Mildred Harris
Encyclopedia
Mildred Harris was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 film actress. Harris began her career in the film industry as a popular child actress
Child actor
The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting in motion pictures or television, but also to an adult who began his or her acting career as a child; to avoid confusion, the latter is also called a former child actor...

 at age eleven. At the age of fifteen, she was cast as a harem girl in D. W. Griffith
D. W. Griffith
David Llewelyn Wark Griffith was a premier pioneering American film director. He is best known as the director of the controversial and groundbreaking 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and the subsequent film Intolerance .Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation made pioneering use of advanced camera...

's Intolerance
Intolerance (film)
Intolerance is a 1916 American silent film directed by D. W. Griffith and is considered one of the great masterpieces of the Silent Era. The three-and-a-half hour epic intercuts four parallel storylines each separated by several centuries: A contemporary melodrama of crime and redemption; a...

(1916). She appeared as a leading lady
Leading lady
Leading lady is an informal term for the actress who plays a secondary lead or supporting role, usually a love interest, to the leading actor in a film or play. It is not usually applied to the leading actress in the performance if her character is the protagonist.A leading lady can also be an...

 through the 1920s but her career slowed with the advent of the "talkies". She was critically praised for No, No Nanette
No No Nanette (1930 film)
No, No, Nanette is a musical comedy film with Technicolor sequences. It was adapted from the play of the same title by Otto A. Harbach and Frank Mandel...

in 1930, had a few bit parts in the early 1940s, and made her last appearance in the posthumously released Having A Wonderful Crime of 1945.

Harris has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...

 at 6307 Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood Boulevard
-Revitalization:In recent years successful efforts have been made at cleaning up Hollywood Blvd., as the street had gained a reputation for crime and seediness. Central to these efforts was the construction of the Hollywood and Highland shopping center and adjacent Kodak Theatre in 2001...

 in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

. In 1992, she was portrayed by Milla Jovovich
Milla Jovovich
Milla Jovovich December 17, 1975)is an American model, actress, musician, and fashion designer. Over her career, she has appeared in a number of science fiction and action-themed films, for which music channel VH1 has referred to her as the "reigning queen of kick-butt".Milla Jovovich began...

 in the biographical film Chaplin.

Career

Born in Cheyenne, Wyoming
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Cheyenne is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming and the county seat of Laramie County. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Laramie County. The population is 59,466 at the 2010 census. Cheyenne is the...

, Harris made her first screen appearance at the age of eleven in the 1912 Francis Ford
Francis Ford (actor)
Francis Ford was a prolific film actor, writer, and director. He was the older brother of film director John Ford. He also appeared in many of John Ford's movies, including Young Mr. Lincoln and The Quiet Man.He starred in the 1912 two-reeler The Deserter by Thomas H. Ince and acted in over 400...

 and Thomas H. Ince
Thomas H. Ince
Thomas Harper Ince was an American silent film actor, director, screenwriter and producer of more than 100 films and pioneering studio mogul. Known as the "Father of the Western", he invented many mechanisms of professional movie production, introducing early Hollywood to the "assembly line"...

-directed Western short The Post Telegrapher. She followed the film with various juvenile roles, often appearing opposite child actor
Child actor
The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting in motion pictures or television, but also to an adult who began his or her acting career as a child; to avoid confusion, the latter is also called a former child actor...

 Paul Willis
Paul Willis (actor)
Paul Willis was an American actor of the silent film era who is possibly best recalled as a child actor in the 1910s....

. In 1914, she was hired by The Oz Film Manufacturing Company
The Oz Film Manufacturing Company
The Oz Film Manufacturing Company was an independent film studio from 1914-1915. It was founded by L. Frank Baum , Louis F. Gottschalk , Harry Marston Haldeman , and Clarence R. Rundel as an offshoot of Haldeman's social group, The Uplifters, that met at the Los Angeles Athletic Club...

 to portray Fluff in The Magic Cloak of Oz
The Magic Cloak of Oz
The Magic Cloak of Oz is a 1914 film directed by J. Farrell MacDonald. It was written by L. Frank Baum and produced by Baum and composer Louis F. Gottschalk. The film is an adaptation of Baum's novel, Queen Zixi of Ix....

and Button-Bright in His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz. In 1916, at the age of 15, she appeared as a harem girl in Griffith's epic Intolerance
Intolerance (film)
Intolerance is a 1916 American silent film directed by D. W. Griffith and is considered one of the great masterpieces of the Silent Era. The three-and-a-half hour epic intercuts four parallel storylines each separated by several centuries: A contemporary melodrama of crime and redemption; a...

