Marion Leonard (June 9, 1881 – January 9, 1956) was an American

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 ...

actress who became one of the first

motion picture A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, since ...

celebrities Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group due to the attention given to them by mass media. The word is also used to refer to famous individuals. A person may attain celebrity status by having great w ...

in the early years of the

silent film 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, w ...

era.

Early career

Born in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

, Marion Leonard began her acting career in live theatre, but at the age of 27 she started performing in the rapidly expanding film industry. She signed a contract in 1908 with the

American Mutoscope and Biograph Company The Biograph Company, also known as the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, was a motion picture company founded in 1895 and active until 1916. It was the first company in the United States devoted entirely to film production and exhibition ...

and initially worked at that studio's production facilities in New York City, which were then located at 11 East 14th Street in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. There she made her screen debut in ''At the Crossroads of Life'', a short directed by Wallace McCutcheon, Jr. and written by D. W. Griffith, who also acted in that film and directed the vast majority of Leonard's other films at Biograph. Shortly after her screen debut, Leonard became one of the company's leading "photoplayers". At a time when screen credits were not given to actors, she and Florence Auer were the first star actresses to be billed by the studio as a "Biograph Girl". Among the many films Leonard made at Biograph, 32 of them were with an up-and-coming young actress named

Mary Pickford Gladys Louise Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American film actress and producer. A Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood, pioneer in the American film industry with a Hollywood care ...

Marriage and switch to Universal Pictures

Marion Leonard and D W Griffith in At the corssroads of life 1908

While working for Biograph, Leonard met screenwriter/director Stanner E.V. Taylor and a personal relationship developed that led to marriage. They created their own studio, the Gem Motion Picture Company, in 1911 to benefit from Leonard's increasing popularity. In 1915, after appearing in more than 150 motion pictures, Leonard retired from film acting. She returned, however, 11 years later at age 45 for one final screen appearance in a 1926

Mack Sennett Mack Sennett (born Michael Sinnott; January 17, 1880 – November 5, 1960) was a Canadian-American producer, director, actor, and studio head who was known as the "King of Comedy" during his career. Born in Danville, Quebec, he started acting i ...

comedy. Leonard died in 1956 at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in

Woodland Hills, California Woodland Hills is a neighborhood bordering the Santa Monica Mountains in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California, United States. History The area was inhabited for around 8,000 years by Native Americans in the United States, ...

Selected filmography

References

External links

*
Marion Leonard
at Women Film Pioneers Project {{DEFAULTSORT:Leonard, Marion 1881 births 1956 deaths American stage actresses American film actresses American silent film actresses Actresses from Ohio 20th-century American actresses Women film pioneers