Mary Alden

Mary Alden

Birth : 1883-06-18, New York City, New York, USA

Death : 1946-07-02

History

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mary Maguire Alden (June 18, 1883 – July 2, 1946) was an American motion picture and stage actress. She was one of the first Broadway actresses to work in Hollywood. Born in New York City, Alden began her career on the Broadway stage. She spent five years on Broadway before moving to Hollywood where she worked for the Biograph Company and Pathé Exchange in the first portion of her career. Her most popular role in movies came in Birth of a Nation directed by D.W. Griffith in 1915. Alden played the role of a mulatto girl in love with a northern politician. The following year she was in Griffith's Intolerance with Mae Marsh, Miriam Cooper, and Vera Lewis. After making Less Than The Dust with Mary Pickford in 1917, she took a temporary leave from motion pictures, acting for a while on the stage. Critics acclaimed Alden's portrayal of the mother, Mrs. Anthon, in The Old Nest (1921) and her characterization of an old lady in The Man With Two Mothers (1922). The latter feature was produced by Sam Goldwyn. Alden was prolific as a motion picture actress throughout the 1920s and into the early 1930s. A sampling of movies in which she had roles are The Plastic Age (1925), The Joy Girl (1927), Ladies of the Mob (1928), and Port of Dreams (1929). The final films she received screen credit for are Hell's House, Rasputin and the Empress, and Strange Interlude, each from 1932. Alden died at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California in 1946. This had been her residence for the last four years of her life. She was 63 years of age.