.

In the 1920s, Harris graduated to leading lady
Leading lady
Leading lady is an informal term for the actress who plays a secondary lead or supporting role, usually a love interest, to the leading actor in a film or play. It is not usually applied to the leading actress in the performance if her character is the protagonist.A leading lady can also be an...

 roles opposite leading men
Leading man
Leading man or leading gentleman is an informal term for the actor who plays a love interest to the leading actress in a film or play. A leading man is usually an all rounder; capable of singing, dancing, and acting at a professional level, but never outshining his female co-star...

 such as Conrad Nagel
Conrad Nagel
Conrad Nagel was an American screen actor and matinee idol of the silent film era and beyond. He was also a well-known television actor and radio performer.-Biography:...

, Milton Sills
Milton Sills
Milton Sills was a highly successful American stage and film actor of the early twentieth century....

, Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen and radio. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul...

, Rod La Rocque
Rod La Rocque
-Biography:He was born Roderick La Rocque in Chicago, Illinois. He began appearing in stock theater at the age of seven and eventually ended up at the Essanay Studios in Chicago where he found steady work until the studios closed. He then moved to New York City and worked on the stage until he was...

 and the Moore brothers, Owen
Owen Moore
Owen Moore was an Irish-born actor in American films, appearing in more than 279 movies spanning from 1908 to 1937.-Life and career:...

 and Tom
Thomas J. Moore
Thomas J. "Tom" Moore was an Irish-born American actor and director. He appeared in at least 186 motion pictures from 1908 to 1954...

. She appeared in Frank Capra
Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...

's 1928 silent drama The Power of the Press
The Power of the Press
The Power of the Press is a 1928 silent film directed by Frank Capra and starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr as an aspiring newspaper reporter and Jobyna Ralston as a young woman suspected of murder....

with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Douglas Elton Fairbanks, Jr. KBE was an American actor and a highly decorated naval officer of World War II.-Early life:...

 and Jobyna Ralston
Jobyna Ralston
Jobyna Ralston was an American stage and film actress.-Early life and career:Born Jobyna Lancaster Raulston in South Pittsburg, Tennessee in 1899 to parents who named her after famed entertainer of the time, Jobyna Howland...

.

She found the transition to the "talkies" difficult and her career slowed dramatically. She performed in vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

 and burlesque
Burlesque
Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...

, and, at one point, toured with comedian Phil Silvers
Phil Silvers
Phil Silvers was an American entertainer and comedy actor, known as "The King of Chutzpah." He is best known for starring in The Phil Silvers Show, a 1950s sitcom set on a U.S...

. She was critically praised for her performance in the 1930 film adaptation of the Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 musical No, No Nanette. In the 1936 Three Stooges
Three Stooges
The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid–20th century best known for their numerous short subject films. Their hallmark was physical farce and extreme slapstick. In films, the Stooges were commonly known by their first names: "Moe, Larry, and Curly" and "Moe,...

 comedy Movie Maniacs
Movie Maniacs
Movie Maniacs is the thirteenth short subject film starring American slapstick comedy trio the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.-Plot:...

, she portrayed a temperamental and demanding film starlet who, while receiving a pedicure
Pedicure
A pedicure is a way to improve the appearance of the feet and the nails. It provides a similar service to a manicure. The word pedicure refers to superficial cosmetic treatment of the feet and toenails...

, is startled by stooge Curly Howard
Curly Howard
Jerome Lester "Jerry" Horwitz , better known by his stage name Curly Howard, was an American comedian and vaudevillian. He is best known as a member of the American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges, along with his older brothers Moe Howard and Shemp Howard, and actor Larry Fine...

 striking a match on the sole of her foot.

Harris continued to work in film in the early 1940s, largely through the kindness of her former director, Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...

