Kathleen Key

Kathleen Key

Birth : 1903-04-01, Buffalo, New York, USA

Death : 1954-12-22

History

From Wikipedia: Kathleen Key (April 1, 1903 – December 22, 1954) was an American actress who achieved a brief period of fame during the silent era. She is best remembered for playing Tirzah in the 1925 film Ben-Hur. Key was the great-great granddaughter of Francis Scott Key, composer of "The Star Spangled Banner", and a distant cousin of author F. Scott Fitzgerald. Born Kitty Lanahan in Buffalo, New York, she debuted in films in 1920 in the film The Jackeroo of Coolabong, playing a lead role. From that point on to the end of the 1920s, Kathleen Key, sometimes credited as Kathleen Keys, starred in several films, but never really reached stardom, and was never given much credit for the roles she had, although there were some exceptions. In the early '20s, Key had a well-known love affair with silent-film actor Buster Keaton, who was married at the time. As told in Keaton's biography, the actor attempted to call off the relationship, but Key flew into a jealous rage and ransacked his MGM dressing room, which caused her to be virtually blacklisted afterward by the movie industry. It is also stated that Keaton refused to give Key a monetary loan. A telegram, sent by one of Keaton's friends who had heard about the argument, comically read: "Congratulations. Hear you are off Key." After her retirement in 1936, Keys spent the rest of her days in moderate comfort at the Motion Picture Country House in Woodland Hills, California, where she died at the age of 51 in 1954. Her interment was located at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery.

