Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

Marie Prevost (November 8, 1898 - January 23,
1937) was an actor|actress of the early days of
film|cinema.


Born Mary Bickford Dunn in Sarnia, Ontario, she
was educated in a Catholic convent school in
Montreal, Quebec. Following the early death of her
beloved father, she moved with her mother and
sister to Los Angeles, California. While working
as a secretary, the girl applied and obtained an
acting job at the Hollywood studio owned by Mack
Sennett. Himself from a small town outside
Montreal, Mack Sennett dubbed her as the exotic
French girl, adding Mary Dunn to his collection of
bathing beauties under the stage name of Marie
Prevost.

Placed in numerous minor comedic roles as the
sexy, innocent young girl, she worked in several
films for Sennett's studio until 1921 when she
signed with Universal Studios|Universal Studios.
At Universal, Marie Prevost was still relegated to
light comedies and after making only eight films
she left to sign with Warner Brothers in 1922. It
was there that she got her first big break
appearing in a standout role in the F. Scott
Fitzgerald story, The Beautiful and the Damned.
Her performance brought good reviews and director
Ernst Lubitsch chose her for a major role opposite
Adolphe Menjou in The Marriage Circle.  Of her
performance as the beautiful seductress, Ernst
Lubitsch said that she was one of the few
actresses in Hollywood who knew how to underplay
comedy to achieve the maximum effect.

This impressive performance, praised by the New
York Times, resulted in Lubitsch casting her in
Three Women  in 1924 and in Kiss Me Again the
following year. But, just when her career was
blossoming, tragedy struck her family again in
1926. While her mother was traveling in Florida
with actress Vera Steadman and another Canadian
friend, Hollywood studio owner, Al Christie, an
automobile accident took her mother's life.
Devastated, the loss of her only remaining parent
led to an addiction to alcohol and to Marie
Prevost's own ultimate destruction.

She tried to get past her personal torment by
burying herself in her work, becoming one of the
busiest actresses of the day, starring in numerous
roles as the temptingly beautiful seductress who
in the end was always the honorable heroine.
However, her depression caused her to binge on
food resulting in significant weight gain. By the
1930s she was working less and less being offered
only secondary parts, frequently in humiliating
roles as a cheap-talking floozy. As a result of
all this, her income declined and her growing
dependency on alcohol added to her weight
problems. By 1934, she had no work at all and her
financial situation deteriorated dramatically. The
downward spiral became greatly aggravated when her
weight problems forced her into repeated crash
dieting in order to keep whatever bit part a movie
studio offered.

At the age of 38, almost penniless, and living
alone in a rundown apartment house, Marie Prevost
died of alcoholism and malnutrition.  Her body was
not discovered for days, and the police report
stated that her pet dachshund "had chewed up her
arms and legs in a futile attempt to awaken her."
Her pauper's burial place is unknown.

After having performed in 105 films Marie Prevost
has now been honored with a Star on the Hollywood
Walk of Fame at 6201 Hollywood Blvd.

== Films ==

*Two Crooks  -  (1917)
*Her Nature Dance  -  (1917)
*She Loved Him Plenty  -  (1918)
*His Smothered Love  -  (1918)
*His Hidden Purpose  -  (1918)
*Hide and Seek Detectives   -  (1918)
*The Village Chestnut  -  (1918)
*Yankee Doodle in Berlin  -  (1919)
*When Love is Blind   -  (1919)
*Down on the Farm  -  (1920)
*Love, Honor and Behave   -  (1920)
*Nobody's Fool  -   (1921)
*Princess Virtue  -  (1921)
*A Parisian Scandal  -   (1921)
*Don't Get Personal  -  (1922)
*The Crossroads of New York  -  (1922)
*Kissed  -  (1922)
*Her Night of Nights  -  (1922)
*Red Lights  -  (1922)
*The Beautiful and the Damned  -  (1923)
*Three Women  -  (1924) 
*The Marriage Circle  -  (1924)
*Kiss Me Again  -  (1925)
*Up In Mabel's Room  -  (1926)
*Getting Gertie's Garter  -  (1927)
*The Rush Hour  -  (1927)
*Getting Gertie's Garter   - (1927)
*The Girl in the Pullman  -  (1927)
*A Blonde for a Night  -  (1928)
*Rush Hour (1928 movie)|Rush Hour  -  (1928)
*Godless Girl  -  (1929)
*The Flying Fool -   (1929 ) 
*The Sideshow  -  (1930)
*Party Girl  -  (1930)
*Ladies of Leisure  -  (1930)
*Sweethearts on Parade  -  (1930)
*War Nurse   -  (1930)
*The Runaround   -   (1931)
*The Good Bad Girl  -   (1931)
*Reckless Living   -   (1931)
*Slightly Married  -  (1932)
*Hell Divers  -  (1931)
*Strange Marriage  -  (1932)
*Parole Girl  -  (1933)
*The Eleventh Commandment   -  (1933)
*Keystone Hotel   -   (1935)
*Hands Across the Table  -  (1935)
*Tango  -  (1936 )
*Ten Laps To Go  -  (1937)   - (Her final film)

==See also==
*List of Quebec actors and actresses
*Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood|Other
Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood