Estelle Taylor

Born: 1894-05-20

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Estelle Taylor (May 20, 1894—April 15, 1958) was an American Hollywood actress whose career was most prominent during the silent film era of the 1920s. Born Ida Estelle Taylor in Wilmington, Delaware, the daughter of Harry D Taylor and Ida LaBertha (Barrett) Taylor, Estelle married three times during her lifetime. Her first husband was banker Kenneth Malcom Peacock, her second was William Harrison "Jack" Dempsey (Jack Dempsey the world heavyweight boxing champion), and theatrical producer Paul Smith. After relocating to Hollywood, she began taking bit parts in films. One of Taylor's earliest successes was in 1920 in Fox's While New York Sleeps with Marc McDermott. She and McDermott play three sets of characters in different time periods. This film was lost for decades but has been recently discovered and screened at a film festival in Los Angeles. Taylor is possibly best recalled for her roles in the 1922 drama Monte Cristo opposite John Gilbert, the enormously successful 1923 Cecil B. DeMille directed The Ten Commandments as Miriam, the sister of Moses; as Lucrezia Borgia in the 1926 Warner Bros.' first feature-length film with synchronized Vitaphone sound effects and musical soundtrack Don Juan opposite John Barrymore, Mary Astor and Warner Oland, 1927's New York, opposite Ricardo Cortez and Lois Wilson, 1931's Street Scene with Sylvia Sidney and both the Academy Award winning Cimarron and the Clara Bow talkie, Call Her Savage in 1932. Taylor married heavyweight boxing champion, Jack Dempsey, in 1925. She was supposed to have co-starred in a movie with actor Rudolph Valentino which would have brought her more widespread fame but he died just before production was to begin. In 1928 she and husband Dempsey starred in a Broadway play titled The Big Fight, loosely based around Dempsey's boxing popularity, which ran for 31 performances at the Majestic Theatre. When she divorced Jack in July, 1933 she walked away with $40,000 in cash as well as 3 of their cars and their $150,000 estate. When a fan came up to her for an autographed picture of her, which had Jack's name on top she allegedly wrote: "This is the last time that son-of-a-bitch will be on top of me." Her marriage to Dempsey produced no children. Taylor was a close friend of Mexican-born actress Lupe Vélez, and on the evening of December 13, 1944 she spent several hours at a restaurant having dinner and drinks with the actress before Vélez returned home and committed suicide. The ensuing press coverage briefly propelled Taylor once again into the headlines. Taylor's last film appearance was in the 1945 Jean Renoir directed drama The Southerner. In her later years, Taylor devoted her free time to her pets and was the president and founder of the California Pet Owners' Protective League. In 1953, Taylor served on the City Animal Regulation Commission in Los Angeles, California. Taylor died in 1958.She had been suffering for some time with cancer and had been bedridden the last six months. She was interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Estelle Taylor was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1620 Vine Street in Hollywood, California. In a 1983 American made-for-television movie biopic of boxer Jack Dempsey, Estelle Taylor was portrayed by British actress Victoria Tennant. Description above from the Wikipedia article Estelle Taylor, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia


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The Ten Commandments

as Miriam - the Sister of Moses: Prologue
Released: 1923-11-23

The first part tells the story of Moses leading the Jews from Egypt to the Promised Land, his...

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Cimarron

as Dixie Lee
Released: 1931-01-26

When the government opens up the Oklahoma territory for settlement, restless Yancey Cravat...

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Street Scene

as Mrs. Anna Maurrant
Released: 1931-09-05

The setting is a city block during a sweltering summer, where the residents serve as...

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Show People

as Self (uncredited)
Released: 1928-11-20

Hollywood hopeful Peggy Pepper arrives at a major studio, from Georgia, to become a great...

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The Southerner

as Lizzie
Released: 1945-04-30

Sam Tucker, a cotton picker, in search of a better future for his family, decides to grow his...

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Frisco Kid

as Saloon Girl (uncredited)
Released: 1935-11-30

After a roustabout sailor avoids being shanghaied in 1850s San Francisco, his audacity helps him...

