Image of Blanche Sweet

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.


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Born:
Jun 18, 1896 In Chicago - Illinois - USA
Movie/TV Credits:
77
First Appeared:
In the movie A Corner in Wheat 1909-12-13
Latest Project:
Movie Disclosure 2020-06-19
Known For
Filmography
Movie Disclosure Judith (archive footage) 2020-06-19
Movie Before the Nickelodeon: The Cinema of Edwin S. Porter Narrator (voice) 1982-10-09
Series Hollywood Self 1980-01-08
Movie Make Mine Memories 1945-10-19
Movie Twenty Years After (archive footage) 1944-01-01
Movie The Woman Racket Julia 1930-01-24
Movie Show Girl in Hollywood Donny Harris 1930-04-20
Movie The Silver Horde Queenie 1930-10-24
Movie The Woman in White Laura Fairlie / Anne Catherick 1929-05-24
Movie Always Faithful Mrs. George W. Mason 1929-12-29
Movie Fashion News Self (1930) 1928-11-06
Movie Singed Dolly Wall 1927-08-23
Movie Bluebeard's Seven Wives Juliet 1926-01-13
Movie His Supreme Moment Carla King 1925-04-12
Movie The Sporting Venus Lady Gwendolyn 1925-04-12
Movie The New Commandment Renee Darcourt 1925-11-01
Movie Why Women Love Molla Hansen 1925-10-18
Movie Souls for Sale Self - Celebrity Actress (uncredited) 1923-04-22
Movie Anna Christie Anna Christie 1923-11-24
Movie Quincy Adams Sawyer Alice Pettengill 1922-12-04
Movie That Girl Montana Montana Rivers 1921-01-31
Movie The Deadlier Sex Mary Willard 1920-03-28
Movie Girl in the Web Esther Maitland 1920-08-05
Movie The Unpardonable Sin Alice Parcot / Dinny Parcot 1919-04-01
Movie The Hushed Hour Virginia Appleton Blodgett 1919-05-18
Movie A Woman of Pleasure Alice Dane 1919-11-09
Movie Those Without Sin Melanie Landry 1917-03-01
Movie The Ragamuffin Jenny 1916-01-23
Movie The Secret Sin Edith Martin / Grace Martin 1915-10-21
Movie The Captive Sonya Matinovich 1915-04-22
Movie The Warrens of Virginia Agatha Warren 1915-02-14
Movie The Clue Christine Lesley 1915-07-08
Movie The Case of Becky Dorothy/Becky 1915-09-13
Movie Men and Women Agnes Rodman - Stephen's Daughter 1914-08-01
Movie Judith of Bethulia Judith 1914-03-08
Movie Classmates Sylvia Randolph 1914-02-14
Movie Strongheart Dorothy Nelson, Frank's Sister 1914-03-08
Movie Home, Sweet Home The Wife 1914-05-16
Movie The Avenging Conscience The Sweetheart 1914-08-02
Movie The Odalisque May, a Stock Girl 1914-11-15
Movie The Tear That Burned Meg - the Wild Girl 1914-11-08
Movie For Her Father's Sins Mary Ashton 1914-10-18
Movie Three Friends The Wife 1913-01-02
Movie Oil and Water Mlle. Genova 1913-02-10
Movie A Chance Deception The Wife 1913-02-24
Movie Two Men of the Desert The Authoress 1913-08-23
Movie One Is Business, the Other Crime Rich Wife 1912-04-24
Movie For His Son The Son's Fiancée 1912-01-21
Movie The Eternal Mother Martha, the Wife 1912-01-10
Movie The Lesser Evil The Young Woman 1912-04-29
Movie A Temporary Truce Alice Hardy - the Prospector's Wife 1912-06-10
Movie The Massacre Stephen's Ward 1912-12-19
Movie The Painted Lady The Older Sister 1912-10-24
Movie A Sailor’s Heart The Sailor's Second Sweetheart 1912-11-25
Movie With the Enemy's Help The Prospector's Wife 1912-08-19
Movie The Primal Call 1911-06-21
Movie Fighting Blood 1911-06-28
Movie A Country Cupid Edith 1911-07-23
Movie Enoch Arden Woman on the Beach 1911-06-15
Movie The Lonedale Operator Daughter of the Lonedale Operator 1911-03-23
Movie His Daughter 1911-02-23
Movie The Last Drop of Water Mary 1911-07-26
Movie Enoch Arden: Part I 1911-06-12
Movie Through Darkening Vales Grace 1911-11-16
Movie The Miser's Heart Neighbor 1911-11-20
Movie The Villain Foiled Miss Page 1911-08-30
Movie The Battle The Boy's Sweetheart 1911-11-06
Movie A Woman Scorned 1911-11-30
Movie The Making of a Man Young Woman 1911-10-04
Movie The Long Road Edith 1911-10-26
Movie Love in the Hills The Mountain Girl 1911-10-30
Movie The Rocky Road 1910-01-03
Movie All on Account of the Milk The Maid 1910-01-13
Movie A Flash of Light 1910-07-17
Movie A Corner in Wheat 1909-12-13
Movie The Day After The New Year 1909-12-30
Movie To Save Her Soul Stage Dancer 1909-12-27