Genevieve Dolores Gerber (April 3, 1894 – January 2, 1974) was an American

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 ...

actress who appeared in more than 120 films between 1912 and 1930.

Early life and career

She was born in Argenta, Illinois, to S. Nelson Gerber (1870–1902) and Juanetta Jean Pullman. Her parents separated when she was young and her mother moved her to

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. She was raised by nuns from the College of the Immaculate Heart. After the death of her father, Gerber's impoverished mother gave guardianship of her daughter to an attorney. Neva Gerber - Jul 3 1915 RL

After her graduation from high school, Gerber became an actress and appeared in several one-reelers. Her film debut came in ''The Flower Girl's Romance'' (1912). Beginning in 1917, she starred in multiple

serial film A serial film, film serial (or just serial), movie serial, or chapter play, is a motion picture form popular during the first half of the 20th century, consisting of a series of short subjects exhibited in consecutive order at one theater, gene ...

s, and she is considered one of the top ten "serial queens" of the

period. She teamed with director and actor Ben F. Wilson in many of these productions, and starred in the first crude sound era serial, '' The Voice from the Sky'', also directed by Wilson. However, her career stalled in 1930 after Wilson died from heart disease. Gerber retired from acting shortly thereafter.

Personal life and death

Gerber's first marriage was to actor Arthur Nelson Millett on July 22, 1913. They separated the following year. In 1915, she became engaged to director

William Desmond Taylor William Desmond Taylor (born William Cunningham Deane-Tanner; 26 April 1872 – 1 February 1922) was an Anglo-Irish-American film director and actor. A popular figure in the growing Cinema of the United States, Hollywood motion picture colony o ...

. Gerber and Taylor did not marry, because she was not yet divorced from Millett, and she and Taylor broke it off in 1919. (Taylor was subsequently murdered in 1922, a famous unsolved case). Gerber's divorce from Millett was eventually finalized in 1920. In 1923, Gerber married contractor Edward Dana Nolan, who died in 1926 of alcoholism. She went on to marry David Booth in 1934. After Booth's death, she married a fourth and final time, to contractor William Munchoff; he died in 1960. On January 2, 1974, Gerber died of a

cerebral thrombosis A thrombus ( thrombi) is a solid or semisolid aggregate from constituents of the blood (platelets, fibrin, red blood cells, white blood cells) within the circulatory system during life. A blood clot is the final product of the blood coagulatio ...

Palm Springs, California Palm Springs (Cahuilla language, Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Rivers ...

. She was buried in a pauper's grave in

Desert Memorial Park Desert Memorial Park is a cemetery in Cathedral City, California, United States, near Palm Springs, California, Palm Springs. Opening in 1956 and receiving its first interment in 1957,The Palm Springs Cemetery District itself was covers 504 square ...

Cathedral City, California Cathedral City, colloquially known as "Cat City", is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. Situated between Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage, the city has the second la ...

Selected filmography

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gerber, Neva 1894 births 1974 deaths 20th-century American actresses Actresses from Illinois American film actresses American silent film actresses Burials at Desert Memorial Park Neurological disease deaths in California Deaths from cerebral thrombosis Film serial actresses People from Macon County, Illinois American vaudeville performers Western (genre) film actresses