Monday, 25 September 2023

1612) Vilma Lwoff-Parlaghy

Princess Elisabeth Vilma Lwoff-Parlaghy (1863 - 1923). Hungarian-born painter who worked in the German Empire and the United States. She is known to have painted about 120 portraits of prominent Americans and Europeans between 1884 and 1923.

In 1899, she married the Russian Prince Georgy Lvov in Prague; they were quickly divorced, though she continued to style herself the "Princess Lwoff-Parlaghy" using her artist name with the authorization of Prince Lvov.


(self-portrait)

She was described by a reporter as possessing..
"...red gold hair, curls and coils and braids of it, big black eyes [and] a rosebud mouth."

From the book Daniel Sickles: a Life

Monday, 18 September 2023

1611) Caroline Miskel Hoyt

Caroline Miskel Hoyt (née Scales; 1873–1898). American stage actress.
She moved to New York City at the age of 18 and soon made her professional stage début touring with Augustin Daly's famed repertory company, adopting the professional name Caroline Miskel. The following season she portrayed Ruth Hardman in Charles H. Hoyt's A Temperance Town, a satiric comedy that opened in 1893, at Hoyt's Madison Square Theatre.
Though by then Miskel was known as a promising young actress with a flair for comedy, she chose to retire from the stage not long after she married Charles Hoyt in 1894. She returned to the theatre in 1897 to star in Hoyt's new play A Contented Woman.
In 1898 she became gravely ill following the birth of her son and both died the next day. The loss brought about the decline of her widower, who died two years later. 


- "Canadian writer Hector Willoughby Charlesworth described her “light auburn hair, creamy complexion, bright sapphire eyes, and noble form and features” and noted that she was “as intellectual as she was beautiful.http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/scales_caroline_12E.html



 

1610) Agnes Ethel

Agnes Ethel (1846 – 1903). American Broadway actress of the late 19th century.
She made her stage debut in Camille (1868), at Jerome's private theatre in New York. She was in the first production of Frou Frou in the United States. The Augustin Daly stock company staged it at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, in 1870. Ethel appeared in Fernande, also at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, again in 1870. A critic wrote that her acting was her best thus far. In September 1872 Ethel appeared in Agnes, presented by the Union Square Theatre. The play was written especially for her by Victorien Sardou. It ran for one hundred nights.
In 1873 Ethel married Francis W. Tracy, a millionaire, and retired from the stage. She took part in charities and assisted struggling actors and actresses. She performed only twice more on stage, appearing on both occasions in support of charity.
When Tracy died in 1886, she was involved in a dispute about his will with Tracy's first wife, but eventually Ethel was awarded the entire fortune.

- "Daly’s biographer described Ethel as “a slender figure, candid eyes, flowing auburn hair, an oval face..." https://cabinetcardgallery.com/2009/02/09/agnes-ethel-broadway-stage-actress/


 

Sunday, 17 September 2023

1609) William Lucking

William Lucking (1941 – 2021). American film, television, and stage actor, best known for his role as Piney Winston in Sons of Anarchy (2008–2011), and for his movie roles in The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972), and The Rundown (2003). He was also known for his portrayal of Col. Lynch in the first season of the 1980s TV show The A-Team.
Lucking graduated from UCLA and the Pasadena Playhouse with degrees in literature and theater. In 1986, with fellow actor and Michigan native Dana Elcar, he co-founded the Santa Paula Theater Center.

