Blanche Sweet
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- June 16, 1896
- Died
- September 6, 1986 (aged 90)
- Birthplace
- Chicago, Illinois, USA
Biography
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.
Known For
Photos
Filmography
Before the Nickelodeon: The Cinema of Edwin S. Porter
Movie · as Narrator (voice)
Hollywood
TV · as Self · 4 eps
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
TV · 1 ep
The Thin Man
TV · 2 eps
Make Mine Memories
Movie
Twenty Years After
Movie · as (archive footage)
Show Girl in Hollywood
Movie · as Donny Harris
The Woman Racket
Movie · as Julia Barnes Hayes
The Silver Horde
Movie · as Queenie
The Woman in White
Movie · as Laura Fairlie / Anne Catherick
Always Faithful
Movie · as Mrs. George W. Mason
Singed
Movie · as Dolly Wall
Diplomacy
Movie · as Dora Weymouth
The Far Cry
Movie · as Claire Marsh
Bluebeard's Seven Wives
Movie · as Juliet
The Lady from Hell
Movie · as Lady Margaret Darnely
The New Commandment
Movie · as Renee Darcourt
The Sporting Venus
Movie · as Lady Gwendolyn
His Supreme Moment
Movie · as Carla King
Why Women Love
Movie · as Molla Hansen
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Movie · as Teresa "Tess" Durbeyfield
Those Who Dance
Movie · as Rose Carney
Anna Christie
Movie · as Anna Christie
Souls for Sale
Movie · as Self - Celebrity Actress (uncredited)
In the Palace of the King
Movie · as Dolores Mendoza
The Meanest Man in the World
Movie · as Jane Hudson
Quincy Adams Sawyer
Movie · as Alice Pettengill
That Girl Montana
Movie · as Montana Rivers
Her Unwilling Husband
Movie · as Mavis
The Deadlier Sex
Movie · as Mary Willard
Girl in the Web
Movie · as Esther Maitland
Simple Souls
Movie · as Molly Shine
Help Wanted - Male
Movie · as Leona Stafford
The Hushed Hour
Movie · as Virginia Appleton Blodgett
A Woman of Pleasure
Movie · as Alice Dane
The Unpardonable Sin
Movie · as Alice Parcot / Dinny Parcot
Fighting Cressy
Movie · as Cressy
Those Without Sin
Movie · as Melanie Landry
The Evil Eye
Movie · as Dr. Katherine Torrance
The Ragamuffin
Movie · as Jenny
The Thousand-Dollar Husband
Movie · as Olga Nelson
The Storm
Movie · as Natalie Raydon
The Sowers
Movie · as Karin Dolokhof
Public Opinion
Movie · as Hazel Gray
Stolen Goods
Movie · as Margery Huntley
The Case of Becky
Movie · as Dorothy/Becky
The Clue
Movie · as Christine Lesley
The Warrens of Virginia
Movie · as Agatha Warren
The Captive
Movie · as Sonya Matinovich
The Secret Sin
Movie · as Edith Martin / Grace Martin
The Secret Orchard
Movie · as Diane
The Avenging Conscience
Movie · as The Sweetheart
The Tear That Burned
Movie · as Meg - the Wild Girl
Her Awakening
Movie · as Mary
The Second Mrs. Roebuck
Movie · as Mabel Mack
For Her Father's Sins
Movie · as Mary Ashton
The Odalisque
Movie · as May, a Stock Girl
Judith of Bethulia
Movie · as Judith
Men and Women
Movie · as Agnes Rodman - Stephen's Daughter
Strongheart
Movie · as Dorothy Nelson, Frank's Sister
The Painted Lady
Movie · as Jane - the Elder Sister
Classmates
Movie · as Sylvia Randolph
Home, Sweet Home
Movie · as The Wife
The Little Country Mouse
Movie · as Dorothy
A Cure for Suffragettes
Movie
Pirate Gold
Movie · as The Daughter
A Chance Deception
Movie · as The Wife
Love in an Apartment Hotel
Movie · as The Young Woman
The Hero of Little Italy
Movie · as Maria
If We Only Knew
Movie · as The Mother
Near To Earth
Movie
The Coming of Angelo
Movie · as Theresa
Death's Marathon
Movie · as The Wife
The House of Discord
Movie · as The Wife
Three Friends
Movie · as The Wife
Broken Ways
Movie · as The Road Agent's Wife
Two Men of the Desert
Movie · as The Authoress
Oil and Water
Movie · as Mlle. Genova
The Stolen Bride
Movie · as The Grower's Daughter
The Painted Lady
Movie · as The Older Sister
The Chief's Blanket
Movie · as The Young Woman
The Transformation of Mike
Movie · as The Tenement Girl
Blind Love
Movie · as The Young Woman
The Massacre
Movie · as Stephen's Ward
The Lesser Evil
Movie · as The Young Woman
One Is Business, the Other Crime
Movie · as Rich Wife
Under Burning Skies
Movie · as Emily
For His Son
Movie · as The Son's Fiancée
The Eternal Mother
Movie · as Martha, the Wife
A Sailor’s Heart
Movie · as The Sailor's Second Sweetheart
With the Enemy's Help
Movie · as The Prospector's Wife
A Temporary Truce
Movie · as Alice Hardy - the Prospector's Wife
The God Within
Movie · as The Woman of the Camp
The Goddess of Sagebrush Gulch
Movie · as The Goddess
A String of Pearls
Movie · as The Brother's Sweetheart
Fighting Blood
Movie
The Lonedale Operator
Movie · as Daughter of the Lonedale Operator
Enoch Arden: Part I
Movie
The Miser's Heart
Movie · as Neighbor
The Battle
Movie · as The Boy's Sweetheart
The Villain Foiled
Movie · as Miss Page
Through Darkening Vales
Movie · as Grace
The Last Drop of Water
Movie · as Mary
A Country Cupid
Movie · as Edith
A Woman Scorned
Movie
The Primal Call
Movie
His Daughter
Movie
The Making of a Man
Movie · as Young Woman
Enoch Arden
Movie · as Woman on the Beach
The Long Road
Movie · as Edith
Love in the Hills
Movie · as The Mountain Girl
The Voice of the Child
Movie · as The Wife
The Indian Brothers
Movie · as Indian
The Two Paths
Movie
The Spanish Gypsy
Movie
The Broken Cross
Movie
How She Triumphed
Movie · as Mary
The New Dress
Movie · as At Wedding/At Market
The Blind Princess and the Poet
Movie · as The Princess
A Flash of Light
Movie
The Rocky Road
Movie
All on Account of the Milk
Movie · as The Housemaid
The Day After
Movie · as The New Year
To Save Her Soul
Movie · as Stage Dancer
A Corner in Wheat
Movie