, who cast her in bit parts in 1942's Reap the Wild Wind
Reap the Wild Wind
Reap the Wild Wind is a serialized story written by Thelma Strabel in 1940 for The Saturday Evening Post, which was the basis for the 1942 film starring Ray Milland, John Wayne, Paulette Goddard, Robert Preston, and Susan Hayward, and directed by Cecil B. DeMille, his second picture to be filmed in...

, and 1944's The Story of Dr. Wassell
The Story of Dr. Wassell
The Story of Dr. Wassell is a Technicolor World War II film set in the Dutch East Indies, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, and starring Gary Cooper, Laraine Day, Signe Hasso, and Dennis O'Keefe. It is based on the wartime activities of US Navy Doctor Corydon M...

. Her last film appearance was in the posthumously released 1945 film Having A Wonderful Crime.

Personal life

Sixteen-year-old Harris met actor Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...

 in mid-1918, dated, and came to believe she was pregnant by him. They married on October 23, 1918, in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

. The couple quarreled about her contract with Louis B. Mayer
Louis B. Mayer
Louis Burt Mayer born Lazar Meir was an American film producer. He is generally cited as the creator of the "star system" within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in its golden years. Known always as Louis B...

 and her career. Chaplin felt she was not his intellectual equal, and, when their child died in July 1919 after three days of life, they separated in the autumn of 1919. Chaplin moved to the Los Angeles Athletic Club
Los Angeles Athletic Club
Los Angeles Athletic Club is an athletic club and private social club in Los Angeles, California, USA. It awards the John R. Wooden Award to the outstanding men's and women's college basketball player of each year....

. Harris tried to keep appearances up, believing a happy marriage was possible, but in 1920 she filed for divorce based on mental cruelty. Chaplin accused her of infidelity, and, though he would not name her lover publicly, Alla Nazimova
Alla Nazimova
Alla Nazimova , was a Russian American film and theatre actress, a screenwriter and film producer. She is perhaps best known as simply Nazimova, but also went under the name Alia Nasimoff.-Early life:...

 was suspected. Harris denied rumors Chaplin had been physically violent, and divorce was granted in November 1920 with Harris receiving $100,000 in settlement and some community property.

Following the divorce, Harris had a highly publicized relationship of less than a year's duration with the Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...

 (later King Edward VIII).

In 1924, Harris married Everett Terrence McGovern. The union lasted until November 26, 1929, when Harris filed for divorce in Los Angeles, California, on grounds of desertion. The couple had one child, Everett Terrence McGovern, Jr., in 1925. In 1934, she married William P. Fleckenstein in Asheville, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

. The couple remained married until Harris' unexpected death in 1944 of pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...

. She was laid to rest at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Hollywood Forever Cemetery, originally called Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery, is one of the oldest cemeteries in Los Angeles, California. It is located at 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard in the Hollywood...

 in Los Angeles, California.

Filmography

Year Film Role Notes
1912 The Post Telegrapher
The Triumph of Right Their Little Daughter
His Nemesis
The Frontier Child A Frontier Child
His Squaw
His Sense of Duty
1913 A Shadow of the Past
The Wheels of Destiny
The Way of a Mother
The Miser
The Drummer of the 8th
A Child of War
A True Believer
The Seal of Silence
Granddad Mildred
Borrowed Gold
1914 Romance of Sunshine Alley
O Mimi San
The Courtship of O San
Wolves of the Underworld
The Colonel's Orderly
The Social Ghost Ethel
Shadows of the Past
A Frontier Mother
The Sheriff of Bisbee
Shorty and the Fortune Teller
When America Was Young
Mildred's Doll Mildred
The Magic Cloak Princess Margaret 'Fluff' of Noland
His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz Button-Bright, who is lost and doesn't care
Jimmy Mary
1915 The Lone Cowboy
The Warrens of Virginia Betty Warren
Enoch Arden
Enoch Arden (1915 film)
Enoch Arden is a 1915 short drama film directed by Christy Cabanne. It is based on the poem of the same name by Tennyson.-Cast:* Alfred Paget - Enoch Arden* Lillian Gish - Annie Lee* Wallace Reid - Walter Fenn* D. W. Griffith - Mr. Ray...