- "Stocky, rough-hewn, red-haired actor often seen in biker and hippie films of the late 1960s and early 1970s."  https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0524747/trivia/

- "Besides motorcycle club members, the big & burly Lucking, with his rough-hewn face and red hair, played a slew of sheriffs, detectives, patrolmen..." https://cscottrollins.blogspot.com/2021/11/rest-in-peace-william-lucking-big-bill.html

 


1608) Dorothy Gish

Dorothy Elizabeth Gish (1898 – 1968). American actress of the screen and stage, as well as a director and writer. Dorothy and her older sister Lillian Gish were major movie stars of the silent era. Dorothy Gish was noted as a fine comedian, and many of her films were comedies.
In 1912, their childhood friend, actress Mary Pickford, introduced the sisters to director D. W. Griffith, and they began performing as extras at the Biograph Studios in New York. Dorothy and her sister debuted in Griffith's 1912 production An Unseen Enemy. She would ultimately perform in over 100 short films and features, many times with Lillian.
From 1930 (the beginning of talking pictures) until her death, she only performed in five more movies. Her final film role was in 1963 in the Otto Preminger production, The Cardinal, in which she plays the mother of the title character.
Television in the 1950s, however, offered many stage and film actors the opportunity to perform in plays broadcast live. Dorothy ventured into the new medium, appearing on NBC's Lux Video Theatre on the evening of November 24, 1955, in a production of Miss Susie Slagle's.
In 1920, Dorothy Gish married James Malachi Rennie (1890–1965), a Canadian-born actor who co-starred with her in two productions in that same year. Gish and Rennie remained together until their divorce in 1935. Dorothy never married again.


- "Lillian, a fair, sedate little lass, was delighted when Dorothy arrived—fat, rosy, red-haired—full of fun and mischief, almost from the beginning... Ruddy-haired Dorothy was lovelier than any doll." https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/55169/pg55169-images.html


 

Saturday, 16 September 2023

1607) Mae Marsh

Mae Marsh (born Mary Warne Marsh; 1894 – 1968). American film actress whose career spanned over 50 years.
Marsh worked as a salesgirl and loitered around the Hollywood sets and locations while her older sister Marguerite worked on a film, observing the progress of her sister’s performance. She first started as an extra in various movies, and played her first substantial role in the film Ramona (1910) at the age of 15.
She then worked with Mack Sennett and D. W. Griffith, sometimes appearing in eight movies per year and often paired with fellow Sennett protégé Robert Harron in romantic roles, such as The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916).
March signed a lucrative contract with Samuel Goldwyn after Intolerance, but none of the films she made with him were particularly successful. After her marriage to Lee Arms, a publicity agent for Goldwyn, in 1918, her film output decreased to about one per year.
Marsh returned from retirement to appear in sound films and played a role in Henry King’s remake of Over the Hill (1931). She gravitated toward character roles, and worked in this manner for the next several decades. Marsh appeared in numerous popular films, such as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1932) and Little Man, What Now? (1934). She also became a favorite of director John Ford, appearing in The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), 3 Godfathers (1948), and The Searchers (1956).


- "The petite, auburn-haired, blue-eyed actress appeared in several films before being cast as Flora." https://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/mae-marsh/index.html


- "... making a complete contrast to the brilliant shock of Mae Marsh’s red hair and the golflen blonde of Lillian Gish." https://virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=NEL19160101.1.5&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN--------


 

1606) Hope Hampton

Hope Hampton (Mae Elizabeth Hampton; 1897 – 1982). American silent motion picture actress and producer, who was noted for her seemingly effortless incarnation of siren and flapper types in silent-picture roles during the 1920s.
She was discovered by U.S. silent cinema pioneer Jules Brulatour while working as an extra for director Maurice Tourneur. She made her screen debut in 1920's A Modern Salome, and went on to feature prominently in several Brulatour-financed films. Her last starring role was in The Road to Reno (1938). In 1923, Hampton wed her manager Brulatour, and they remained married until his death in 1946.


- "She is five feet, three inches tall, weighs 115 pounds, and has auburn hair and dark blue eyes." https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hope_Hampton_Stars_of_the_Photoplay.jpg


- "Miss Hampton hastily up her glorious red hair..." https://www.newspapers.com/article/127801467/new-york-tribune/


- "I don't know much about Hope Hampton, except that she was a Texas girl and boasts auburn hair and very blue eyes, and she's one of the most earnest little actresses I've seen for a long time." https://www.newspapers.com/article/85261455/the-bait/