
Mary Pickford
Actor · 1892 – 1979 · Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1894 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian actress resident in the U.S., and also producer, screenwriter and film studio founder, who was a pioneer in the US film industry with a Hollywood career that spanned five decades. Pickford alongside her future husband, actor-producer Douglas Fairbanks, founded Pickford–Fairbanks Studios and United Artists, and was one of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Pickford is considered to be one of the most recognisable women in history. Known as "America's Sweetheart" during the silent film era, she is named on the list of the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars as the 24th-top female star from the Classical Hollywood Cinema era and the "girl with the curls." Pickford was one of the Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood and a significant figure in the development of film acting. She was one of the earliest stars to be billed under her own name, and was one of the most popular actresses of the 1910s and 1920s, earning the nickname "Queen of the Movies." She is credited with having defined the ingénue type in cinema. She was awarded the second Academy Award for Best Actress for her first sound film role in Coquette (1929). By the late 1920s, Pickford's career went into decline. She received an Academy Honorary Award in 1976 in consideration of her contributions to American cinema.
Movies23
Movie7.0ComedyA girl wants to go to a ball, admission one Liberty Bond, but rather than go herself, she loans the bond to a girlfriend. A soldier and a sailor find out and take her to the ball with them.
100% American
1918 · 3 votes
Movie7.3AdventureDramaErstwhile 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.
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
1925 · 116 votes
Movie6.7AdventureDramaA nobleman vows to avenge the death of his father by the hands of pirates. To this end, he infiltrates the pirate band; Acting in character, he single-handedly captures a merchant vessel, but things are complicated when he finds that there is a beautiful young woman of royal blood aboard.
The Black Pirate
1926 · 62 votes
Movie8.0DocumentaryTV MovieBased on the first centenary of the largest exporter of films in the world, that is Hollywood, is the story told by its protagonists, actors and writers and other people who made life in this business, interspersing images of famous movies.
The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies
1995 · 9 votes
Movie6.3DocumentaryThis 1940 presentation features highlights of earlier (1928 onward) Oscar ceremonies including Shirley Temple and Walt Disney, plus acceptance speeches for films released in 1939 with recipients and presenters including Vivien Leigh, Judy Garland, Hattie McDaniel and more, with host Bob Hope.
Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
1940 · 3 votes
Movie1.0ComedyDramaA lost film. A wealthy young man's marriage to a mountain girl he meets while hunting is disastrous until she abandons him and later reappears incognito as a tutored and sophisticated woman.
Caprice
1913 · 1 votes
MovieDramaCupid Angling is a 1918 silent film starring Ruth Roland and Albert Morrison, with walk-on appearances by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. It was the only feature film photographed using the Douglass Natural Color process.
Cupid Angling
1918
Movie7.1DocumentaryThe first talkie was directed by Alice Guy, the first color film was produced by Lois Weber, who directed more than 300 films over 10 years. Frances Marion wrote screenplays for the Hollywood Star Mary Pickford and won two Oscars, Dorothy Arzner was the most powerful film director in Hollywood. And what do all of them have in common? They are all women and they have all been forgotten. Incredibly, it also took until 2010 for the first woman, Kathryn Bigelow, to win the Oscar for Best Director. Even if underrepresented women have always played a big part in Hollywood and it is this part of the film history left untold that this documentary sets out to uncover.
MovieDramaHistoryNell Gwyn and King Charles II fall in love after meeting at a fox hunt. Nell soon learns the jealous Duchess of Portsmouth is a spy and conspiring with the Duke of Buckingham to place Charles at the mercy of the King of France. Nell boldly disguises herself as a fashionable young blade and wins the confidence of the Duchess. Now entrusted with the delivery of important documents, she makes sure they go to the King of England rather than the King of France.
Mistress Nell
1915
Movie8.0DocumentaryThe whole world knows him. Burlesque comedy genius, popular actor, author, director, producer, composer, choreographer, Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) used his talent to serve an ideal of justice and freedom. But his best scenario was his own destiny, a story written into the political and artistic history of the 20th century.
