HOLLYWOOD SILENT FILM ACTRESS SARAH BLANCH SWEET DIED ON SEPTEMBER 6 ,1986

HOLLYWOOD SILENT FILM 

ACTRESS SARAH BLANCH SWEET

DIED ON SEPTEMBER 6 ,1986

Sarah Blanche Sweet (June 18, 1896[1][2][3] – September 6, 1986) was an American silent film actress who began her career in the earliest days of the Hollywood motion picture film industry.







Early life[edit]

Born in Chicago, Illinois into a family of stock theater and vaudeville performers, Blanche Sweet entered the entertainment industry at an early age. At age 4 she toured in a play called The Battle of the Strong whose star was stage luminary Maurice Barrymore.

 A decade later Sweet would act with Barrymore's son Lionel in a D. W. Griffith directed film.[4][5] In 1909, she started work at Biograph Studios under contract to director D. W. Griffith. By 1910 she had become a rival to Mary Pickford, who had also started for Griffith the year before.











Rise to stardom[edit]

Sweet was known for her energetic, independent roles, at variance with the 'ideal' Griffith type of vulnerable, often fragile, femininity. After many starring roles, her first real landmark film was the 1911 Griffith thriller The Lonedale Operator. In 1913 she starred in Griffith's first feature-length film, Judith of Bethulia.

In 1914 Sweet was initially cast by Griffith in the part of Elsie Stoneman in his epic The Birth of a Nation but the role was eventually given to rival actress Lillian Gish, who was Sweet's senior by three years.

 That same year Sweet parted ways with Griffith and joined Paramount (then Famous Players-Lasky) for the much higher pay that studio was able to afford.
















Throughout the 1910s, Sweet continued her career appearing in a number of highly prominent roles in films and remained a publicly popular leading lady. She often starred in vehicles by Cecil B. DeMille and Marshall Neilan, and she was recognised by leading film critics of the time to be one of the foremost actresses of the entire silent era.

 It was during her time working with Neilan that the two began a publicized affair, which brought on his divorce from former actress Gertrude Bambrick. Sweet and Neilan married in 1922. The union ended in 1929 with Sweet charging that Neilan was a persistent adulterer.[6][7]








During the early 1920s Sweet's career continued to prosper, and she starred in the first film version of Anna Christie in 1923. The film is also notable as being the first Eugene O'Neill play to be made into a motion picture. 

In successive years, she starred in Tess of the d'Urbervilles and The Sporting Venus, both directed by Neilan. Sweet soon began a new career phase as one of the newly formed MGM studio's biggest stars.











Sound film and later career[edit]

As the Roaring Twenties wound down, Sweet's career faltered with the advent of talkies. Sweet made just three talking pictures, including her critically lauded performance in 1930's Show Girl in Hollywood, 

before retiring from the screen that same year and marrying stage actor Raymond Hackett in 1935.[8] The marriage lasted until Hackett's death in 1958.













Sweet spent the remainder of her performing career in radio and in secondary Broadway stage roles. Eventually, her career in both of these fields petered out, and 

she began working in a Los Angeles department store. In the late 1960s, her acting legacy was resurrected when film scholars invited her to Europe to receive recognition for her work.

Sweet is the subject of a 1982 documentary by Anthony Slide, titled "Portrait of Blanche Sweet," in which she talks of her life and her career. 

On September 24, 1984, a tribute to Blanche Sweet was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Miss Sweet introduced her 1925 film, The Sporting Venus.










Death[edit]
Sweet died in New York City of a stroke, on September 6, 1986,

 just weeks after her 90th birthday. Her ashes were later scattered at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden
















1909[edit]

A Man with Three Wives (lost)
A Corner in Wheat
In Little Italy
To Save Her Soul
The Day After
Choosing a Husband

1910[edit]

The Rocky Road
All on Account of the Milk
A Romance of the Western Hills
The Kid
A Flash of Light
Love in Quarantine

1911[edit]

