Blanche Sweet

Acting

Blanche Sweet

Born 1896-06-16 · Chicago, Illinois, USA

From Wikipedia Sarah Blanche Sweet (June 18, 1896 – September 6, 1986) was an American silent film actress who began her career in the earliest days of the Hollywood motion picture film industry. Sweet is renowned 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 movie, 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Sweet died in New York City of a stroke, on September 6, 1986, just weeks after her 90th birthday.

Acting credits

A Woman Scorned poster
NR

Thieves follow a doctor as he takes home a large sum of money. Later, when they break into his house, the doctor's wife and daughter are trapped. One of the thieves has jilted his sweetheart, who tells the doctor of the robbery, and helps him save his family.

A Woman Scorned

1911

No artwork available
NR

The will of old Dr. Andrews left the bulk of his property to his niece, Mary, who was an orphan living in a distant mining town. The small balance of his wealth went to a married nephew, John, who had been practicing medicine with him and was now made the executor of his estate, but who felt that he should have been made the sole heir.

Her Awakening

1914

Simple Souls poster
8.0

When the Duke of Wynningham, a "simple soul" who prefers science to royalty, meets Molly Shine, a London shop girl, he is enthralled by her love of books and begins to send her two pounds weekly so that she can purchase the books that she adores. Molly's mother discovers the money and, assuming that the duke is paying her daughter for immoral reasons, drags the girl to the duke's home, where she charges him with seduction.

Simple Souls

1920

Fighting Cressy poster
10.0

A feud over boundaries between the McKinstry and Harrison families, both from Kentucky, but squatting in California in search of gold, has caused Cressy McKinstry to show disdain for Joe Masters, a cousin of the Harrisons, even though she secretly loves him.

Fighting Cressy

1919

Through Darkening Vales poster
4.5

Hard-working Dave loves Grace, but she rejects him for a flashier suitor. Grace is blinded in an accident, and her suitor abandons her. Meanwhile, Dave also goes blind from eye strain caused by overwork. Dave learns of Grace's misfortune and gives a doctor the money he was saving for his own operation, so her sight can be restored.

Through Darkening Vales

1911

If We Only Knew poster
5.0

A careless nurse girl allowing the child to wander away, made the mother realize the poignancy of the little verse: "If we knew the baby's fingers / Pressed against the window pane / Would be cold and stiff tomorrow / Never trouble us again / Would the bright eyes of our darling / catch the frown upon our brow / Would the prints of rosy fingers / Vex us then as they do now?"

If We Only Knew

1913

No artwork available
NR

Hazel Gray, a young nurse, is in love with Phillip Carson, son of Mrs. Carson-Morgan, a philanthropist.

Public Opinion

1916

Twenty Years After poster
8.0

This short celebrates the 20th anniversary of MGM. Segments are shown from several early hits, then from a number of 1944 releases.

Twenty Years After

1944

No artwork available
NR

A blind princess is informed that her sight can be restored by the first kiss of unselfish love she receives. She remains blind until a humble poet steals a kiss.

The Blind Princess and the Poet

1911

Blind Love poster
3.0

A country girl is persuaded to elope with the minister's nephew but she discovers that he is worthless. After he is killed in a brawl, her former sweetheart takes her back to her home.

Blind Love

1912

Strongheart poster
5.0

STRONGHEART (1914) is a Native American Indian drama. Based on a famous play of the time, the film features an all-star cast. Originally five reels, the film was reissued at three reels in 1916.

Strongheart

1914

The Ragamuffin poster
NR

In planning to break into the house of the wealthy Bob Van Dyke, Jenny's stepfather decides that his stepdaughter should do most of the dirty work, and Jenny, not wanting to disappoint him, grudgingly agrees. As soon as she enters the house, Bob catches her, but then goes back to his bedroom after making her give her word not to take anything. Jenny breaks her promise...

The Ragamuffin

1916

No artwork available
NR

Bert Stafford, who is in love with Sylvia Randolph, his mother's ward, despises Duncan Irving, a poor boy who is the object of Sylvia's affections.

Classmates

1914

Three Friends poster
5.0

Each night, after the day's work at the factory, the three bachelor friends met and declared anew their attachment over a social glass. They bound themselves to remain thus as long as life might last, never to marry. But one was a traitor, while the other two were called away. A widened breach, a quarrel, fanned the resentment, but true friendship at last claimed its own.

Three Friends

1913

The Eternal Mother poster
4.8

John and Mary divorce their spouses to marry each other. Mary dies after giving birth and the baby is taken in by John's first wife, Martha. She refuses all contact with John until many years later when he becomes ill and she finally forgives him for deserting her.

The Eternal Mother

1912

Souls for Sale poster
6.3

A young woman hits Hollywood, determined to become a star.

Souls for Sale

1923

The Sowers poster
NR

Headed by a young nobleman, the Russian League of Freedom determines to free the peasants from oppression by the government. Prince Paul Alexis is in love with Karin Dolokhof, daughter of the chancellor. Both are working for the league. Shortly after they announce their engagement the prince receives word from the Czar that he must marry the Princess Tanya, for political reasons.

The Sowers

1916

The Meanest Man in the World poster
7.0

Richard Clark is a kind lawyer who decides to get tough after losing all his clients, but he discovers it's not that easy to be mean.

The Meanest Man in the World

1923

Show Girl in Hollywood poster
5.8

Broadway actress leaves New York to become a star in Hollywood, and succeeds despite sleazy directors and her own ego.

Show Girl in Hollywood

1930

Oil and Water poster
NR

A stage dancer (Sweet) and a serious-type homebody (Walthall) discover, after marriage, that their individual styles don't mesh. The movie includes elaborate dance sequences.

Oil and Water

1913

The Far Cry poster
7.0

Possibly lost film starring Blanche Sweet

The Far Cry

1926

Those Without Sin poster
NR

Melaine is captured by a northern soldier while she is carrying secret southern messages. She falls into the hands of her father's former superior who attempts to compromise her. She is saved by a successful Confederate attack.

Those Without Sin

1917

Home, Sweet Home poster
5.0

John Howard Payne leaves home and begins a career in the theater. Despite encouragement from his mother and his sweetheart, Payne begins to lead a life of dissolute habits, and this soon leads to ruin and misery. In deep despair, he thinks of better days, and writes a song that later provides inspiration to several others in their own times of need.

Home, Sweet Home

1914

Those Who Dance poster
10.0

A federal agent assigned to stop a bootlegging gang joins forces with the gang leader's wife and the sister of one of the ring's truck drivers to break up the gang.

Those Who Dance

1924