Pearl White

Acting

Pearl White

Born 1889-03-04 · Green Ridge, Missouri, USA

From Wikipedia Pearl Fay White (March 4, 1889 – August 4, 1938) was an American stage and film actress. White began her career on the stage at the age of six, and later moved on to silent films appearing in a number of popular serials. Dubbed the "Queen of the serials", White was noted for doing the majority of her own stunts in several film serials, most notably in The Perils of Pauline. In 1910, White was offered a role by Pathé Frères in The Girl From Arizona, the French company's first American film produced at their new studio in Bound Brook, New Jersey. She then worked at Lubin Studios in 1911 and several other of the independents, until the Crystal Film Company in Manhattan gave her top billing in a number of slapstick comedy shorts from 1912 to 1914. White then took a vacation in Europe. Upon her return, she signed with Eclectic Film Company, a subsidiary of Pathé in 1914. Pathé director Louis J. Gasnier offered her the starring role in film serial The Perils of Pauline. By 1919, White had grown tired of film serials and signed with Fox Film Corporation with the ambition to appear in dramatic roles. Over the next two years, White appeared in ten drama films for Fox but her popularity had begun to wane. Pearl White's place in film history is important in both the evolution of cinema genres and the role of women. Like many silent film actors, many of White's films are now considered lost. The Perils of Pauline is only known to exist in a reduced nine-reel version released in Europe in 1916, but The Exploits of Elaine survives and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. All of her films were made at East Coast studios as White reportedly never visited Hollywood. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Pearl White has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6838 Hollywood Blvd. The 1947 Paramount Pictures film The Perils of Pauline, starring Betty Hutton, is a fictionalized biography of Pearl White.

Acting credits

Beyond Price poster
7.0

Sally Marrio, neglected wife of a prominent shoe designer, has three wishes: to be a millionaire's wife, to be famous, and to have a child.

Beyond Price

1921

Plunder poster
8.0

Various groups of people, both well-intentioned and otherwise, search for a buried treasure that is buried underneath a skyscraper.

Plunder

1923

The Mountain Woman poster
10.0

In the hills of Kentucky, Alexander McGivens, known as "the girl in pants," is reared by her father as if she were a boy. When her father, Aaron, is wounded in a fight with Bud Sellers, the girl undertakes to get her father's logs to market with the help of a crew from the lumber camp. Her numerous suitors include a young Irishman, Jerry O'Keefe, roughneck Jase Mallows, and a wealthy young easterner, Jack Halloway. After delivering the logs, she entrusts her money to the repentant Bud Sellers, and on her return trip she is captured by Mallows and his followers. She finally reaches home, where she offers her hand to O'Keefe, the soft-spoken mountaineer.

The Mountain Woman

1921

The Great Chase poster
6.4

A rollicking compendium of the greatest hits of silent-cinema chase sequences

The Great Chase

1962

Days of Thrills and Laughter poster
6.0

An appreciative, uncritical look at silent film comedies and thrillers from early in the century through the 1920s.

Days of Thrills and Laughter

1961

Decasia: The State of Decay poster
6.5

A meditation on the human quest to transcend physicality, constructed from decaying archival footage and set to an original symphonic score.

Decasia: The State of Decay

2002

The Perils of Pauline poster
5.7

The Perils of Pauline is a motion picture serial shown in weekly installments featuring the actress Pearl White playing the title character. Pauline has often been cited as a famous example of a damsel-in-distress, although viewers will find her character more resourceful and less helpless than the classic 'damsel' stereotype. Nine episodes (from a condensed 1916 re-release) survive to this day.

The Perils of Pauline

1914

The Romance of Elaine poster
NR

The heroine had little time for romancing newspaper reporter Walter Jameson, what with Doctor X, alias Marcus Del Mar, threatening American democracy in general and master detective Craig Kennedy's designs for a new torpedo in particular. Whenever Doctor X has Elaine or Jameson in his grasp, they are inevitably saved in the nick of time by a mystery figure garbed in black.

The Romance of Elaine

1915

Her Dressmaker's Bills poster
NR

Mrs. Owing is fond of fine dresses, but she cannot pay her bills. The dressmakers, calling to collect from her, annoy Mr. Owing at his office. Determining to teach his wife a lesson, Mr. Owing disguises himself as a constable and hires two toughs to impersonate bailiffs.

Her Dressmaker's Bills

1912

All in Good Fun poster
4.0

Bob Monkhouse introduces the golden age of slapstick comedy.

