Eileen Dennes (1 February 1898 – 22 January 1991) was an Irish-born actress of the

silent era A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, wh ...

Early life and career

Eileen Dennes was born Eileen Amhurst Cowen on 1 February 1898 in Dublin, Ireland. She began on the

stage Stage, stages, or staging may refer to: Arts and media Acting * Stage (theatre), a space for the performance of theatrical productions * Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referred to as "the stage" * ''The Stage'', a weekly Brit ...

in the early 1910s. After travelling to Hollywood in 1917, she found work at the Empire Al Star Film Company and was offered the role of Ethel Fielding in her first film ''

The Unforseen ''The Unforeseen'' is a lost 1917 silent film drama directed by John B. O'Brien and starring Olive Tell and David Powell. Distributed by the Mutual Film Company, it is based on the 1903 Broadway play, ''The Unforeseen'', by Robert Marshall. ...

'' (1917) alongside

Olive Tell Olive Tell (September 27, 1894 – June 8, 1951) was a stage and screen actress from New York City. Biography Tell was educated in several cities in Europe. She and her younger actress sister Alma Tell, Alma graduated from the American Academy ...

. She made one more film in Hollywood with Tell that year titled ''Her Sister''. Dennes then decided to find work in England; it was there that

Cecil Hepworth Cecil Milton Hepworth (19 March 1874 – 9 February 1953) was a British film director, film producer, producer and screenwriter. He was among the founders of the Cinema of the United Kingdom, British film industry and continued making films ...

offered her a contract and, in 1919, she appeared in her first English film as Bessie Saxton in ''

Sheba Sheba, or Saba, was an ancient South Arabian kingdoms in pre-Islamic Arabia, South Arabian kingdom that existed in Yemen (region), Yemen from to . Its inhabitants were the Sabaeans, who, as a people, were indissociable from the kingdom itself f ...

'' starring

Alma Taylor Alma Louise Taylor (3 January 1895 – 23 January 1974) was a British actress. Life Taylor was born in London. She made her first screen appearance as a child actor in the 1907 film ''His Daughter's Voice''. She went on to appear in more th ...

. She was later given the chance at starring roles in films such as '' Once Aboard the Lugger'' (1920), '' Mr. Justice Raffles'' (1921), and, once again with Alma Taylor, '' The Pipes of Pan'' (1923). The final film that she worked on with Hepworth was '' Comin' Thro the Rye'' in 1923. She then worked with Fred LeRoy Granville a year later in his film '' The Sins Ye Do''. Dennes' last film appearance was in 1925 as Lucy in '' The Squire of Long Hadley'', appearing alongside

Brian Aherne William Brian de Lacy Aherne (2 May 190210 February 1986) was an English actor of stage, screen, radio and television, who enjoyed a long and varied career in Britain and the United States. His first Broadway appearance in '' The Barretts of ...

. Dennes died 22 January 1991 in

Hungerford Hungerford is a historic market town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, west of Newbury, east of Marlborough, and 60 miles (97 km) west of London. The population of the parish at the 2021 census was 5,869. The Kennet and Avon Can ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

, at the age of 92.

Selected filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dennes, Eileen 1898 births 1991 deaths Irish silent film actresses 20th-century Irish actresses Actresses from Dublin (city) Irish expatriate actresses in the United States