Estelle Taylor
Birth : 1894-05-20, Wilmington, Delaware, USA
Death : 1958-04-15
History
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.
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Lizzie
Sam Tucker, a cotton picker, in search of a better future for his family, decides to grow his own cotton crop. In the first year, the Tuckers battle disease, a flood, and a jealous neighbor. Can they make it as farmers?
Undetermined Role (uncredited)
Polly Parrish, a clerk at Merlin's Department Store, is mistakenly presumed to be the mother of a foundling. Outraged at Polly's unmotherly conduct, David Merlin becomes determined to keep the single woman and "her" baby together.
Saloon Girl (uncredited)
After a roustabout sailor avoids being shanghaied in 1850s San Francisco, his audacity helps him rise to a position of power in the vice industry of the infamous Barbary Coast.
Ruth Springer
A high-spirited, short-tempered, young woman hates her father and loves to rebel against him. She marries a man whom her father hates but her marriage fails and she learns the errors of her ways.
Doris
A fancy masquerade party is the scene of a jewel robbery, and later several suspects in the robbery are discovered to be aboard the same train.
Eliza Mowbray
At a hotel in the middle of the Sahara, an old man and his daughter try to keep the location of a hidden treasure from a collection of thieves and criminals staying at the hotel who are determined to get it. A suave gentleman thief arrives at the hotel one day with his own plan to get the loot, but complications ensue when he begins to fall for the daughter.
Mrs. Anna Maurrant
The setting is a city block during a sweltering summer, where the residents serve as representatives of the not-very-idealized American melting pot. There is idle chitchat, gossip, jealousy, racism, adultery, and suddenly but not unexpectedly, a murder.
Dixie Lee
When the government opens up the Oklahoma territory for settlement, restless Yancey Cravat claims a plot of the free land for himself and moves his family there from Wichita. A newspaperman, lawyer, and just about everything else, Cravat soon becomes a leading citizen of the boom town of Osage. Once the town is established, however, he begins to feel confined once again, and heads for the Cherokee Strip, leaving his family behind. During this and other absences, his wife Sabra must learn to take care of herself and soon becomes prominent in her own right.
Mme. Muscat
A carousel barker falls in love with a young woman. Both are fired from their jobs, and when the young woman becomes pregnant, the carousel barker tries to help pull off a robbery, which goes wrong. Because of the robbery, he dies, and after spending time in hell, is sent back to earth for one day to try to make amends.
Mme. de Sylva
A Chinese wife returns to the American family she left and moves in on her daughter's (Lupe Velez) beau (Lloyd Hughes).
Herself (uncredited)
Peggy Pepper arrives in Hollywood, from Georgia, to become a great dramatic star. Things do not go entirely according to plan.
Lady Raffles
Interrupted during a robbery, thief Lady Raffles hides in an adjacent mansion and is mistaken for a maid during a party thrown by Warren Blake, who plans to present his mother with a diamond necklace. Also in attendance are Lillian and Dick, two jewel thieves who recognize Lady Raffles and fear that she is there to rob Warren as well. But sparks fly between Warren and Lady Raffles, despite Dick and Lillian's attempts at sabotage.
Evelyn Mortimer
When a woman accidentally kills her detested husband, a selfless young man takes the blame and goes to prison. Complications ensue when he is provisionally released.
Sari
A different kind of a story about a different kind of a girl---a modern, young cavewoman who whipped her way into the heart of a man who wanted to forget about love!
Angie Miller
A product of the Bowery, Trent Regan grows up to become a powerful gangster. Regan's girlfriend Angie Miller, hearing that her childhood sweetheart (and Regan's lifelong pal) Mike Cassidy is about to marry Marjorie Church, pays a visit to Mike to offer congratulations. Convinced that Angie is fooling around behind his back, Regan accidentally kills her.
Lucrezia Borgia
If there was one thing that Don Juan de Marana learned from his father Don Jose, it was that women gave you three things - life, disillusionment and death. In his father's case it was his wife, Donna Isobel, and Donna Elvira who supplied the latter. Don Juan settled in Rome after attending the University of Pisa. Rome was run by the tyrannical Borgia family consisting of Caesar, Lucrezia and the Count Donati. Juan has his way with and was pursued by many women, but it is the one that he could not have that haunts him. It will be for her that he suffers the wrath of Borgia for ignoring Lucrezia and then killing Count Donati in a duel. For Adriana, they will both be condemned to death in the prison on the river Tigre.
