Gladys Louise Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American motion picture actress, writer, director and producer. She was co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Known in her prime as "America's Sweetheart" and the "girl with the curls," Pickford was one of the Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood and a significant figure in the development of film acting. Pickford was one of the earliest stars to be billed under her name (film stars up until that time were usually unbilled), and was one of the most popular actresses of the 1910s and '20s, earning the nickname "Queen of the Movies."
Pickford was awarded the second ever Academy Award for Best Actress for her first sound film role in Coquette (1929) and also received an honorary Academy Award in 1976. In consideration of her contributions to American cinema, the American Film Institute ranked Pickford as 24th in its 1999 list of greatest female stars of classic Hollywood Cinema.
Death
On May 29, 1979, Pickford died at a Santa Monica, California hospital of complications from a cerebral hemorrhage she had suffered the week before. She was interred in the Garden of Memory of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park cemetery in Glendale, California. Buried alongside her in the Pickford private family plot are her mother Charlotte, her siblings Lottie and Jack Pickford, and the family of Elizabeth Watson, Charlotte's sister, who had helped raise Pickford in Toronto.
No comments:
Post a Comment