Gladys Leslie

Gladys Leslie

Gladys Leslie on cover of Motion Picture magazine (May 1919)
Born (1899-03-05)March 5, 1899
New York City, U.S.
Died October 2, 1976(1976-10-02) (aged 77)
Boynton Beach, Florida, U.S.
Spouse(s) ?

Gladys Leslie (March 5, 1899 – October 2, 1976) was an American actress in silent film, active in the 1910s and 1920s. Though less-remembered than superstars like Mary Pickford, she had a number of starring roles from 1917 to the early 1920s and was one of the young female stars of her day.

Film career

Gladys Leslie, August 1921

Leslie began her movie career around 1915, acting in short films produced by the Edison Company. By 1917, she was making films with the Thanhouser Company in New Rochelle, New York, including The Vicar of Wakefield (1917). The New York Herald's review of that film dubbed her the "Girl With A Million Dollar Smile," and caused studio head Edwin Thanhouser to decide she was ready for leading roles.[1] Soon she was starring in the lead role in 1917's An Amateur Orphan, but was quickly wooed over to Vitagraph Studios and starred in a number of Vitagraph releases in 1918 and 1919. Leslie and another young female Vitagraph star, Bessie Love, starred in numerous films in young girl-type roles that were popular at the time.[2][3][4][5][6] Leslie's similar appearance to Mary Pickford was also often noted.[7]

Leslie's association with Vitagraph ended by 1920 and she continued to make films with a number of different studios. Her first non-Vitagraph picture in 1920 was A Child for Sale, directed by Ivan Abramson, where she played a starring role.[8][9] And in 1923, she had the lead female role in Haldane of the Secret Service featuring Harry Houdini. Nevertheless, her share of starring roles started to decline, and her last appearance was in 1925. She had always claimed, however, that she would stop making films when her bank account "has mounted high enough."[10]

Personal

Leslie was born in New York City on March 5, 1899, and she died (as Gladys Leslie Moore) in Boynton Beach, Florida on October 2, 1976 at age 77.[11]

Along with the new trend of actors doing product endorsements in the early 1920s, Leslie appeared in ads for Tokio Beauty Cream, which was claimed to have given her "magnetic personality."[12]

Selected Filmography

Gladys Leslie in a scene still for the 1918 Vitagraph production "The Wooing of Princess Pat."
Miss Dulcie From Dixie (1919)

References

  1. ↑ (12 May 1917). Florence LaBadie, Irresistible Star, "When Love Was Blind", Calgary Daily Herald
  2. ↑ Slide, Anthony Slide & Gevinson, Alan. The Big V: a history of the Vitagraph Company, p. 90-91 (1987)
  3. ↑ Bennett, Whitman (June 1920). The Artistic Influence of the Motion Picture, Munsey's Magazine (photo of Leslie)
  4. ↑ Nunn, William Curtis. Marguerite Clark, America's darling of Broadway and the silent screen, p. 100 (1981)
  5. ↑ Dean, Daisy (21 December 1922). News Notes From Movieland, St Petersburg Times
  6. ↑ (18 February 1926). At The Theaters, St. Petersburg Times
  7. ↑ Howe, Herbert. A Truly Ingenuous Ingenue, Photoplay p. 27 (July 1918)
  8. ↑ (18 January 1920). Picture Plays and People, The New York Times ("Gladys Leslie, who recently finished the term of her contract with Vitagraph, has signed up to star in a picture to be directed by Ivan Abramson.") (film was "A Child for Sale")
  9. ↑ Questions and Answers, Photoplay (June 1920), p. 113 (reporting in response to a fan question that Leslie was no longer with Vitagraph, and had recently made a picture with Ivan Abramson, which would have been 1920's A Child for Sale)
  10. ↑ Wollstein, Hans J. Gladys Leslie - Biography, AllRovi, Retrieved September 19, 2011
  11. ↑ Vazzana, Eugene Michael. Silent film necrology: births and deaths of over 9000 performers, directors, producers, and other filmmakers of the silent era, through 1993, p. 195 (1995)
  12. ↑ Barbas, Samantha. Movie crazy: fans, stars, and the cult of celebrity, p. 52 (2001)
  13. ↑ The Vicar of Wakefield, Thanhouser.org (full movie available online), Retrieved September 16, 2011
  14. ↑ Langman, Larry. American film cycles: the silent era, p.152 (1998) (summary of plot of His Own People)
  15. ↑ Slide, Alan. The cinema and Ireland, p. 104 (1988)
  16. ↑ (1918 September) The Soap Girl - Vitagraph, Photoplay, p. 79
  17. ↑ (14 October 1919). Girl Fights For Fortune Left Her, Hartford Courant ("Miss Gladys Leslie is a very attractive young heiress in "Gray Towers Mystery," the Vitagraph picture at the Princess Theater the first half of the week. The story is that of a young girl who inherits a fortune from her uncle but is forced to fight for it ...")
  18. ↑ (10 April 1921) Gladys Leslie, New York Tribune (brief)
  19. ↑ (28 June 1923). "Timothy's Quest" To Open At Grand Today, Dubuque Telegraph-Herald
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