Mary Pickford

MARY PICKFORD d1979. Canadian silent film actress and early Hollywood pioneer nicknamed "Little Mary The Girl With The Curls" who went on to co-found The United Artists Film Studios. At the peak of her fame during the 1910-20s, she was the most famous woman in the world making 52 features ; earning a then record $10,000 per week in 1916 (with her films regularily grossing over $1million each). Sparrows (1926) and My Best Girl (1927) are considered to be silent early Hollywood classics ; she later won an Oscar for Coquette in 1929. Her career faded with the arrival of sound in movies (which she had underestimated the impact of) and she retired from acting in 1933. She became a film producer (often in partnership with Charlie Chaplin) and a member of the exclusive Hollywood set, being well known for her lavish celebrity parties at home. In later life she became reclusive and suffered with the family ailment of alcoholism. She died of a celebral hemorrhage aged 87 in 1979.