Profile

Mary Alden

Movies

One More Spring
Three people live together in the maintenance shed at Central Park as an alternative to living on the streets.
Strange Interlude
Mary, Leeds' Maid
After Nina Leeds finds out that insanity runs in her husband's family, she has a love child with a handsome doctor and lets her husband believes the child is his.
Hell's House
Lucy Mason
A teenager lands in a brutal reform school for refusing to squeal on his bootlegger boss.
The Bad Sister
Minor Role (uncredited)
Marianne falls in love with con man Valentine who uses their relation to get her father's endorsement on a money-raising scheme. He runs off with the money and Marianne, later dumping her. Her sister Laura loves Dr. Lindley although she knows he loves Marianne. Marianne returns and marries a wealthy young man, and Lindley turns his love toward Laura.
Politics
Mary Evans
A widow's decision to run for mayor kicks off a battle of the sexes in a small town.
Girl Overboard
A young man is sentenced to prison for a term of eight years, yet he's allowed out if he promises not to get married for those eight years, lest he be forced to complete his sentence behind bars. He goes to live on an old ship in the harbor with an old sea captain. One day a homeless girl is fished out of the water and brought to live on the boat, soon marrying the young man. All is well until his parole officer finds out.
Ladies of the Mob
Soft Annie
A dead criminal's daughter falls in love with a small-time crook and tries to get him to reform before he winds up like her father.
The Sawdust Paradise
Mother
She dances- The Dance of Death. She Sings- The song of Life. Scintillating, Fascinating, Desirable, Swifty She Weaves the Web of Destruction and then Regeneration. A Drama of Lights and Shadows.
The Cossacks
Lukashka's mother
Stirring romance, hard riding, desperate fighting with the Cossacks playing their game of war and chivalry. A mighty picturization of Count Leo Tolstoi's famous novel of the same name.
Fools for Luck
Mrs. Hunter
Wealthy Sam Hunter is approached by scheming Richard Whitehead about investing in oil. There appears to be no oil, and everyone is angry until oil is re-discovered.
Twin Flappers
Twin Flappers is a 1927 silent film.
The Joy Girl
Mrs. Courage
Though she loves one man, an ambitious Palm Beach girl marries another, whom she thinks is rich. He turns out to be a fraud who thought she was an heiress. She returns to a successful hat shop she maintains catering to socialites. Her true love turns out to be in fact, a rich man who let her think he was not to test her.
The Potters
Ma Potter
Pa Potter invests four thousand dollars in worthless oil stock. Or is it worthless?
April Fool
Amelia Rosen
An out-of-work pants presser starts an umbrella business and makes a fortune. His daughter is set to marry the nephew of a rich neighbor until the nephew is accused of stealing money from his uncle--but the money was really stolen by the rich man's son.
Lovey Mary
Mrs. Wiggs
Lovely Mary, an orphan girl, reluctantly takes charge of her sister's child when her sister Kate is jailed.
Brown of Harvard
Mrs. Brown
Tom Brown shows up at Harvard, confident and a bit arrogant. He becomes a rival of Bob McAndrew, not only in football and rowing crew, but also for the affections of Mary Abbott, a professor's daughter.
The Earth Woman
Martha Tilden (The Earth Woman)
The story is set in the hills of Tennessee, where practically everybody gets smashed on rotgut moonshine. A drink-benumbed hillbilly tries to rape heroine Sally Tilden (Priscilla Bonner), setting off a chain reaction of violence, murder, and false confessions.
The Plastic Age
Mrs. Carver
Hugh Carver is an athletic star and a freshman at Prescott College. He falls in love with Cynthia Day, a popular girl who loves to party, and finds that it's impossible to please her and still keep up with his studies and athletic training. Soon the two face some difficult decisions.
Siege
A stern old woman, who owns the largest factory in a small town and has ruled both the factory and the town with an iron hand, finds herself battling with the wife of her nephew, the man she has picked to succeed her.
The Unwritten Law
Miss Grant
The Unwritten Law is an extant 1925 silent film crime melodrama directed by Edward LeSaint and starring Elaine Hammerstein. It was produced and distributed by Columbia Pictures Corporation. In the UK distribution was handled by Film Booking Offices of America.
The Happy Warrior
Aunt Maggie
Malcolm McGregor joins the circus and falls in love with Olive Borden but his life changes when he finds out he is a titled Lord.
Faint Perfume
Ma Crumb
After a stormy six year marriage, Barnaby Powers divorces his wife Richmiel. She returns home, taking their young son Oliver with her. Barnaby follows her, to ask for custody of the boy, but meets and falls in love with Richmiel's pretty and sensitive cousin Ledda. Complications ensue.
The Beloved Brute
Augustina
A Western melodrama about brothers, separated in early childhood, who wound up as opponents in a side-show wrestling match.
Babbitt
Mrs. Myra Babbitt
A small-town businessman bumbles into blackmail and a real-estate swindle.
Painted People
Mrs. Bryne
A 1924 film directed by Clarence G. Badger.
Pleasure Mad
Marjorie Benton
The Bond Boy
Mrs. Newboat
For the sake of his impoverished mother, Joe Newbolt bonds himself to harsh Isom Chase. Ollie Chase tires of the difficult life her husband has forced on her and plans to elope with Cyrus Morgan, but Joe's sense of honor forces him to intervene. While Joe is trying to persuade Ollie not to proceed with her plans, Chase discovers him with his wife, misunderstands, reaches for his gun, and is accidentally killed. Joe protects Mrs. Chase, though he is accused of murder, tried, convicted, and sentenced to be hanged.
A Woman's Woman
Densie Plummer
A woman finds herself being a unpaid skivvy to her husband, two daughters and her son.
The Witching Hour
Snowblind
Bella
