Pearl White
From Wikipedia
Pearl Fay White (March 4, 1889 – August 4, 1938) was an American stage and film actress. White began her career on the stage at the age of six, and later moved on to silent films appearing in a number of popular serials. Dubbed the "Queen of the serials", White was noted for doing the majority of her own stunts in several film serials, most notably in The Perils of Pauline.
In 1910, White was offered a role by Pathé Frères in The Girl From Arizona, the French company's first American film produced at their new studio in Bound Brook, New Jersey. She then worked at Lubin Studios in 1911 and several other of the independents, until the Crystal Film Company in Manhattan gave her top billing in a number of slapstick comedy shorts from 1912 to 1914. White then took a vacation in Europe. Upon her return, she signed with Eclectic Film Company, a subsidiary of Pathé in 1914. Pathé director Louis J. Gasnier offered her the starring role in film serial The Perils of Pauline. By 1919, White had grown tired of film serials and signed with Fox Film Corporation with the ambition to appear in dramatic roles. Over the next two years, White appeared in ten drama films for Fox but her popularity had begun to wane.
Pearl White's place in film history is important in both the evolution of cinema genres and the role of women. Like many silent film actors, many of White's films are now considered lost. The Perils of Pauline is only known to exist in a reduced nine-reel version released in Europe in 1916, but The Exploits of Elaine survives and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. All of her films were made at East Coast studios as White reportedly never visited Hollywood.
For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Pearl White has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6838 Hollywood Blvd. The 1947 Paramount Pictures film The Perils of Pauline, starring Betty Hutton, is a fictionalized biography of Pearl White.
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 1.118 |
Birthday | 1889-03-04 |
Place of Birth | Green Ridge, Missouri, USA |
Also Known As | Pearl Fay White, |
1915
The Romance of Elaine
0/0
The heroine had little time for romancing newspaper reporter Walter Jameson, what with Doctor X, alias Marcus Del Mar, threatening American democracy...
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The Romance of Elaine
1914
The Perils of Pauline
5.7/19
The Perils of Pauline is a motion picture serial shown in weekly installments featuring the actress Pearl White playing the title character. Pauline h...
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The Perils of Pauline
1910
The Woman Hater
4/1
A man is captured by Indians after swearing off all women.
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The Woman Hater
1913
Pearl's Dilemma
0/0
Pearl mistakes a janitor for a member of the Black Hand.
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Pearl's Dilemma
1914
The Exploits of Elaine
6/3
Elaine Dodge is the beautiful young daughter of Taylor Dodge, president of the Consolidated Insurance Company. When Mr Dodge is murdered by a mysterio...
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The Exploits of Elaine
1920
The White Moll
0/0
Desperate because a wealthy man has reduced her father to thievery, Rhoda agrees to rob the poor box of the church, although she finds the act abhorre...
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The White Moll
1913
Lost in the Night
5/1
Pearl White as a sleepwalking jewel thief.
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Lost in the Night
1914
The Ring
0/0
Though Mr. and Mrs. Gray are supposed to be in comfortable circumstances, the husband has met business reverses and has been declared a bankrupt. It i...
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The Ring
1913
The Hall-Room Girls
5/1
Pearl White & Chester Barnett want to go on a date and have nothing to wear, so they borrow some clothes....
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The Hall-Room Girls
1910
The Daughter of Niagara
0/0
Esoomgit tries to stop Red Doe from sacrificing herself for their tribe.
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The Daughter of Niagara
1916
The Iron Claw
0/0
Only Episode 7, "The Hooded Helper," of this 20-Episode Serial is known to survive. All other episodes are believed to be lost.
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The Iron Claw
1911
For Massa's Sake
4/1
Short directed by Joseph A. Golden.
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For Massa's Sake
1916
The King's Game
0/0
The story tells of the adventures of an unusual young duke, whose father, the old Grand Duke of Kiev, coveted the wife of Count Dardinilis, his colone...
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The King's Game
1917
The Fatal Ring
0/0
A silent movie serial directed by George B. Seitz.
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The Fatal Ring
1916
Pearl of the Army
0/0
A 1916 movie serial.
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Pearl of the Army
1918
The House of Hate
6.6/5
A young heiress of an American gun factory is threatened by a masked man after her father was murdered. This criminal might be a member of her family...
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The House of Hate
1919
The Black Secret
0/0
Adventures of an American Secret Service-girl in search of an important German secret during the war. Chapters: [1] “The Great Secret,”; [2] “Marked...
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The Black Secret
1919
The Lightning Raider
0/0
A beautiful young woman is a daring master thief. She meets the young millionaire Thomas Babbington Norton, while fleeing from the scene of her latest...
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The Lightning Raider
2014
A Night at the Cinema in 1914
7.5/1
Cinema a century ago was a new, exciting and highly democratic form of entertainment. Picture houses nationwide offered a sociable, lively environment...
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A Night at the Cinema in 1914
1922
Any Wife
1/1
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Any Wife
1922
Without Fear
0/0
Ruth Hamilton, from a wealthy aristocratic family, cares little for society or its conventions and refuses the proposal of William Barton, a socialite...
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Without Fear
1913
A Night in Town
0/0
A maid and butler take advantage of their employers' absence and have a party.
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A Night in Town
1920
The Thief
1/1
When jealousy and envy lead Mary Vantyne to make a foolish decision and commit an impulsive act she sets off a series of events that nearly bring hear...
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The Thief
1961
Days of Thrills and Laughter
5.5/2
An appreciative, uncritical look at silent film comedies and thrillers from early in the century through the 1920s.
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Days of Thrills and Laughter
1923
Plunder
0/0
Various groups of people, both well-intentioned and otherwise, search for a buried treasure that is buried underneath a skyscraper.
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Plunder
1924
Terreur
0/0
Terreur (Terror) is historically significant as Pearl White's last film.
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Terreur
1913
Will Power
5/1
Chester is Pearl's sweetheart. Her father dislikes Chester. He reads in a book of the great superiority of mind over matter, by the proper exercise of...
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Will Power
1913
Pearl As A Clairvoyant
0/0
Released as a split reel along with the comedy Almost a Winner (1913)
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Pearl As A Clairvoyant
1911
Cupid’s Monkey Wrench
0/0
A young woman calls in a plumber to fix her radiator, igniting a string of romantic complications.
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Cupid’s Monkey Wrench
1917
Mayblossom
0/0
In this tale of the South in the mid-1800s, Annabel Lee and Warner Richmond get married, but they keep the wedding a secret so that Warner can inherit...
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Mayblossom
1915
The New Exploits of Elaine
0/0
One of many Pearl White silent action movie serials. CHAPTER TITLES: 1. The Serpent Sign; 2. The Cryptic Ring; 3. The Watching Eye; 4. The Vengeance O...
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The New Exploits of Elaine
1922
The Broadway Peacock
0/0
A cabaret hostess falls for a young aristocrat, ignoring her friend's warning that the affair will end in heartache.
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The Broadway Peacock
1911
The Lost Necklace
0/0
A young girl is presented, on her birthday, with a beautiful pearl necklace, the oldest heirloom in the family. Her maid carefully locks it up in the...
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The Lost Necklace
The Tiger's Cub
0/0
Queen of the serials Pearl White gets herself into plenty of trouble up Klondike way as a young maiden named Tiger's Cub.
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The Tiger's Cub
1921
Know Your Men
0/0
Warren Schuyler, a wealthy widower in a small Eastern town, is highly-respected until the citizens are financially ruined by devaluation of the oil st...
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