Olive Thomas
Actor · 1894 – 1920 · Charleroi, Pennsylvania, USA
Olive Thomas (born Oliva R. Duffy;[1] October 20, 1894 – September 10, 1920) was an American silent-film actress, art model, and photo model. Thomas began her career as an illustrator's model in 1914, and moved on to the Ziegfeld Follies the following year. During her time as a Ziegfeld girl, she also appeared in the more risqué show The Midnight Frolic. In 1916, she began a successful career in silent films and would appear in more than 20 features over the course of her four-year film career. That year she also married actor Jack Pickford, the younger brother of fellow silent-film star Mary Pickford. On September 10, 1920, Thomas died in Paris five days after ingesting her husband's syphilis medication, mercury dichloride, that brought on acute nephritis. Although her death was ruled accidental, news of her hospitalization and subsequent death were the subject of speculation in the press. Thomas' death has been cited as one of the early scandals in Hollywood that was heavily publicized.
Movies15
Movie5.0ComedyAdventureSilent version of the Twain tale, filmed in Pleasanton, California. A Missouri boy (Jack Pickford) encounters his first love (Clara Horton) and bucks responsibilities to find adventure with his friend, Huck Finn (Robert Gordon).
Tom Sawyer
1917 · 8 votes
Movie7.7DramaWhen the benign headmistress of the county poor farm is discharged and replaced with a tyrant, John and Mary, two orphans who have lived there since infancy, decide to run away. Accompanied by a feeble old corporal from the farm, they are forced to seek refuge at the home of General Phillip Bingham when the old soldier becomes ill. After the corporal's death, the general promises to care for the two waifs. Mary becomes his protegee, and John his gardener. Friction develops between the two newcomers and Willing and his wife Jessica, a couple living with the general who hope to inherit his wealth, until one day the general notices a close resemblance between a portrait of his deceased son and John. It is discovered then that John is actually the general's grandson. Thus legitimized, John weds Mary, and the general is pleased with his newly acquired family.
Everybody's Sweetheart
1920 · 3 votes
Movie5.9CrimeDramaA young lady, who "hates the law" rises from the tenements to society. Financial reverses lead her to commit a series of burglaries as "The Bird". She becomes involved with the detective investigating the burglaries. After she confesses and pays for her crimes, they marry.
Love's Prisoner
1919 · 7 votes
Movie7.0DocumentaryExplores the life and death of one of the first onscreen flappers. By the time she appeared in The Flapper, she had completed more than seventeen films, but beneath the glitter of success Olive had her share of tragedy. Her death under mysterious circumstances just before her 26th birthday shocked the world.
Olive Thomas: The Most Beautiful Girl in the World
2003 · 2 votes
Movie6.2ComedyA Southern teen at a ritzy boarding school gets into mischief while acting the sophisticated grownup to impress a suave gentleman and match wits with a pair of jewel thieves.
The Flapper
1920 · 17 votes
Movie8.0ComedyThe relatives of dying Edward Woodruff, Nina Leffingwell, her brother Frederic, and her cousin Basil, whom she wants to marry, scheme to inherit Woodruff's wealth. Since Woodruff continually calls for an imagined granddaughter, the child of his daughter who died before they could patch up a quarrel which estranged them, Nina gets Doll, a Follies girl, to impersonate the granddaughter, try to endear herself to Woodruff, and thus inherit the money. Doll would then be paid off and the relatives would get the inheritance. When Doll's administrations cause Woodruff to recover, Nina sends for Woodruff's grandson Ned, whom he disowned for marrying beneath him, hoping that Ned will send Doll away. When Ned seems to fall in love with Doll, Nina tells Woodruff that Ned and Doll are secretly meeting in the estate lodge. Woodruff investigates and finds that Doll and Ned are married and have a baby boy. Delighted, Woodruff forgives Ned.
The Follies Girl
1919 · 1 votes
Movie7.3DramaDuring an annual celebration in which English peasants and aristocrats mingle, the Duke of Loame is thrown from his horse and saved by Ivis Benson, the daughter of a tenant farmer. Both injured, they fall in love, to the dismay of his mother and Lady Eileen, his intended bride.
The Glorious Lady
1919 · 3 votes
MovieBored with her life as the daughter of wealthy parents, Corinne Chilvers answers an ad in the paper for a woman with a lurid past. Hired to secure a declaration of marriage from South American millionaire Nicholas Fenwick, Corinne assumes the identity of a masked dancer to attract Fenwick's attention. Competing with Corinne for Fenwick's affections is Pansy Hartley, a woman who actually does have a shady past. After a series of misadventures, Fenwick falls in love with Corinne, whose parents, scandalized by their daughter's escapades, disown her. Reporting to her employers that Fenwick has proposed to her, Corinne discovers that the young man is not a millionaire, but rather the object of a publicity stunt, which is aborted when Corinne and Fenwick really do get married. Fenwick then approaches Corinne's parents and persuades them to forgive their daughter for her scandalous behavior.