Hugh Garth hides from the law in the frozen Canadian northwest along with his young brother Pete and Pete's former nurse, Bella, who loves Hugh unrequitedly. When a lost and snowblind girl stumbles into their camp, Hugh falls in love with her and misleads her as to the age and relationship of Pete and Bella, in hopes of keeping the girl's attentions directed at himself. But when the girl's sight returns, she realizes the truth and discovers that Pete has fallen in love with her. But Hugh's cruel nature now threatens them both.
Honest Hutch
Mrs. Hutchins
Ort Hutchins is a confirmed loafer who spends all of his time fishing while his wife toils over the washtub. One day, while digging for worms, Hutch uncovers a box containing $100,000 in bills, the loot of a bank robbed in the next town. Realizing that he cannot spend the money without arousing suspicion, Hutch resigns himself to taking a job for cover. ...
Milestones
Rose Sibley
1860 ushers in the era of iron ships, Richard Sibley, a builder of wooden ships, stubbornly resists the change, which leads him to forbid the marriage of his daughter Rose to John Rhead, a proponent of the new method. This injustice outrages John's sister Gertrude so much that she breaks off her engagement to Sibley's son Sam. Meanwhile, John and Rose elope.
Miss Nobody
Jason's Wife
A raft carrying a little girl and a dead woman drifts in from a shipwreck to Devil's Island. There, a band of thieves and smugglers name the girl Rose Marie, though she grows up as "nobody's girl."
Parted Curtains
Mrs. Masters
A young man just released from prison can't find work because no employer will hire an ex-convict. Broke and hungry, he steals money off of a painter. The painter, however, takes pity on him and decides to help him get his life back together.
Erstwhile Susan
Erstwhile Susan
Barnabetta Dreary's grim life of slaving for her Pennsylvania Dutch father Barnaby and her two brothers, is surprisingly changed when Barnaby marries Juliet Miller. Known as Erstwhile Susan, she becomes fond of Barnabetta, and because she retains control of her fortune, induces the other Drearys to relieve Barnabetta of some of her drudgery.
The Broken Butterfly
Zabie Elliot
A woman in Canada abused by her aunt falls in love with a foreign composer looking for inspiration, who comes to find it in her and the star-crossed romance that develops between them.
The Unpardonable Sin
Mrs. Parcot
Based on the Rupert Hughes novel, this film concerns the German atrocities committed in Belgium at the beginning of the Great War.
The Narrow Path
Margaret Dunn
Marion Clark, a manicurist, is unimpressed by the wealthy but dissipated men who frequent her shop, preferring city editor Dick Strong, who lives in her boardinghouse. Dick's sister Gladys, however, is intrigued by the wilder side of life in New York and allows one of the boarders to take her to a lively party.
The Naulahka
Prince's Mother
Trying to win the Three C's railroad line for his home town of Topaz, Colorado, Nicholas "Nick" Tarvin journeys to India to secure the famed jewel known as the Naulahka, which he plans to present to Mrs. Mutrie, the railroad president's wife.
The Land of Promise
Gertie Marsh
Based on the 1913 play The Land of Promise by W. Somerset Maugham about Nora Marsh and her life which ends in a farm.
Less Than the Dust
Mrs. Bradshaw
Young Hindu woman Radha, becomes best friends with Captain Raymond Townsend during his service in India, but he soon goes back to England to tend to the estate of an uncle who has just died. Then, Ramlan, the sword maker who raised Radha, is arrested for taking part in an anti-British uprising, and before he goes to jail, he decides to tell Radha the story of her birth, her real father, Captain Brooke, died of a drug overdose, and her destitute mother then entrusted her to Ramlan. After learning about her background, Radha goes to England to claim her rightful inheritance from the estate of her late grandfather, who is also Raymond's uncle. Raymond is delighted to discover that his Hindu friend is really a white woman, and after dividing the estate with Radha, he brings the fortune back together by marrying her.
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
Uplifter
The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
The Narrow Path
Bessie Allen, a girl of the slums, dances in the streets of the Lower East Side of New York to the delight of the crowds. She becomes an orphan when her father, in a drunken stupor, kills her mother, and then himself. Bessie is knocked down by the car of Mrs. Latham, a society matron, who takes an interest in the girl and procures her a job as a dress model.
Pillars of Society
Lona Tonnesen
Based on Henrik Ibsen's play from 1877.
Hell-to-Pay Austin
Doris Valentine
After her father's death, little Briar Rose is taken in by the men at a lumber camp. The girl shows a definite preference for one of the lumberjacks, "Hell-to-Pay" Austin, so he becomes her new "father." Just as much as Hell-to-Pay takes care of Briar, she watches over him, and it is largely through her influence that he gives up hard drinking and needless fighting. Then, when Briar is old enough, she goes away to school and quickly falls in with the wrong crowd. Hell-to-Pay comes after her and takes her away from Doris Valentine, an adventuress who had been teaching Briar the tricks of the trade. When they are reunited, Hell-to-Pay and Briar realize that they are in love, so they decide to change their relationship from guardian and ward to husband and wife.
An Innocent Magdalene
The Woman
When Dorothy's Southern, aristocratic father Colonel Raleigh refuses to let her marry Forbes Stewart, a Northern gambler, the couple elopes. When Dorothy soon thereafter becomes pregnant, Forbes vows to reform, but authorities arrest him on a gambling charge, and he serves a year in prison. During that time, and just before the birth of the baby, a woman comes to Dorothy and claims to be Forbes' wife. Stunned, Dorothy returns to her father, but the colonel throws her out, and so, on her own, she has her baby, whom the community believes to be illegitimate. Convinced that she has sinned, Dorothy is about to kill herself when Forbes, just out of jail, finds her and explains that the other woman simply had been an ex-sweetheart trying to win him back.
The Good Bad Man
Jane Stuart
An outlaw calling himself Passin' Through halts his "evil" ways long enough to help out some children in difficulty.
