Pearl White

Born: 1889-03-04

From Wikipedia Pearl Fay White (March 4, 1889 – August 4, 1938) was an American stage and film actress. White began her career on the stage at the age of six, and later moved on to silent films appearing in a number of popular serials. Dubbed the "Queen of the serials", White was noted for doing the majority of her own stunts in several film serials, most notably in The Perils of Pauline. In 1910, White was offered a role by Pathé Frères in The Girl From Arizona, the French company's first American film produced at their new studio in Bound Brook, New Jersey. She then worked at Lubin Studios in 1911 and several other of the independents, until the Crystal Film Company in Manhattan gave her top billing in a number of slapstick comedy shorts from 1912 to 1914. White then took a vacation in Europe. Upon her return, she signed with Eclectic Film Company, a subsidiary of Pathé in 1914. Pathé director Louis J. Gasnier offered her the starring role in film serial The Perils of Pauline. By 1919, White had grown tired of film serials and signed with Fox Film Corporation with the ambition to appear in dramatic roles. Over the next two years, White appeared in ten drama films for Fox but her popularity had begun to wane. Pearl White's place in film history is important in both the evolution of cinema genres and the role of women. Like many silent film actors, many of White's films are now considered lost. The Perils of Pauline is only known to exist in a reduced nine-reel version released in Europe in 1916, but The Exploits of Elaine survives and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. All of her films were made at East Coast studios as White reportedly never visited Hollywood. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Pearl White has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6838 Hollywood Blvd. The 1947 Paramount Pictures film The Perils of Pauline, starring Betty Hutton, is a fictionalized biography of Pearl White.


Placeholder

Days of Thrills and Laughter

as Self (archive footage)
Released: 1961-03-21

An appreciative, uncritical look at silent film comedies and thrillers from early in the century...

Movie page

The Perils of Pauline

as Pauline Marvin
Released: 1914-03-31

The Perils of Pauline is a motion picture serial shown in weekly installments featuring the...

Movie page

A Night at the Cinema in 1914

as (archive footage)
Released: 2014-08-01

Cinema a century ago was a new, exciting and highly democratic form of entertainment. Picture...

Movie page

Plunder

as Pearl Travers
Released: 1923-01-28

Various groups of people, both well-intentioned and otherwise, search for a buried treasure that...

Movie page

Any Wife

as Myrtle
Released: 1922-01-22

Movie page

The Iron Claw

as Margery Golden
Released: 1916-02-28

Only Episode 7, "The Hooded Helper," of this 20-Episode Serial is known to survive. All other...

Movie page

The Fatal Ring

as Violet Standish
Released: 1917-07-07

A silent movie serial directed by George B. Seitz.

Movie page

Without Fear

as Ruth Hamilton
Released: 1922-04-16

Movie page

The New Exploits of Elaine

as Elaine Dodge
Released: 1915-04-05

A silent action movie serial.

Movie page

The White Moll

as Rhoda, The White Moll
Released: 1920-07-24

Desperate because a wealthy man has reduced her father to thievery, Rhoda agrees to rob the poor...

Movie page

The House of Hate

as Pearl Grant (Waldon) / Jenny Acton
Released: 1918-01-02

A young heiress of an American gun factory is threatened by a masked man after her father was...

Movie page

The Romance of Elaine

as Elaine Dodge
Released: 1915-06-14

The heroine had little time for romancing newspaper reporter Walter Jameson, what with Doctor X,...

Movie page

The Exploits of Elaine

as Elaine Dodge
Released: 1914-12-29

Elaine Dodge is the beautiful young daughter of Taylor Dodge, president of the Consolidated...

Movie page

The Black Secret

as Evelyn Ereth
Released: 1919-01-02

Adventures of an American Secret Service-girl in search of an important German secret during the...

Movie page

Lost in the Night

as Pearl Barry
Released: 1913-09-06

Pearl White as a sleepwalking jewel thief.

Movie page

The Lightning Raider

as The Lightning Raider
Released: 1919-01-02

A beautiful young woman is a daring master thief. She meets the young millionaire Thomas...

Movie page

Will Power

as Pearl
Released: 1913-06-22

Chester is Pearl's sweetheart. Her father dislikes Chester. He reads in a book of the great...

Movie page

The Woman Hater

as uncredited
Released: 1910-09-26

A man is captured by Indians after swearing off all women.

Movie page

Mayblossom

as Anabel Lee
Released: 1917-04-08

In this tale of the South in the mid-1800s, Annabel Lee and Warner Richmond get married, but...

Movie page

The Hall-Room Girls

as Pearl
Released: 1913-07-19

Pearl White & Chester Barnett want to go on a date and have nothing to wear, so they borrow some...

Movie page

Pearl of the Army

as Pearl Date
Released: 1916-01-02

A 1916 movie serial.

Movie page