- Movie
A lost film. Dr. Crawford and his wife with their little daughter, Elsie, are at home amusing themselves with the Scotch collie puppy, Imp, when another doctor is announced and he is shown an article in a newspaper which describes the providential rescue from drowning of the doctor's child by Lassie, the mother of Imp. Two more physician's arrive and announce that they have come to try an experiment with a newly discovered anesthetic. Dr. Crawford has a guinea pig, on which the experiment is to be tried, but it is discovered the animal has died, and the men of medicine are in a quandary. It is finally decided to use Imp, the puppy, for the experiment, despite the mild protest of Elsie.
Science
1911
Movie7.0DramaMolly, the eldest child of a group of orphans being used as slaves on a farm hidden deep in a swamp, must rescue the others when their cruel master decides that one of them will be disposed of.
Sparrows
1926 · 43 votes
Movie4.5DramaThe story of a Japanese woman and the tragedy that ensues when she loves an American naval officer.
Madame Butterfly
1915 · 6 votes
Movie4.3DocumentaryBefore the G, PG and R ratings system there was the Production Code, and before that there was, well, nothing. This eye-opening documentary examines the rampant sexuality of early Hollywood through movie clips and reminiscences by stars of the era. Gloria Swanson, Mary Pickford, Marlene Dietrich and others relate tales of the artistic freedom that led to the draconian Production Code, which governed content from 1934 to 1968. Diane Lane narrates.
Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema
2007 · 5 votes
Movie4.4WesternTwo miners are fighting over a woman, and one is about to murder the other in his sleep. At the critical moment, the woman introduces her fiancé from the city.
The Renunciation
1909 · 4 votes
Movie7.0DocumentaryTV MovieA look at the parallel lives of Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler and how they crossed with the creation of the film “The Great Dictator,” released in 1940.
The Tramp and the Dictator
2002 · 26 votes
MovieDramaA lost film. Esmeralda, a simple farm girl is in love with country boy David, but her mother yearns for a high society city life. Ore is discovered on their farm and the money rolls in. The family is packed up and moved to the big city where Esmeralda is forced into an engagement with a wealthy Count. Suddenly the ore is depleted and a fresh supply is discovered on David's farm. Much to the delight of Esmeralda, her impending marriage to the Count is off and her mother happily consents to a marriage between Esmeralda and David.
Esmeralda
1915
- Movie4.5Drama
After being jilted for another, a woman sends her lover's old letters to the new fiancée and looks forward to the reaction. But when she spots her old lover's glove left behind, she has a change of heart and repents.
Sweet Revenge
1909 · 1 votes
Movie5.4FantasyDramaGood-hearted Cinderella is mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters, but she is able to go to the Royal Ball with the help of the Fairy Godmother. Based on Charles Perrault's fairy tale, and featuring unforgettable chemistry between Pickford and then-husband Owen Moore as Prince Charming.
Cinderella
1914 · 26 votes
Movie7.0DocumentaryIt was the golden age of silent film, and she was the world's most celebrated actress. Known as America's sweetheart, Mary Pickford was famous for playing darling girls and feisty young women in wildly popular films seen around the globe. Her love affair with Hollywood's leading man, Douglas Fairbanks, turned her into an icon of glamour and romance, the Hollywood dream come true. But, as Mary would learn in the most painful way, fame is fickle and life at the top is precarious.
Mary Pickford
2005 · 1 votes
MovieRomanceA lost film. A man and a woman are shipwrecked on a desert island. It doesn't take long before they fall in love and, figuring that they would never see civilization again, declare themselves married and eventually have a child. One day, however...
Hearts Adrift
1914
Movie6.4DramaRomanceA young girl travels west to live with her uncle during the California Gold Rush only to find that he has been killed by Indians and his identity assumed by an outlaw.
A Romance of the Redwoods
1917 · 14 votes
Movie7.0DramaAn American boy turns out to be the long-lost heir of a British fortune. He is sent to live with the cold and unsentimental lord who oversees the trust.
Little Lord Fauntleroy
1921 · 18 votes
Series1
TV6.5DocumentaryTV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.
American Experience
1988 · 48 votes