Movie7.0ComedyDramaClaire Curtis, Jimmie Strong and Mary have spent their childhood together in the country. Upon reaching adulthood, Claire goes to New York and becomes a success on stage. Jimmie, who has always dreamed of becoming an inventor, goes to New York to sell the machine he invented, and there he renews his acquaintance with Claire. Soon their old friendship ripens into love. Meanwhile, back in the country, Ralph and David Harding, who are making Jimmie's machine, plan to steal the right to it. Back in New York, Mary appears and informs Claire that she loves Jimmie, and the actress resolves to give her a chance to win him. When it appears that the Hardings' scheme to steal Jimmie's machine will succeed, however, Mary's ardor turns cold. Claire and Jimmie then rush back to the country in time to avert the takeover and save his firm from bankruptcy.
An Even Break
1917 · 1 votes
Movie6.8DramaFlotsam (Thomas) is the daughter and helper of crusty old lighthouse keeper Joe Clark (Edward Ellis, in fine form). The reason why Clark lives 'out yonder' is because he's a fugitive from justice: years ago, he killed a man under complicated circumstances. Clark's official assistant is Amos Bart, but Flotsam does much of the work of maintaining the lighthouse.
Out Yonder
1919 · 4 votes
Movie10.0ComedyPrudence's ( Olive Thomas ) parents send her from their Pennsylvania Quaker colony to a fashionable girls seminary, hoping she can learn about the devil's tricks, instead she engages in girlish pranks, but uses her pure appearance to escape blame. Later, Prudence visits her New York aunt, a society matron, and soon attracts an array of male admirers. She falls in love with wealthy Grayson Mills, but John Melbourne, who lives off of his wife's wealth, plots to seduce her. After Melbourne loans Prudence $200 to pay a gambling debt, he forces her to go to a roadhouse by threatening to show her stern father her canceled check. At dinner, Prudence produces a love letter which Melbourne had earlier written to an actress, and says that if she is not back by midnight, her hotel clerk will show Melbourne's wife his nineteen other love letters. After Melbourne hurries her back, he discovers that she only had the one letter. Prudence now becomes engaged to Grayson.
Prudence on Broadway
1919 · 1 votes
Movie9.0DramaTessa Doyle, an innocent country girl who has come to New York and joined a vaudeville sister act, becomes embroiled in a scheme to earn money at her partner Trixie Dennis' insistence.
The Spite Bride
1919 · 1 votes
Movie8.0DramaIn the Latin Quarter of Paris, American artist David Lane (Norman Kerry) marries his model Yvonne (Olive Thomas), but just prior to the birth of their baby, David's mother dies, and he is forced to depart for the United States. In David's absence, his father hires a lawyer to convince Yvonne that David has abandoned her, and grief-stricken, she dies soon after her little girl is born. Yvonne's trusted friend Pierre rears the girl as a boy, whom he calls Toton, and trains her to become a skilled pickpocket. Meanwhile, David adopts a boy named Carew, and when he grows to manhood, the two move to Paris to establish an art studio. In robbing the studio, Pierre recognizes David, and to avenge Yvonne's death, he claims that Toton has been taught to hate her father. Later, Pierre becomes convinced of David's innocence, and before he dies, he reveals the truth to Toton. Finally, the girl is reunited with her father and marries Carew.
Toton
1919 · 1 votes
Movie7.0ComedyAlice Chesterton is described as a "Baby Vamp" by the social set and engaged to boring Tom Carey. She flirts with many of the male guests idling at the Ives' Long Island house party, then encourages Terence O'Keefe, a playboy polo player from Ireland, to rendezvous with her in the city; they are seen together at the "Midnight Frolic". Because of this, Mrs. Ives convinces Alice's newly-arrived sister Betty to look after Alice.
Upstairs and Down
1919 · 1 votes
Movie5.0ActionAdventureBeatrice Fairfax, the original advice-to-the-lovelorn reporter and her friend and not-so-secret admirer Jimmy Barton investigate calls for help and escape exotic perils and dangers. Episodes include exciting and fun stories of baby-napping, blackmail, jewel thievery, disguise, counterfeiting, and the long-unseen episode featuring entrancing cult starlet Olive Thomas and the real New York Yankees and Giants playing a game in the Polo Grounds.
Beatrice Fairfax
1916 · 1 votes