A Child (uncredited)
The Little Matchmaker Mildred
The Little Soldier Man Mildred
The Absentee Innocence
A Rightful Theft
The Old Batch First Adopted Daughter
The Choir Boys
The Little Lumberjack
The Indian Trapper's Vindication Dorothy King - their Daughter
1916 Hoodoo Ann
Hoodoo Ann
Hoodoo Ann is a 1916 Lloyd Ingraham-directed American comedy-drama silent film, written by D.W. Griffith and released by Triangle Film Corporation.-Plot summary:Ann is a young girl who has been living in an orphanage since infancy...

Goldie
Intolerance
Intolerance (film)
Intolerance is a 1916 American silent film directed by D. W. Griffith and is considered one of the great masterpieces of the Silent Era. The three-and-a-half hour epic intercuts four parallel storylines each separated by several centuries: A contemporary melodrama of crime and redemption; a...

Favorite of the Harem (uncredited)
The Old Folks at Home Marjorie
The Matrimaniac (uncredited)
The Americano
The Americano
The Americano is a 1916 film directed by John Emerson and starring Douglas Fairbanks. This was Fairbanks' last film for Triangle Film Corporation.-Cast:*Douglas Fairbanks as Blaze Derringer*Alma Rubens as Juana deCastalar...

Stenographer
1917 The Bad Boy
The Bad Boy (1917 film)
The Bad Boy is an American crime drama film directed by Chester Withey and starring Robert Harron, Richard Cummings, Mildred Harris and actress Colleen Moore, who made her film debut in The Bad Boy.-Plot summary:...

Mary
A Love Sublime
A Love Sublime
A Love Sublime is a 1917 drama film directed by Tod Browning.-Cast:* Wilfred Lucas - Philip* Carmel Myers - Toinette* F. A. Turner - The Professor A Love Sublime (also known as Orpheus) is a 1917 drama film directed by Tod Browning.-Cast:* Wilfred Lucas - Philip* Carmel Myers - Toinette* F. A....

Eurydice
An Old Fashioned Young Man
Time Locks and Diamonds Lolita Mendoza
Golden Rule Kate
Golden Rule Kate
Golden Rule Kate is a 1917 silent era western drama motion picture starring Louise Glaum, William Conklin, Jack Richardson, Mildred Harris, and John Gilbert.Directed by Reginald Barker from a story written by Monte M...

Olive - Kate's sister
The Cold Deck Alice Leigh
The Price of a Good Time Linnie
1918 The Doctor and the Woman Sidney Page
Cupid by Proxy Jane Stewart
For Husbands Only Toni Wilde
Borrowed Clothes Mary Kirk
1919 When a Girl Loves Bess
Home Millicent Rankin
Forbidden 'Maddie' Irvin
1920 Old Dad Daphne Bretton
The Inferior Sex Allisa Randall as Mildred Harris Chaplin
Polly of the Storm Country Polly as Mildred Harris Chaplin
The Woman in His House Hilda as Mildred Harris Chaplin
1921 Habit Irene Fletcher
A Prince There Was Katherine Woods
Fool's Paradise Rosa Duchene
1922 The First Woman The Girl
1923 The Fog
The Fog (1923 film)
The Fog is a 1923 silent film starring Mildred Harris; the poster for this movie was featured in Sherlock Jr.. This movie still survives. The exact release date for this movie was January 18th, 1923....

Madelaine Theddon
The Daring Years
The Daring Years
The Daring Years is an independently released American silent film melodrama, directed by Kenneth Webb and produced by Daniel Carson Goodman. The film starred Mildred Harris, Clara Bow, Charles Emmett Mack, and Tyrone Power, Sr....

Susie LaMotte
1924 The Shadow of the East
The Shadow of the Desert
The Shadow of the Desert is a 1924 silent American horror film directed by George Archainbaud...

Gillian Locke
By Divine Right The Girl
Traffic in Hearts Alice Hamilton
One Law for the Woman Polly Barnes
In Fast Company Barbara Belden
Unmarried Wives Princess Sonya
Stepping Lively Evelyn Pendroy, the girl
The Desert Hawk Marie Nicholls
1925 Easy Money Blanche Amory
Flaming Love Chita
Beyond the Border
Beyond the Border
Beyond the Border is a 1925 Western film directed by Scott R. Dunlap and starring Harry Carey.-Cast:* Harry Carey - Bob Smith* William Scott - Bob Moore* Mildred Harris - Molly Smith* Tom Santschi - Nick Perdue* Jack Richardson - Brick Dawson...