The Two Paths
Heart Beats of Long Ago
His Daughter
The Lily of the Tenements
A Decree of Destiny
Was He a Coward?
The Lonedale Operator
Priscilla's April Fool Joke
The Spanish Gypsy
Priscilla and the Umbrella
The Broken Cross
How She Triumphed (lost)
The Country Lovers
The New Dress
The White Rose of the Wilds
The Smile of a Child
Enoch Arden: Part I
The Primal Call
Fighting Blood
The Indian Brothers
A Country Cupid
The Last Drop of Water
Out from the Shadow
The Blind Princess and the Poet
The Stuff Heroes Are Made Of
The Making of a Man
The Long Road
Love in the Hills
The Battle
Through Darkened Vales
The Miser's Heart
A Woman Scorned
The Voice of the Child

1912[edit]

The Eternal Mother
The Old Bookkeeper
For His Son
The Transformation of Mike
A Sister's Love
Under Burning Skies
A String of Pearls
The Goddess of Sagebrush Gulch
The Punishment
One Is Business, the Other Crime
The Lesser Evil
An Outcast Among Outcasts
A Temporary Truce
The Spirit Awakened
Man's Lust for Gold
The Inner Circle
With the Enemy's Help
A Change of Spirit
A Pueblo Romance
Blind Love
The Chief's Blanket
The Painted Lady
A Sailor's Heart
The God Within

1913[edit]

Three Friends
Pirate Gold
Oil and Water
A Chance Deception
Love in an Apartment Hotel
Broken Ways
Near to Earth
The Hero of Little Italy
The Stolen Bride
If We Only Knew
Death's Marathon
The Mistake
The Coming of Angelo (lost)
The Vengeance of Galora
Two Men of the Desert (lost)
A Cure for Suffragettes
The Battle at Elderbush Gulch
The House of Discord
Beyond All Law (lost)
Her Wedding Bell (lost)
The Wedding Gown

1914[edit]

The Sentimental Sister (lost)
Classmates
The Massacre
Judith of Bethulia
Strongheart
Brute Force
Ashes of the Past (lost)
Home, Sweet Home
The Soul of Honor (lost)
The Escape
The Avenging Conscience: or 'Thou Shalt Not Kill'
The Second Mrs. Roebuck (lost)
Men and Women
For Those Unborn (lost)
Her Awakening (lost)
For Her Father's Sins (lost)
The Tear That Burned (lost)
The Odalisque (lost)
The Little Country Mouse
The Old Maid (lost)

1915[edit]

The Warrens of Virginia
His Desperate Deed (lost)
The Captive
Stolen Goods (lost)
The Clue (lost)
The Secret Orchard (lost)
The Case of Becky
The Secret Sin

1916[edit]

The Ragamuffin
The Blacklist (lost)
The Sowers
The Thousand-Dollar Husband (lost)
The Dupe (lost)
Public Opinion
The Storm
Unprotected (lost)

1917[edit]

The Evil Eye
Those Without Sin (lost)
The Tides of Barnegat (lost)
The Silent Partner

1919[edit]

The Unpardonable Sin
The Hushed Hour
A Woman of Pleasure
Fighting Cressy (lost)

Later films[edit]

The Deadlier Sex (1920)
Simple Souls (1920)
The Girl in the Web (Lost, 1920)
Help Wanted - Male (Lost, 1920)
Her Unwilling Husband (Lost, 1920)
That Girl Montana (1921)
Quincy Adams Sawyer (Lost, 1922)
The Meanest Man in the World (fragment, 1923)
In the Palace of the King (1923)
Anna Christie (1923)
Those Who Dance (1924)
Tess of the d'Urbervilles (Lost, 1924)
The Sporting Venus (1925)
His Supreme Moment (Lost, 1925)

Help Wanted-Male lobby card
Why Women Love (Lost, 1925)
The New Commandment (Lost, 1925)
Bluebeard's Seven Wives (Lost, 1925)
The Lady from Hell (Extant(New Zealand), 1926)
The Far Cry (Lost, 1926)
Diplomacy (1926)
Singed (1927)
The Woman in White (1929, Lost)
Always Faithful (1929)
The Woman Racket (1930)
Show Girl in Hollywood (1930)
The Silver Horde (1930)
The Five Pennies (1959)
References[edit]

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