
Acting
Marguerite De La Motte
Born 1902-06-22 · Duluth, Minnesota, USA
Marguerite De La Motte (June 22, 1902 – March 10, 1950) was an American film actress, most notably of the silent film era. Born in Duluth, Minnesota, De La Motte was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph De La Motte. She was a 1917 graduate of the Egan School of drama, music, and dancing. De La Motte began her entertainment career studying ballet under Anna Pavlova. In 1919, she became the dance star of Sid Grauman on the stage of his theater. In 1918, at the age of 16, she made her screen debut in the Douglas Fairbanks-directed romantic comedy film Arizona. In 1920, both of her parents died, her mother in January in an automobile accident and her father in August from heart disease. Film producer J.L. Frothingham assumed guardianship of her and her younger brother. De La Motte spent the 1920s appearing in numerous films, often cast by Douglas Fairbanks to play opposite him in swashbuckling adventure films such as 1920's The Mark of Zorro and The Three Musketeers. She developed a close friendship with Fairbanks and his wife, actress Mary Pickford. Her career as an actress slowed dramatically at the end of the silent film era of the 1920s. She did continue acting in bit parts through the sound era and made her final appearance in the 1942 film Overland Mail opposite both Noah Beery Sr. and Noah Beery Jr., as well as Lon Chaney Jr. After her film career ended, De La Motte worked as an inspector in a southern California war plant during World War II. Later she came to San Francisco, California, where she worked in the Red Cross office. On February 8, 1960, De La Motte was awarded a star in the Motion Pictures section of the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6902 Hollywood Blvd., in Hollywood, California.
Acting credits
6.7King Louis XIII of France is thrilled to have born to him a son - an heir to the throne. But when the queen delivers a twin, Cardinal Richelieu sees the second son as a potential for revolution, and has him sent off to Spain to be raised in secret to ensure a peaceful future for France. Alas, keeping the secret means sending Constance, lover of D'Artagnan, off to a convent. D'Artagnan hears of this and rallies the Musketeers in a bid to rescue her. Unfortunately, Richelieu out-smarts the Musketeers and banishes them forever.
The Iron Mask
1929
Young farmer David Ross stands to inherit his uncle's fortune provided he contacts his missing cousin. When the cousin dies, the cousin's brother persuades a radio personality Maida Vaughn to assume the heiress's identity. She falls for the farmer, confesses the deception, and they marry.
Broadway Madness
1927
9.0Immediately after the October revolution, in Russia, stir unrest and propaganda against the Government of the United States. Serge Oumansky is a Communist agent trying to organize terrorist actions against the same United States.
Daughters Who Pay
1925
7.0Society children Madalyn Harlan and Bob Elkins separate the day they are to be married. Madalyn marries her chauffeur, Jerry, while Bob falls in love with unsophisticated Ruth Cassell and, after careful consideration, marries her. Madalyn's marriage is unhappy, ending in a double suicide after Madalyn's parents disown her and Jerry's family proves to be lower class.
Desire
1923
7.2Don Diego Vega pretends to be an indolent fop as a cover for his true identity, the masked avenger Zorro. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.
The Mark of Zorro
1920
10.0Club pianist Ted Mason writes a love song for Beth Barton. A rival named Goldie steals the song for her husband, Steve, to publish. Beth faces unfair blame from her friends and teacher because of the popular song. Ted proves he wrote it by creating an even better song, exposing the theft, and winning Beth back.
Ragtime
1927
7.5Richard moves to a remote island to escape from the memory of Eve. Who had been forced to marry another man. But fate still has more in store.
Trumpet Island
1920
9.0In 1919 Virginia, Rose Trenton mistakes pity for love and agrees to marry George Prothero, who was blinded in the war. She breaks the engagement, however, when she realizes she loves Sandy Sanderson, and the heartbroken, cynical George goes to Europe to forget.
The Jilt
1922
6.5Johnny Spivins adores Milly Fields, but since he's only an errand boy at the local grocery, he can't get her to look his way. Things get even worse when a city boy comes to town and boards at the Fields' home.
In Wrong
1919
9.0This unusual melodrama with comic touches was based on Octavus Roy Cohen's novel The Iron Chance. Alan Beckwith (Rod La Rocque) is a war hero who is very much down on his luck. He makes a deal with big-time bootlegger Andrew North (Gustave von Seyffertitz) -- if North will give him a large sum of money, Beckwith will kill himself at the end of a year's time. He is to marry a girl of North's choosing and take out an insurance policy naming her as beneficiary; North will collect from the widow. The plot thickens when Beckwith and Beverly (Marguerite De La Motte), the girl North has him marry, actually fall in love. Beverly's brother, Johnny (Ray Hallor), teams up with Beckwith to steal one of North's cargos of rum. North and his men catch them and things look bad until revenue officers -- called on by Beverly -- show up. The North gang is rounded up and Beckwith looks forward to a long life with his wife.