Molly Smith
The Dressmaker from Paris Joan McGregor
Super Speed Claire Knight
Private Affairs Amy Lufkin
My Neighbor's Wife Inventor's Wife
A Man of Iron Claire Bowdoin
The Fighting Cub
The Unknown Lover Gale Norman
Soiled Pet Darling
1926 Mama Behave Lolita Chase, Charlie's Wife
The Isle of Retribution Lenore Hardenworth
The Self Starter
Dangerous Traffic Helen Leonard
The Wolf Hunters
The Mystery Club Mrs. Kate Vandeerveer
Cruise of the Jasper B
Cruise of the Jasper B
Cruise of the Jasper B is a 1926 American silent action/adventure comedy film produced by Cecil B. DeMille and directed by James W. Horne. The film is loosely based on the 1916 novel of the same name by American poet Don Marquis, although the film adaptation and novel share little in common.-Plot...

Agatha Fairhaven
1927 The Show Girl Maizie Udell
One Hour of Love Gwen
Husband Hunters Cynthia Kane
Wandering Girls Maxine
Wolves of the Air Marceline Manning
Burning Gold
She's My Baby Claire Daltour
Rose of the Bowery
The Swell-Head Kitty
Sumuru Helen Graham
Out of the Past Dora Prentiss
The Adventurous Soul Miriam Martin
1928 The Last Lap
Hearts of Men Alice Weston
The Heart of a Follies Girl Florine
Lingerie Mary
The Speed Classic Sheila Van Hauten
Melody of Love Madelon
The Power of the Press
The Power of the Press
The Power of the Press is a 1928 silent film directed by Frank Capra and starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr as an aspiring newspaper reporter and Jobyna Ralston as a young woman suspected of murder....

Marie
1929 Side Street
Side Street (1929 film)
Side Street is a 1929 black-and-white talking movie featuring the only screen teaming of all three Moore Brothers , each of them major silent film stars. George Raft also makes an unbilled appearance as a professional dancer—which Raft was at the time—dancing to the song "Take a Look at Her Now",...

Bunny
Sea Fury
1930 No, No, Nanette Betty
Melody Man Martha
Ranch House Blues
1935 Lady Tubbs Society Woman (uncredited)
The quiero con locura
Never Too Late Mary Lloyd Hartley
1936 Movie Maniacs
Movie Maniacs
Movie Maniacs is the thirteenth short subject film starring American slapstick comedy trio the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.-Plot:...

Leading Lady
Great Guy
Great Guy
Great Guy is a crime film starring James Cagney and Mae Clarke. An honest inspector for the New York Department of Weights and Measures takes on corrupt merchants and politicians.-Cast:*James Cagney as Johnny Cave*Mae Clarke as Janet Henry...

Bit Role (uncredited)
1942 Reap the Wild Wind
Reap the Wild Wind
Reap the Wild Wind is a serialized story written by Thelma Strabel in 1940 for The Saturday Evening Post, which was the basis for the 1942 film starring Ray Milland, John Wayne, Paulette Goddard, Robert Preston, and Susan Hayward, and directed by Cecil B. DeMille, his second picture to be filmed in...

Dancing Lady (uncredited)
Holiday Inn
Holiday Inn (film)
Holiday Inn is a 1942 American musical film starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, with music by Irving Berlin. The film has twelve songs written expressly for the film, the most notable being "White Christmas"...

Woman (uncredited)
(unconfirmed)
1944 The Story of Dr. Wassell
The Story of Dr. Wassell
The Story of Dr. Wassell is a Technicolor World War II film set in the Dutch East Indies, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, and starring Gary Cooper, Laraine Day, Signe Hasso, and Dennis O'Keefe. It is based on the wartime activities of US Navy Doctor Corydon M...

Dutch nurse (uncredited)
Fun Time Tillie (uincredited)
Hail the Conquering Hero
Hail the Conquering Hero
Hail the Conquering Hero is a satirical comedy/drama written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Eddie Bracken, Ella Raines and William Demarest, and featuring Raymond Walburn, Franklin Pangborn, Elizabeth Patterson and Bill Edwards....

Wife of Marine Colonel (uncredited)
1945 Having a Wonderful Crime Guest (uncredited)

External links

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