HOME WEB NEWS IMAGES CLASSIFIEDS YELLOW PAGESPOLLS - SURVEYS WIKI COUNTRIES PHOTOS US UK INDIA
Cities Stocks Weather Movies Coupons Travel Blogs Health Horoscope Maps ASIA EUROPE Classifieds Yellow Pages
Marie Prevost in 1918.
Marie Prevost (November 8, 1898 - January 21, 1937) was a Canadian-born actress of the early days of cinema.
Contents |
Born Mary Bickford Dunn in Sarnia, Ontario, when she was still a child her family moved first to Denver, Colorado and then later to Los Angeles, California. While working as a secretary, she applied and obtained an acting job at the Hollywood studio owned by Mack Sennett. Himself from a small Canadian town outside of Montreal, Sennett dubbed her as the exotic French girl, adding Mary Dunn to his collection of bathing beauties under the stage name of Marie Prevost.
One of her first publicly successful film roles came in the 1920 romantic film Love, Honor, and Behave opposite another newcomer and Sennett protegé, George O\'Hara. Initially cast in numerous minor comedic roles as the sexy, innocent young girl, she worked in several films for Sennett\'s studio until 1921 when she signed with Universal Studios. At Universal, Marie Prevost was still relegated to light comedies and after making only eight films she left to sign with Warner Brothers in 1922.
It was there that she got her first big break appearing in a standout role in the F. Scott Fitzgerald story, The Beautiful and Damned. Her performance brought good reviews and director Ernst Lubitsch chose her for a major role opposite Adolphe Menjou in 1924\'s The Marriage Circle. Of her performance as the beautiful seductress, Ernst Lubitsch said that she was one of the few actresses in Hollywood who knew how to underplay comedy to achieve the maximum effect.
This impressive performance, praised by The New York Times, resulted in Lubitsch casting her in Three Women in 1924 and in Kiss Me Again the following year. But, just when her career was blossoming, tragedy struck her family again in 1926. While her mother was traveling in Florida with actress Vera Steadman and another Canadian friend, Hollywood studio owner, Al Christie, an automobile accident took her mother\'s life.
Devastated, the loss of her only remaining parent led to an addiction to alcohol and to Marie Prevost\'s own ultimate destruction. Married to actor Kenneth Harlan since 1924, that marriage soon ended in a 1927 divorce.
Prevost tried to get past her personal torment by burying herself in her work, starring in numerous roles as the temptingly beautiful seductress who in the end was always the honorable heroine.
However, her depression caused her to binge on food resulting in significant weight gain. By the 1930s she was working less and less being offered only secondary parts. A notable exception was Paid, in 1930, a role for which she got good reviews.
As a result of all this, her financial income declined and her growing dependency on alcohol added to her weight problems. By 1934, she had no work at all and her financial situation deteriorated dramatically. The downward spiral became greatly aggravated when her weight problems forced her into repeated crash dieting in order to keep whatever bit part a movie studio offered.
On January 21, 1937, at the age of 38, secluded and hiding away from the world, living alone in an apartment house, Marie Prevost died from a combination of alcoholism and her self-imposed malnutrition. The primary cause of death was a heart attack. Her body was not discovered until January 23rd, when neighbors had complained about her dog\'s incessant barking. The police report stated that her pet dachshund (named John Kelly for unknown reasons) "had chewed up her arms and legs in a futile attempt to awaken her." Among her few possessions was an I.O.U. note which read as follows : "Joan Crawford, I.O.U. $300". It was signed by Marie and dated January 21st, 1937. She was cremated and her ashes were mixed with those of her mother who had died and was cremated in the 1920\'s.
After having performed in some 120 films Marie Prevost has now been honored with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6201 Hollywood Blvd.
British musician Nick Lowe retold the story of Prevost\'s death in his satirical song "Marie Provost" (the misspelling is Lowe\'s) from his 1978 album Jesus Of Cool. The song\'s refrain: "She was a winner/That became the doggie\'s dinner."
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia
1