Newsletter
Mary Pickford Biography
- Born: 08-04-1892
- Died: 29-04-1979
- Birth Place: Toronto, Canada
Mary Pickford Biography
Pickford’s film career began in 1908, when she met D.W. Griffith, head of Biograph Studios. She began working at Biograph with her friends, Lillian and Dorothy Gish. Griffith specialized in films featuring the "damsel in distress" stereotypes, and both Gish sisters played it to perfection. When Mary felt Griffith was paying more attention to the Gishes than to her, she left Biograph.
At this time, she also married actor, Owen Moore. The marriage didn't last, however, because on a war bond tour during World War I, Mary met a man who was to have a profound effect on both her personal and professional life. Douglas Fairbanks was the biggest male star in Hollywood and he and Pickford married in 1920.
It was at this time that, along with Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, and her former boss D.W. Griffith, Pickford helped found United Artists, a studio that was to allow filmmakers to have total artistic control over their films. It also allowed artists and writers to control their own financial futures.
Her decision to help found United Artists would eventually make Mary Pickford a millionaire several times over. She was not as lucky in her personal life, and she and Fairbanks divorced in 1929.
Though Mary won an Oscar that same year for a "grown-up" role in 'Coquette', audiences never really accepted her as an adult, and she retired in 1933, finally marrying Charles "Buddy" Rogers, an actor and musician, in 1937.
In 1976, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Mary its lifetime achievement award.
She was known to drink to excess in her later years and Mary Pickford died of a cerebral haemorrhage at the age of 87, in April 1979.
Related Bios
View More Biographies
