Elsie Ferguson

Acting

Elsie Ferguson

Born 1883-08-19 · New York City, New York, USA

From Wikipedia Elsie Louise Ferguson (August 19, 1883 – November 15, 1961) was an American stage and film actress. At the peak of her popularity, several film studios offered her a contract but she declined them all until widely respected New York-based French director, Maurice Tourneur, proposed she appear in the lead role as a sophisticated patrician in his 1917 silent film, Barbary Sheep. She also may have consented to films because she no longer had the protection of her beloved Broadway employers Henry B. Harris, who died on the Titanic in 1912, and Charles Frohman, who perished on the Lusitania in 1915. Producer and director Adolph Zukor then signed her to an 18-film, three-year contract. In 1921, she accepted another contract offer from Paramount Pictures to star in four films to be spread over a two-year period. One of these was the 1921 film entitled Forever in which she starred opposite the leading heartthrob of the day, Wallace Reid. In 1925, she made only one film before returning to the Broadway stage. In 1930 she made her first talkie that would also be her final film, titled Scarlet Pages, which is now preserved in the Library of Congress. Although her voice came across well enough, at age 47, she was well past her prime for fans who wanted to see her as the great youthful beauty she had once been. Elsie Ferguson died in Lawrence Memorial Hospital in New London, Connecticut in 1961.

Acting credits

Footlights poster
7.0

Exotic Russian actress Lisa Parsinova tires of her glamorous life on the New York stage and returns, under her actual identity as Lizzie Parsons, to her small New England hometown. But she is pursued by a young man who is in love with the famed Russian alter ego.

Footlights

1921

Barbary Sheep poster
NR

Arriving with her husband in Arabia, Katherine Wyvrne is ready for romantic times in the exotic Middle East, but her aristocratic husband prefers to be out hunting "Barbara sheep" than fulfilling his wife's desires. She soon meets up with the dashing Arab chief Benchaalai and falls for his charms, but he has a much more sinister goal in mind for her than romance.

Barbary Sheep

1917

A Doll's House poster
NR

Differing considerably from Henrik Ibsen's classic play, the basic story of a woman who forges her father's name and comes to grief therefore is retained.

A Doll's House

1918

Outcast poster
3.0

A down-on-her luck streetwalker is ultimately redeemed by the love of a decent man.

Outcast

1922

His House in Order poster
3.7

A woman attempts to regain the love of her husband, who constantly compares her unfavorably to his first wife.

His House in Order

1920

The Marriage Price poster
7.0

A tough fellow from out West falls for young woman who is being pursued by a smarmy high-society type.

The Marriage Price

1919

The Rise of Jenny Cushing poster
NR

A resourceful young girl struggles to free herself from slum life.

The Rise of Jenny Cushing

1917

Rose of the World poster
NR

In India, Rosamond English learns that her husband, Capt. Harry English, has been killed in battle. After a time, she marries Sir Arthur Gerardine but is unable to forget her first husband, and gradually her love for him is rekindled, especially when she contrasts him to the pompous and elderly Sir Arthur.

Rose of the World

1918

The Song of Songs poster
1.0

When composer Anselm Kardos leaves his alcoholic wife, he gives his daughter Lily an unfinished love ode entitled "The Song of Songs" and warns her to keep her artistic temperament in check.

The Song of Songs

1918

Scarlet Pages poster
7.0

Nora Mason becomes entangled in a family mix-up of murder and scandal that threatens to ruin her career and entire future; Unless the mother she does not know can find a way to save her.

Scarlet Pages

1930

Sacred and Profane Love poster
7.0

Carlotta Peel, who though sheltered from the facts of life by her Victorian aunt has acquired some knowledge from indiscriminate reading, meets Diaz, a celebrated pianist, at a concert and spends the evening with him. Later, in London, she acquires fame as a novelist and is followed to France by married publisher Frank Ispenlove, who commits suicide when she spurns him. In Paris, Carlotta finds Diaz a physical wreck from drinking absinthe and devotes herself to his regeneration.

Sacred and Profane Love

1921

The Avalanche poster
NR

A woman with a gambling addiction finds that her daughter is threatened by the same tendencies.

The Avalanche

1919

Counterfeit poster
9.0

In order to secretly replenish the family's failing fortunes, Virginia Griswold secures a position in the Secret Service to apprehend a group of counterfeiters and gain the reward money.