Profile

Kathleen Key

Movies

Klondike Annie
A San Francisco singer flees Chinatown on murder charges and poses as a missionary in Alaska.
Thunder in the Night
Party Guest
A whodunit set in Budapest, starring Edmund Lowe as a detective investigating the murder of an unemployed vaudeville actor.
Sweeping Against the Winds
A small textile factory down south is run by a cruel foreman that bullies and fires on whim the workers, especially the office girl who starts a day nursery for their children. He's also a part owner in the business. His methods usually scare away the man hired as the plant manager, until a replacement (secretly one of the other owners) arrives.
The Phantom of the North
Colette
In the great white north, a trapper searchers for the thief who has been stealing his furs while a local trader seeks to take advantage of the situation.
Irish Hearts
Clarice
Sheila, a feisty Irish girl, loves Emmett, a somewhat shady Irish boy. When Emmett goes to America, Sheila and her father follow and join him. However, when he loses his job, Sheila is forced to get a job in a cheap restaurant. There she meets Rory, a poor American boy who works in a shipyard. Rory falls in love with her but she still loves Emmett. Then she finds out that Emmett has been taking up with a brassy "flapper" named Clarice.
Hey! Hey! Cowboy
Emily Decker
A longstanding friendship between Julius Decker and Joe Billings, neighboring ranchers, is broken by a series of mystifying occurrences, and their relationship ultimately develops into a feud.
The Desert's Toll
Muriel Cooper
Frank Darwin needs to convince Muriel he didn't kill her Father, as claimed by Jasper and Oneta.
The Flaming Frontier
Lucretia
Bob Langdon, a young Pony Express rider, is given an appointment to West Point, but is forced to leave the academy as the result of political intrigue stirred up by enemies of his friend, General George A. Custer. Bob returns to the west and is made a scout for Custer's 7th Cavalry. At the Battle of Little Big Horn, Custer sends Bob with a message for aid, and Bob becomes the only survivor of the battle.
Money Talks
Vamp
Sam Starling (Owen Moore) is deep in debt, his wife Phoebe (Claire Windsor) is leaving him and still he is confident. When Phoebe boards a luxury yacht and is wooed by the captain, Sam comes aboard as a woman and tries to seduce the captain (in fact, a liquor smuggler), away from his wife.
Under Western Skies
Milly Lewis
Bob Erskine, the son of a wealthy New York banker, falls in love with Ella Parkhurst, the daughter of an Oregon rancher. Bob goes to work as a fieldhand for the elder Parkhurst and discovers that the Oregon crops may fail because eastern bankers, led by Bob's father, refuse to advance the farmers credit. Bob intercedes with his father, who promises to help the ranchers if Bob wins the steeplechase in the Pendleton rodeo.
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
Tirzah
Erstwhile childhood friends, Judah Ben-Hur and Messala meet again as adults, this time with Roman officer Messala as conqueror and Judah as a wealthy, though conquered, Israelite. A slip of a brick during a Roman parade causes Judah to be sent off as a galley slave, his property confiscated and his mother and sister imprisoned. Years later, as a result of his determination to stay alive and his willingness to aid his Roman master, Judah returns to his homeland an exalted and wealthy Roman athlete. Unable to find his mother and sister, and believing them dead, he can think of nothing else than revenge against Messala.
The Big Parade
Miss Apperson (uncredited)
The story of an idle rich boy who joins the US Army's Rainbow Division and is sent to France to fight in World War I, becomes friends with two working class men, experiences the horrors of trench warfare, and finds love with a French girl.
A Lover's Oath
Sherin
"The plot introduces Omar as a leader of his people but deals rather with the love of his nephew, Ben Ali, for the fairest daughter of the tribe" (Variety, 7 Oct 1925, p44).
1925 Studio Tour
Self
A tour of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio in 1925 shows the people who make the movies there, and gives viewers a glimpse at how movies are made.
Revelation
Madonna
Paul Granville becomes a famous painter for his portraits of great women as modeled by the beautiful Joline Hofer. When one of Paul's paintings appears to result in a miracle, Joline's life is changed forever. She leaves her previous life to live one of service and piety, a decision that ultimately saves Paul's life.
The Sea Hawk
Andalusian Slave Girl
The adventures of Oliver Tressilian, who goes from English gentry to galley slave to captain of a Moorish fighting ship.
The Trouble Shooter
Nancy Brewster
Tom Mix, the most popular screen cowboy of his era, played a lineman for a power company in this action melodrama which was a Western in name only.
The Man from Brodney's
Neenah
A drama of the India Seas that has Hollingsworth Chance, a young American, tangled in court intrigue to, is put to the supreme test to save the girl he loves, Princess Geneva
North of Hudson Bay
Estelle MacDonald
On a steamboat heading North, where his brother has struck gold, Mike Dane falls in love with Estelle MacDonald. When he arrives at the Canadian trading post, Dane learns that his brother has been murdered and his partner sentenced to death as the killer.
Hell's Hole
Mabel Grant
Cowboy Tod Musgrave and his pal Del Hawkins steal a ride on a train after being kicked out of a saloon. The conductor throws them off when he discovers they have no tickets, and the two men swear revenge.
Bells of San Juan
Florrie Engel
Rod Norton is a lawman searching for his father's killer. Norton suspects saloon owner Jim Garson but is lacking evidence. Garson's henchmen, the Rickard brothers, kidnap Norton's sweetheart Dorothy, hoping to lure the sheriff into a trap.
West of Chicago
Señoria Gonzales
West of Chicago is a 1922 American silent western film directed by Scott R. Dunlap and starring Buck Jones, Renée Adorée and Philo McCullough.
The Fighting Breed
Enid MacDonald (as Ethel Payton)
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Georgette (uncredited)
Set in the years before and during World War I, this epic tale tells the story of a rich Argentine family, one of its two descending branches being half of French heritage, the other being half German. Following the death of the family patriarch, the man's two daughters and their families resettle to France and Germany, respectively. In time the Great War breaks out, putting members of the family on opposing sides.
The Rookie's Return
Gloria
A young soldier is discharged from the service and has trouble making a living. However, when he inherits a great deal of money, he finds his troubles only beginning.
Reno
Yvette - The Governess
After obtaining a divorce from his second wife Emily, Roy Tappan marries Dora Carson, who has just divorced her husband. Left poor with two children, Emily marries Walter Heath, a former suitor, then discovers that she cannot live with her new husband because the divorce is not legal in her home state. Tappan and his new wife soon run out of money, each having thought the other was wealthy. His aunt promises to support him in exchange for his two children. He kidnaps the children and hides them from Emily in his aunt's home. After Emily and Walter find them, they go to Yellowstone Park, where they are considered legally married. Tappan follows and is killed after a fight with Walter when a boiling geyser throws him into the air and throws him onto the rocks below.