of vulnerable, often fragile, femininity. After many starring roles, her first real landmark film was the 1911 Griffith thriller The Lonedale Operator. In 1913 she starred in Griffith's first feature-length movie, Judith of Bethulia. In 1914 Sweet was initially cast by Griffith in the part of Elsie Stoneman in his epic The Birth of a Nation but the role was eventually given to rival actress Lillian Gish, who was Sweet's senior by three years. That same year Sweet parted ways with Griffith and joined Paramount (then Famous Players-Lasky) for the much higher pay that studio was able to afford. Throughout the 1910s, Sweet continued her career appearing in a number of highly prominent roles in films and remained a publicly popular leading lady. She often starred in vehicles by Cecil B. DeMille and Marshall Neilan, and she was recognised by leading film critics of the time to be one of the foremost actresses of the entire silent era. It was during her time working with Neilan that the two began a publicized affair, which brought on his divorce from former actress Gertrude Bambrick. Sweet and Neilan married in 1922. The union ended in 1929 with Sweet charging that Neilan was a persistent adulterer. During the early 1920s Sweet's career continued to prosper, and she starred in the first film version of Anna Christie in 1923. The film is also notable as being the first Eugene O'Neill play to be made into a motion picture. In successive years, she starred in Tess of the D'Urbervilles and The Sporting Venus, both directed by Neilan. Sweet soon began a new career phase as one of the newly formed MGM studio's biggest stars. Sweet made just three talking pictures, including her critically lauded performance in 1930's Show Girl in Hollywood, before retiring from the screen that same year and marrying stage actor Raymond Hackett in 1935. The marriage lasted until Hackett's death in 1958. Sweet spent the remainder of her performing career in radio and in secondary Broadway stage roles. Eventually, her career in both of these fields petered out, and she began working in a Los Angeles department store. In the late 1960s, her acting legacy was resurrected when film scholars invited her to Europe to receive recognition for her work. On September 24, 1984, a tribute to Blanche Sweet was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Miss Sweet introduced her 1925 film, The Sporting Venus. Sweet died in New York City of a stroke, on September 6, 1986, just weeks after her 90th birthday.
Filmography
Before the Nickelodeon: The Cinema of Edwin S. Porter
Film · 1982
Hollywood
Series · 1980
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
Series · 1959
The Thin Man
Series · 1957
Make Mine Memories
Film · 1945
Twenty Years After
Film · 1944
Show Girl in Hollywood
Film · 1930
The Woman Racket
Film · 1930
The Silver Horde
Film · 1930
The Woman in White
Film · 1929
Always Faithful
Film · 1929
Singed
Film · 1927
Diplomacy
Film · 1926
The Far Cry
Film · 1926
Bluebeard's Seven Wives
Film · 1926
The New Commandment
Film · 1925
The Sporting Venus
Film · 1925
His Supreme Moment
Film · 1925
Why Women Love
Film · 1925
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Film · 1924
Those Who Dance
Film · 1924
Anna Christie
Film · 1923
Souls for Sale
Film · 1923
In the Palace of the King
Film · 1923
The Meanest Man in the World
Film · 1923
Quincy Adams Sawyer
Film · 1922
That Girl Montana
Film · 1921
Her Unwilling Husband
Film · 1920
The Deadlier Sex
Film · 1920
Girl in the Web
Film · 1920
Simple Souls
Film · 1920
Help Wanted - Male
Film · 1920
The Hushed Hour
Film · 1919
A Woman of Pleasure
Film · 1919
The Unpardonable Sin
Film · 1919
Fighting Cressy
Film · 1919
Those Without Sin
Film · 1917
The Evil Eye
Film · 1917
The Ragamuffin
Film · 1916
The Thousand-Dollar Husband
Film · 1916
The Storm
Film · 1916
The Sowers
Film · 1916
Public Opinion
Film · 1916
Stolen Goods
Film · 1915
The Case of Becky
Film · 1915
The Clue
Film · 1915
The Warrens of Virginia
Film · 1915
The Captive
Film · 1915
The Secret Sin
Film · 1915
The Secret Orchard
Film · 1915
The Avenging Conscience
Film · 1914
The Tear That Burned
Film · 1914
Her Awakening
Film · 1914
The Second Mrs. Roebuck
Film · 1914
For Her Father's Sins
Film · 1914
The Odalisque
Film · 1914
Judith of Bethulia
Film · 1914
Men and Women
Film · 1914
Strongheart
Film · 1914
The Painted Lady
Film · 1914
Classmates
Film · 1914
Home, Sweet Home
Film · 1914
The Little Country Mouse
Film · 1914
A Cure for Suffragettes
Film · 1913
Pirate Gold
Film · 1913
A Chance Deception
Film · 1913
Love in an Apartment Hotel
Film · 1913
The Hero of Little Italy
Film · 1913
If We Only Knew
Film · 1913
Near To Earth
Film · 1913
The Coming of Angelo
Film · 1913
Death's Marathon
Film · 1913
The House of Discord
Film · 1913
Three Friends
Film · 1913
Broken Ways
Film · 1913
Two Men of the Desert
Film · 1913
Oil and Water
Film · 1913
The Stolen Bride
Film · 1913
The Painted Lady
Film · 1912
The Chief's Blanket
Film · 1912
The Transformation of Mike
Film · 1912
Blind Love
Film · 1912
The Massacre
Film · 1912
The Lesser Evil
Film · 1912
One Is Business, the Other Crime
Film · 1912
Under Burning Skies
Film · 1912
For His Son
Film · 1912
The Eternal Mother
Film · 1912
A Sailor’s Heart
Film · 1912
With the Enemy's Help
Film · 1912
A Temporary Truce
Film · 1912
The God Within
Film · 1912
The Goddess of Sagebrush Gulch
Film · 1912
A String of Pearls
Film · 1912
Fighting Blood
Film · 1911
The Lonedale Operator
Film · 1911
Enoch Arden: Part I
Film · 1911
The Miser's Heart
Film · 1911
The Battle
Film · 1911
The Villain Foiled
Film · 1911
Through Darkening Vales
Film · 1911
The Last Drop of Water
Film · 1911
A Country Cupid
Film · 1911
A Woman Scorned
Film · 1911
The Primal Call
Film · 1911
His Daughter
Film · 1911
The Making of a Man
Film · 1911
Enoch Arden
Film · 1911
The Long Road
Film · 1911
Love in the Hills
Film · 1911
The Voice of the Child
Film · 1911
The Indian Brothers
Film · 1911
The Two Paths
Film · 1911
The Spanish Gypsy
Film · 1911
The Broken Cross
Film · 1911
How She Triumphed
Film · 1911
The New Dress
Film · 1911
The Blind Princess and the Poet
Film · 1911
A Flash of Light
Film · 1910
The Rocky Road
Film · 1910
All on Account of the Milk
Film · 1910
The Day After
Film · 1909
To Save Her Soul
Film · 1909
A Corner in Wheat
Film · 1909