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| Betty
Compson
1897 - 1974 |
.
. The actress Betty Compson began to play violin for the Mission Theatre Orchester when she was at high school. When she went to San Francisco she got a fifteen-week engagement as a solo violinist. When she stood in Los Angeles for a show she made a screen test at Christie and got an contract at this company. There she changed her first name Eleanor Lucime into Betty and began
a great career with film comedies. To her well-known movies of the 10's
belong "Almost a Widow" (15), "Love and a Savage" (15), "Mingling Spirits"
(16), "Love and Vaccination" (16), "Eddie's Night Out" (16), "He's a Devil"
(16), "All Over a Stocking" (16), "Wanted: A Husband" (16) and "Almost
a Scandal" (17).
She shot with director George Loane Tucker the movie "The Miracle Man" (18) and managed the breakthrough to a star with this work. They also worked together for "Ladies Must Love" (21) before Tucker died of cancer. Tuckers "farewell present" was a contract for Betty Compson with Paramount where she was one of the great stars for the next two years. When she left Paramount, she appeared successfully in English movies between 1922 and 1924. Eventually she returned to Hollywood. In the meantime her English movie "Woman to Woman" (23) run successfully in the USA and Jesse Lasky called her again for Paraamount. There she appeared at James Cruze's side in the movie "The Enemy Sex" (24). Cruze and Compson got married in 1925. To her well-known movies of the 20's belong "At the End of the World" (21), "Over the Border" (22), "The Law and the Woman" (22), "The Woman with Four Faces" (23), "The Female" (24), "The Stranger" (24), "Eve's Secret" (25), "Pony Express" (25), "The Wise Guy" (26) and "The Ladybird" (27). At the end of the 20's she took part in a whole string of successful
movies. On the one side she appeared in the box-office hit "The Big City"
(28) at Lon Chaney's side, on the other side she played in "The Docks of
New York" (28) - which went into film history as a classic, and finally
"The Barker" (28) - for which she was nominated for the Oscar.
Betty Compson subsequently got many engagements in the 30's too. She appeared among others in the movies "Isle of Escape" (30), "Midnight Mystery" (30), "The Lady Refuses" (31), "Woman Pursued" (30), "West of Singapore" (33), "Manhattan Butterfly" (34), " The Millionaire Kid" (36), "Killer at Large" (36), "A Slight Case of Murder" (38) and "Hotel Imperial" (39). Her fame droped visibly in the 40's, the appearances in movies were seldom. After roles in "Laughing at Danger" (40), "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" (41), "Invisible Ghost" (41), "Claudia and David" (46) and "Here Comes Trouble" (48) she retired from the film business. After the divorce from James Cruze she got married with Irving Weinberg
at the beginning of the 30's. But the marriage didn't last long. At the
end of the 40's she got married the boxer Filvius Jack Gall with whom she
founded the "Ashtrays Unlimited" company which produced special ashtrays
for hotels, restaurants and so on.
Other movies with Betty Compson:
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