Acquitted
Mrs. Carter
Hard-working insurance company bookkeeper John Carter, comes home Easter eve to his suburban cottage with a potted lily for his loving wife and two daughters. The Carters live happily until cashier Charles Ryder is murdered by the night watchman, a "coke sniffer" in need of money, and Carter is accused because he worked with Ryder that evening.
Macbeth
Lady Macduff
Shakespeare's tragedy of the Scots nobleman whose ambition leads him to betrayal, murder, and damnation.
Her Mother's Daughter
Marie's Mother
Marie is a village girl, very religious. Her mother, fearing some man will make her unhappy (as she had been made by a man) made her promise on her deathbed that she would enter a nunnery. Marie considers that promise sacred and will allow nothing to interfere with her keeping that promise.
The Lily and the Rose
Mrs. Fairfax
To the dismay of Allison Edwards, her bookworm, adoring neighbor, Mary Randolph, falls in love with and marries Jack Van Norman, a rich and handsome former football star. After a few months of marital contentment, Jack becomes infatuated with Rose, an exotic dancer.
Ghosts
Helen Arling
Based on Henrik Ibsen's play.
Man's Prerogative
Elizabeth Towne
Oliver and Elizabeth wed. He is a famous lawyer, careless of his personal conduct, but has implicit faith in Elizabeth. She is a woman of strong mind, a magazine writer of repute, and believes he should guide himself by the same code that governs her. Two of their associates are profligates, Charles, an artist, and Catherine. Oliver trifles with Catherine and this so embitters Elizabeth, that she pretends to receive the attentions of Charles, although it is made clear that she has remained pure. Nevertheless, she purposely permits her husband to believe otherwise. He has considered her like Caesar's wife, but his faith is shattered. A child is born to her and the father doubts its parentage.
The Lucky Transfer
Helen Holland
Jim Dodson, a poor workman, has been in the habit of begging a streetcar transfer in town, in order to ride home each night from work. Ford and Ransom, a couple of crooks, rob a store and among the things taken are a quantity of stamped envelopes with the name and address of the firm printed thereon.
The Birth of a Nation
Stoneman's Housekeeper Lydia
Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.
Another Chance
Mrs. Mason
Mason, discharged from jail, promises his wife to lead a new life. While searching for work, he rescues Curly, a newsboy, from the clutches of a tramp, who, in trying to steal the boy's secret hoard, beats him up badly. Mason leaves the now helpless boy in care of his wife, and resumes his search for work.
The Little Country Mouse
Dorothy's Cousin
Country girl May loses at cards and must borrow $250 from Captain Stiles, but the wealthy roué's loan does not come without an expectation of repayment.
The Second Mrs. Roebuck
Katherine Roebuck
Mabel Mack's mother is deserted by her father and the mother dies. All that Mabel retains of her family history is a group photograph of her father, mother and herself, in a locket which she always wears.
Lord Chumley
Jessie - Butterworth's Sweetheart
After Gasper La Sage and his cohort, Blink Blunk, are released from prison, they make plans for another robbery. The scheme, which requires La Sage to pose as a gentleman, fails. Blunk is arrested, but La Sage goes free. Some time later, La Sage goes to England where he blackmails Lt. Hugh Butterworth, an officer who misappropriated money intended for the widow of a fellow officer, and who owes La Sage money for gambling debts. As payment, La Sage wants Hugh to arrange for him to marry Eleanor, Hugh's sister. Hugh tells his friend Lord Chumley about La Sage, however, and Chumley is able to learn about La Sage's past when he overhears Blunk, now out of jail, threaten his former friend. After La Sage intensifies his suit for Eleanor, Chumley is finally able to discredit him by tearing open his shirt and revealing the mark of the prison. With La Sage out of the way, Chumley and Eleanor announce their engagement as do Hugh and his faithful sweetheart, Jessie.
Home, Sweet Home
The Mother
John Howard Payne leaves home and begins a career in the theater. Despite encouragement from his mother and his sweetheart, Payne begins to lead a life of dissolute habits, and this soon leads to ruin and misery. In deep despair, he thinks of better days, and writes a song that later provides inspiration to several others in their own times of need.
The Quicksands
Captain Lanning and Lieutenant Osborne are stationed at an army post in the Philippines. Lanning conceives a deadly hatred toward Osborne when the latter wins Gladys, General Fields' daughter.
Cigar Butts
Short film telling the story of diamond smuggling.
The Battle of the Sexes
Mrs. Frank Andrews
Frank Andrews is a successful businessman. He has always found pride and joy in the company of his wife, son and daughter. He suddenly finds himself enthralled by the advances of a gay young woman siren, who lives in the same apartment house as he does. So marked an influence does she have over him as time progresses that at last he quite forgets his home ties, neglects his family, and goes the way of many other men who have forgotten the meaning of paternity and blood ties. The story is advanced through many scenes enacted with the accompanying notes of New York's night life, and the denouement comes when the faithful wife discovers her husband's infidelity. At this time the mother's mind nearly loses balance, while Jane, the beautiful daughter, crazed by the grief of her mother, determines to take part in the tragedy. With revolver in hand she steals up to the apartment of the woman, but her frail nature is overcome by the temperamental anger of the woman and her mission fails.
A Brass Button
Mrs. Lowden
Stock broker Albert Lowden is in danger of losing his business if he can't soon pay his creditors.
The Old Nest
Mrs. Anthon
A mother raises her six children and one by one lets them go out into the world. Their failures and successes fill her life, but she grows lonely without them. Then when one of the children has a surprise to announce, they all return home to be with their mother.