Image of Seena Owen

Seena Owen

From Wikipedia Seena Owen (November 14, 1894 – August 15, 1966) was a Danish-American silent film actress. Born Signe Auen at Spokane, Washington, the youngest of three children raised by Jens Christensen and Karen (née Sorensen) Auen. Her father and mother came from Denmark in the late 1880s and settled in Minnesota where they married in 1888. Within a short period of time they relocated to Portland and then Spokane, where her father became proprietor of the Columbia Pharmacy. Her first important film was A Yankee From the West (1915) under the name Signe Auen at the age of 21. She was later convinced to change her name and settled on Seena Owen, the phonetic spelling of her real name. In 1916 she performed in D. W. Griffith's Intolerance. The same year she married George Walsh whom she had met on the set of Intolerance. The marriage lasted until their divorce in 1924. A regular player for the rest of the silent era, Owen appeared in films such as Maurice Tourneur's Victory in 1919 where she was photographed to great effect by Tourneur's cameraman, Rene Guissart. In 1920, she appeared in "The Gift Supreme" with Lon Chaney, who appeared with her in Victory. She co-starred with Gloria Swanson and Walter Byron in the ill-fated Queen Kelly (1928), as the mad Queen who whips Swanson in one scene. With the arrival of sound in movies, Owen's weak voice became a problem and forced her to retire from the silver screen in 1933. After her retirement, she worked on a number of films in the 1930s/40s as a screenwriter including two starring Dorothy Lamour: Aloma of the South Seas and Rainbow Island, both in 1941. The former was written in part with her sister, Lillie Hayward, a successful Hollywood screenwriter, Seena Owen died on August 15, 1966 at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, aged 71, and was interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.


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Born:
Nov 14, 1894 In Spokane, Washington, USA
Movie/TV Credits:
32
First Appeared:
In the movie The Craven 1915-01-23
Latest Project:
Movie Officer Thirteen 1932-11-26
Known For
Poster of Back Pay
Poster of The Cheater Reformed
Poster of Branding Broadway
Poster of The Lamb
Filmography
Movie Officer Thirteen Trixi Du Bray 1932-11-26
Movie Queen Kelly Queen Regina V 1932-10-18
Movie The Marriage Playground Rose Sellers 1929-12-12
Movie The Blue Danube Helena Boursch 1928-03-11
Movie The Flame of the Yukon The Flame 1926-08-30
Movie Faint Perfume Richmiel Crumb 1925-06-08
Movie The Great Well Camilla Challenor 1924-03-01
Movie For Woman's Favor June Paige 1924-08-01
Movie Unseeing Eyes Miriam Helston 1923-11-18
Movie Back Pay Hester Bevins 1922-01-08
Movie The Face in the Fog Grand Duchess Tatiana 1922-10-07
Movie The Cheater Reformed Carol McCall 1921-01-02
Movie The Woman God Changed Anna Janssen 1921-07-03
Movie Lavender and Old Lace Ruth Thorne 1921-06-01
Movie Sooner or Later Edna Ellis 1920-02-01
Movie The Gift Supreme Sylvia Alden 1920-03-30
Movie Breed of Men Ruth Fellows 1919-02-02
Movie A Man And His Money Betty Dalrymple 1919-03-16
Movie One of the Finest Frances Hudson 1919-06-01
Movie Victory Alma 1919-12-07
Movie The Fall of Babylon Attarea 1919-07-21
Movie Riders of Vengeance The Girl 1919-06-09
Movie Branding Broadway Mary Lee 1918-12-15
Movie A Woman's Awakening Paula Letchworth 1917-03-24
Movie Madame Bo-Peep Octavia 1917-05-26
Movie Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages Princess Beloved (Attarea) (Babylonian Story) 1916-09-04
Movie Martha's Vindication Dorothea 1916-02-20
Movie An Old-Fashioned Girl Bertha - the City Girl 1915-02-02
Movie The Craven May Walton 1915-01-23
Movie A Yankee from the West Gunhild, a Norwegian Girl 1915-08-19
Movie The Lamb Mary 1915-11-06
Movie The Fox Woman The Fox Woman, Alice Carroway, a.k.a. Ali-San 1915-07-15