All in Good Fun

1955

The Exploits of Elaine poster
6.0

Elaine Dodge is the beautiful young daughter of Taylor Dodge, president of the Consolidated Insurance Company. When Mr Dodge is murdered by a mysterious cloaked figure known only as the Clutching Hand, Elaine enlists the aid of Craig Kennedy to unmask the killer

The Exploits of Elaine

1914

A Night at the Cinema in 1914 poster
7.5

Cinema a century ago was a new, exciting and highly democratic form of entertainment. Picture houses nationwide offered a sociable, lively environment in which to relax and escape from the daily grind. With feature films still rare, the programme was an entertaining, ever-changing roster of short items with live musical accompaniment. 100 years on, this special compilation from the BFI National Archive recreates the glorious miscellany of comedies, dramas, travelogues and newsreels which would have constituted a typical night out in 1914. Our selection includes a comic short about a face-pulling competition, a sensational episode of The Perils of Pauline, scenes of Allied troops celebrating Christmas at the Front, and an early sighting of one of cinema’s greatest icons.

A Night at the Cinema in 1914

2014

The House of Hate poster
6.6

A young heiress of an American gun factory is threatened by a masked man after her father was murdered. This criminal might be a member of her family or a German agent, who wants to get information about the factory's products, perhaps his mystery has a combined solution - we will probably never know...

The House of Hate

1918

The Black Secret poster
NR

Adventures of an American Secret Service-girl in search of an important German secret during the war. Chapters: [1] “The Great Secret,”; [2] “Marked for Death,”; [3] “The Gas Chamber,”; [4] “Below the Waterline,”; [5] “The Acid Bath,”; [6] “The Unknown,”; [7] “The Betrayal,”; [8] “A Crippled Hand,”; [9] “Woes of Deceit,”; [10] “The Inn of Dread,”; [11] “The Death Studio,”; [12] “The Chance Trail,"; [13] “Wings of Mystery,”; [14] “The Hidden Way,”; [15] “The Secret Host"

The Black Secret

1919

The Lightning Raider poster
9.0

A beautiful young woman is a daring master thief. She meets the young millionaire Thomas Babbington Norton, while fleeing from the scene of her latest theft.

The Lightning Raider

1919

Without Fear poster
9.0

Ruth Hamilton, from a wealthy aristocratic family, cares little for society or its conventions and refuses the proposal of William Barton, a socialite of her parents' choice. While giving some poor children an outing on a beach, Ruth meets John Martin (Miles?), a young nouveau riche with no social standing who is snubbed by the aristocratic circles, and begins to visit him secretly. When Ruth visits John to show off a new costume, her father arrives to seek his financial aid. Ruth escapes, but she is observed by Barton, who informs her father. Hamilton insists that Martin marry his daughter, but Ruth refuses to be compromised by her father. Later, however, she consents to marry John, discovering that he really loves her.

Without Fear

1922

The Iron Claw poster
NR

Only Episode 7, "The Hooded Helper," of this 20-Episode Serial is known to survive. All other episodes are believed to be lost.

The Iron Claw

1916

The White Moll poster
7.0

Desperate because a wealthy man has reduced her father to thievery, Rhoda agrees to rob the poor box of the church, although she finds the act abhorrent.

The White Moll

1920

The Tiger's Cub poster
10.0

Queen of the serials Pearl White gets herself into plenty of trouble up Klondike way as a young maiden named Tiger's Cub.

The Tiger's Cub

The New Exploits of Elaine poster
NR

One of many Pearl White silent action movie serials. CHAPTER TITLES: 1. The Serpent Sign; 2. The Cryptic Ring; 3. The Watching Eye; 4. The Vengeance Of Wu Fang; 5. The Saving Circles; 6. Spontaneous Combustion; 7. The Ear in the Wall; 8. The Opium Smugglers; 9. The Tell-Tale Heart; 10. Shadows Of War.

The New Exploits of Elaine

1915

The Fatal Ring poster
NR

A silent movie serial directed by George B. Seitz.

The Fatal Ring

1917

No artwork available
3.0

When jealousy and envy lead Mary Vantyne to make a foolish decision and commit an impulsive act she sets off a series of events that nearly bring heartbreak to all those in her circle.

The Thief

1920

Any Wife poster
4.0

No synopsis available yet.

Any Wife

1922

No artwork available
6.5

Short directed by Joseph A. Golden.

For Massa's Sake

1911