Mary Standish
An Alaskan defies robber barons intent on corrupting the new state.
Marcheta
Tiger Love silent film
Mary, Queen of Scots
In the year 1550, Sir George Vernon agrees to have his young daughter Dorothy betrothed to John Manners, the son of the Earl of Rutland. Sir George signs a contract, promising that the marriage will take place on Dorothy's 18th birthday, or else he will have to pay a large penalty to Rutland. But when the two children have grown older, rumors of John's wild behavior in France provoke Sir George to call off the engagement, and to pledge his daughter instead to her cousin Malcolm. Rutland now claims the forfeit from Sir George, and meanwhile, John has befriended Mary Stuart, the sworn enemy of Elizabeth, who is now Queen of England.
Miriam - the Sister of Moses: Prologue
The first part tells the story of Moses leading the Jews from Egypt to the Promised Land, his receipt of the tablets and the worship of the golden calf. The second part shows the efficacy of the commandments in modern life through a story set in San Francisco. Two brothers, rivals for the love of Mary, also come into conflict when John discovers Dan used shoddy materials to construct a cathedral.
Estelle Taylor (uncredited)
Mary's kid brother needs an operation and, in order to pay for it, Mary goes to a Hollywood studio and applies for a job as an actress. Mary is given a job as a waitress in the commissary, and gets to meet 40 actors, actresses and directors, none of whom tip big enough to enable Mary to earn enough money to pay for an operation. Will Mary become an actress and make some big money?
Princess Annia
An illiterate, uncouth brute rises to power during the Russian Revolution, plots to wreak vengeance on all who cross him, and incites the peasantry to burn the city.
Mame Mulvey
Dann Mulvey (William Scott), just released from prison, is falsely accused of murder. The real culprit is the least-suspected person, who makes a deathbed confession.
Mercedes, Countess de Morcerf
A film adaptation of the classic Alexandre Dumas novel. Edmond Dantes is falsely accused by those jealous of his good fortune, and is sentenced to spend the rest of his life in the notorious island prison, Chateau d'If. While imprisoned, he meets the Abbe Faria, a fellow prisoner whom everyone believes to be mad. The Abbe tells Edmond of a fantastic treasure hidden away on a tiny island, that only he knows the location of...
Gilda Fontaine
A respectable businessman leaves his wife and daughter for the clutches of a cold, heartbreaking female.
Peggy Hawthorne
A blind cobbler is able, by dint of his extraordinary hearing, to recognize the identity of a murderer. His own son is accused of the killing, and the old man waits, knowing the murderer will return to prevent the blind man from revealing what he knows.
A Wife / The Vamp / The Girl
An anthology of three dramas over the course of one evening in New York, with separate characters in each story played in all three by Marc MacDermott and Estelle Taylor. In one, a woman who has married believing her first and wrothless husband has been killed finds him returning to her for blackmail. The second part is the life of a cabaret vamp and a detective tricking each other, while the third story recalls a man who realizes his son's wife is cheating upon him with the man who lives in the apartment above him.
Tarzan and Jane are traveling to Paris to help his old friend Countess de Coude, who is being threatened by her brother, Nikolas Rokoff. Rokoff has Tarzan tossed overboard. He survives, comes ashore in North Africa, and goes to Paris to search for Jane. In Paris, Tarzan reunites with his old friend Paul D'Arnot, who informs him that Jane was taken to Africa. Tarzan returns just in time to save Jane from a lion attack, and soon defeats Rokoff and his henchmen.
Helen
A rich libertine leaves all his money to a college girl who had refused his advances. The ensuing scandal makes her retire to a small town, where she meets the dead man's son.
The Parisian
Dick Vernon (Montagu Love) lives in New York but hasn't succumbed to the city's vices. When his vacation comes up, he goes to Boonsburg to visit his uncle (George Bunny) and aunts (Emily Fitzroy and Annie Laurie Spence). He finds small-town life far more wicked than living in the big city. A theatrical troupe comes to town, and Dick finds his match in chorus girl Mazie Chateaux (Helen Weir). Dick's uncle inherits a huge sum of money and insists that his nephew take him to New York and entertain him. Dick, knowing what his uncle expects, takes him through a number of wild adventures, but he is happy to put all that behind him and settle down with Mazie. (Janiss Garza)