Counterfeit

1919

The Witness for the Defense poster
7.0

Stella Derrick and Dick Hazelwood love each other, but their families want them to make better financial matches.

The Witness for the Defense

1919

A Trip to Paramountown poster
7.8

Documentary short film depicting the filmmaking activity at the Paramount Studios in Hollywood, featuring dozens of stars captured candidly and at work.

A Trip to Paramountown

1922

A Society Exile poster
9.0

Nora Shard, a young American girl living in England, is ostracized from society for her presumed part in a scandal which culminated in a murder-suicide by a nobleman and his wife. Nora disguises her identity and goes to Italy, where she finds happiness - until the spectre of the past is raised.

A Society Exile

1919

The Danger Mark poster
NR

Scott Seagrave and his sister Geraldine are left the family estate when their wealthy alcoholic father dies. Unfortunately, they've also inherited his problems with alcohol, so they stay at the estate in seclusion. When Geraldine reaches "coming-out" age, Scott throws her a coming-out party. However, one of the men after her hand in marriage, Jack Dysart, tricks her into taking a drink, and she winds up embarrassing and humiliating herself in front of an old family friend, Duane Mallett, whose daughter Sylvia is in love with Jack, even though he's treated her shabbily.

The Danger Mark

1918

The Unknown Lover poster
9.0

Elaine Kent weds Kenneth Billings, a young man who has a taste for wild living. She attempts to reform him and his exasperated father disinherits him. Now that he is without money, Kenneth starts a dye business and he proceeds to throw himself into it with the same amount of effort he once spent on the high life. As a result, he overworks until he is on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

The Unknown Lover

1925

His Parisian Wife poster
10.0

A beautiful young French girl falls in love with a handsome New Englander, but when they marry and return to his family home, she finds that she does not fit in at all.

His Parisian Wife

1919

Lady Rose's Daughter poster
10.0

Julie le Breton is the illegitimate daughter of Lady Rose, whose own background resembles that of her daughter. Julie is buffeted by the ill treatment of her mother's family and nearly ruined by a fortune hunter, but her own resources and goodness stand her in good stead.

Lady Rose's Daughter

1920

Under the Greenwood Tree poster
NR

Acting on her love of nature and loathing of titled fortune hunters, heiress Mary Hamilton leaves home with her secretary, Peggy Ingledew, to join a band of roving gypsies. One of Mary's suitors, Sir Kenneth Graham, follows the two young women into the woods, dressed in gypsy garb, but when Jack Hutton decides to rid his forested land of gypsies, Sir Kenneth is thrown into jail.

Under the Greenwood Tree

1918

Forever poster
8.0

Architect Peter Ibbetson is hired by the Duke of Towers to design a building for him. Ibbetson discovers that the Duchess of Towers, Mary, is his now-grown childhood sweetheart. Their love revives, but Peter is sentenced to life in prison for an accidental killing. Mary comes to him in dreams and they are able to live out their romance in a dream world.

Forever

1921

Heart of the Wilds poster
NR

In the Canadian Northwest, Jen Galbraith lives in a tavern with her brother Val and her father Peter, a bootlegger who sells whiskey to the Indians. Val's friend Pierre resolves to win Jen, even though she is in love with Sergeant Tom Gellatly of the Mounted Police. When Val tries to retrieve some liquor sold illegally by the elder Galbraith to an Indian named Grey Cloud, the Indian insults Jen and Val shoots him. Tom is assigned to track down the murderer, but after he arrives at the tavern, Galbraith and Pierre drug him. Jen delivers the papers he is carrying to police headquarters, but when she discovers that they contain orders to arrest her brother, she shoots Tom to prevent him from going after Val.

Heart of the Wilds

1918

Eyes of the Soul poster
9.0

Gloria Swann becomes a dancer at the Palm Garden cabaret, trying to secure a better future and accepts Judge Malvin's offer of marriage despite the disparity of their ages and social stations. One day while Gloria and the judge are driving in the park, their car nearly runs over Larry Gibson, a soldier blinded in World War I. A remark by Gloria's friend, Teddy Safford, has aroused her maternal feelings, and the sight of the lonely soldier makes her even more sympathetic. Gloria takes Larry home and visits him daily. Larry plays banjo and writes songs about soldier life to cheer suffering servicemen.

Eyes of the Soul

1919