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Bachelor Mother

as (uncredited)
Released: 1939-06-30

Polly Parrish, a clerk at Merlin's Department Store, is mistakenly presumed to be the mother of...

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Monte Cristo

as Mercedes, Countess de Morcerf
Released: 1922-09-03

A film adaptation of the classic Alexandre Dumas novel. Edmond Dantes is falsely accused by...

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Liliom

as Mme. Muscat
Released: 1930-09-27

A carousel barker falls in love with a young woman. Both are fired from their jobs, and when the...

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Where East Is East

as Mme. de Sylva
Released: 1929-05-04

A Chinese wife returns to the American family she left behind in Southeast Asia and then moves...

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Call Her Savage

as Ruth Springer
Released: 1932-11-24

A high-spirited, short-tempered, young woman hates her father and loves to rebel against him....

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Don Juan

as Lucrezia Borgia
Released: 1926-08-06

If there was one thing that Don Juan de Marana learned from his father Don Jose, it was that...

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The Whip Woman

as Sari
Released: 1928-02-05

A different kind of a story about a different kind of a girl---a modern, young cavewoman who...

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Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall

as Mary, Queen of Scots
Released: 1924-05-24

In the year 1550, Sir George Vernon agrees to have his young daughter Dorothy betrothed to John...

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The Revenge of Tarzan

as uncredited
Released: 1920-05-30

Tarzan and Jane are traveling to Paris to help his old friend Countess de Coude, who is being...

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Mary of the Movies

as Estelle Taylor (uncredited)
Released: 1923-05-27

Mary's kid brother needs an operation and, in order to pay for it, Mary goes to a Hollywood...

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A Broadway Saint

as The Parisian
Released: 1919-07-21

Dick Vernon (Montagu Love) lives in New York but hasn't succumbed to the city's vices. When his...

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Tiger Love

as Marcheta
Released: 1924-06-30

The Wildcat, a Robin Hood of the Spanish hills and son of an aristocrat, falls in love with...

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Hollywood

as Estelle Taylor
Released: 1923-08-19

Angela comes to Hollywood with only two things: Her dream to become a movie star, and Grandpa....

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A Fool There Was

as Gilda Fontaine
Released: 1922-06-18

A respectable businessman leaves his wife and daughter for the clutches of a cold, heartbreaking...

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Blind Wives

as Anne/Annie/Annette
Released: 1920-12-19

A woman with a taste for expensive clothing has four nightmares. An impoverished disabled girl...

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New York

as Angie Miller
Released: 1927-01-30

A product of the Bowery, Trent Regan grows up to become a powerful gangster. Regan's girlfriend...

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The Unholy Garden

as Eliza Mowbray
Released: 1931-10-06

At a hotel in the middle of the Sahara, an old man and his daughter try to keep the location of...

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The Alaskan

as Mary Standish
Released: 1924-09-14

An Alaskan defies robber barons intent on corrupting the new state.

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Honor Bound

as Evelyn Mortimer
Released: 1928-04-29

When a woman accidentally kills her detested husband, a selfless young man takes the blame and...

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Only a Shop Girl

as Mame Mulvey
Released: 1922-12-15

Dann Mulvey (William Scott), just released from prison, is falsely accused of murder. The real...

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Bavu

as Princess Annia
Released: 1923-05-07

An illiterate, uncouth brute rises to power during the Russian Revolution, plots to wreak...

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Footfalls

as Peggy Hawthorne
Released: 1921-09-08

A blind cobbler is able, by dint of his extraordinary hearing, to recognize the identity of a...

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The Golden Shower

as Helen
Released: 1919-11-30

A rich libertine leaves all his money to a college girl who had refused his advances. The...

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While New York Sleeps

as A Wife / The Vamp / The Girl
Released: 1920-08-23

An anthology of three dramas over the course of one evening in New York, with separate...

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Thorns and Orange Blossoms

as Rosita Mendez
Released: 1922-12-10

While in Spain Alan Randolph falls for famed singer Rosita Mendez, but when he goes back to...

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