Red Dice
1926
10.0Wealthy Bruce MacAllister, goaded by his fiancée, Helen, into proving that he is a man of action rather than a pampered youth tells his estate administrator, Eugene Preston, that he is going east for a meeting. Instead, Bruce dons a disguise and infiltrates the San Francisco underworld. Mistaken for master criminal "The Chicago Kid", he finds himself leading the gang in a robbery of his own fortune in diamonds. Discovering Eugene's intention to steal the jewels for himself he engineers it so the loot changes hands many times. Getting wise, Helen summons the police, the criminals are apprehended, and she sees Bruce in a new light.
A Man of Action
1923
6.2Yen Sin, a humble Chinese, is washed ashore after a storm and finds himself an outsider in the deeply Christian fishing community of Urkey. Yen Sin elects to stay, despite his status as a despised 'heathen', only to reveal hypocrisy amid the self-righteous township.
Shadows
1922
9.0The daughter of straitlaced parents, Bessie Bowden is attracted to the social life of the fast set and finds Austin Trull, lounge lizard and sometime artist, more interesting than hard-working John Hargraves. Mr. Bowden and John try to compete with Bessie's new friends and spend all the family savings on making the Bowden home appear wealthy and a part of the social whirl. Bessie and Geraldine Horton finally catch Trull at his double-dealing, and Bessie wisely returns to home and Hargraves.
Wandering Daughters
1923
10.0Two investigators for a stagecoach company are assigned to find out why the company's stages keep being ambushed. They discover that the culprits are white men disguised as Indians, and they set out to discover who is behind the plot.
Overland Mail
1942
6.2Eccentric inventor Charlie Jackson tries to interest wealthy investors in his girlfriend's plan to help children from poor neighbourhoods.
The Nut
1921
8.0A lowly office worker suffers the abuses of his cruel boss, until fate gives him enough wealth to buy out his boss and reverse their positions.
The Ten Dollar Raise
1921
8.0This exotic adventure drama was based on the novel, The Daughter of Brahma, and went through at least one title change before reaching the screen as Shattered Idols. Jean Hurst, the widow of a British Army officer in India, hates her crippled son David because she thinks he is a coward and a weakling. She sends him away to England for his education. When he returns to India, he falls in love with native girl Sarasvati, who he saves from being burned on a funeral pyre.
Shattered Idols
1922
9.0Gerald Cranston, a successful financier and industrialist who worked his way up through the ranks, enters into a marriage of convenience with Lady Hermione, from which he hopes to gain social prestige; Hermione, for her part, desires financial independence. Gordon Ibbotsleigh attempts to win Hermione's affection, while Hermione's cousin Angela directs her wiles toward Gerald. Both efforts fail, however, and the threat of financial ruin finally and firmly unites the Cranstons.
Gerald Cranston's Lady
1924
10.0After living in a boarding school for some years, Peggy Dean accepts the invitation of her Aunts Abigail and Salina to live with them. They warn her that she will be "on probation" because of the family's displeasure with Peggy's father for marrying an actress, so Peggy masquerades as an exceedingly prim and proper missionary.
Just Like a Woman
1923
7.0The Unknown Soldier is a 1926 American silent drama film directed by Renaud Hoffman and written by Richard Schayer and James J. Tynan. The film stars Charles Emmett Mack, Marguerite De La Motte, Henry B. Walthall, Claire McDowell, and George Cooper. The film was released on May 30, 1926, by Producers Distributing Corporation.
The Unknown Soldier
1926
10.0After her ex-convict husband Bill is killed in a bank robbery, Nancy Preston and her young son Bubsy are protected by Mike Horgan, a former friend from Sing Sing. Mike is wrongfully jailed, and Nancy—falsely accused of murdering a criminal fence who tried to abuse her—goes on the run. Mike breaks out of prison to join Nancy in a small town where he practices medicine under his real name, Stafford. When a persistent detective tracks them down, he falls ill, gets nursed back to health by the pair, has a change of heart, and proves Nancy's innocence so she and Mike can marry.
The People vs. Nancy Preston
1925
9.0Bruce Winthrop, disguised as a clerk in the American consulate near the Mongolian border, is actually a secret United States government operative sent to quell a Chinese rebellion led by Tai Chen.
The Pagan God
1919
6.4In 17th century France, young D'Artagnan wants to join the King's Musketeers, but instead befriends three legendary musketeers—Athos, Porthos, and Aramis—and together, they become embroiled in the political intrigue surrounding King Louis XIII and his adversaries, particularly the powerful Cardinal Richelieu.
The Three Musketeers
1921
10.0British India Medical Corps Captain Clyde Mannering returns to England to marry Helen Rutherford, but the wedding is postponed when her father dies. When beautiful Valeska De Marsay confronts Mannering with her child and untruthfully says she was the dead man's wife, Mannering pays her a large sum of money to protect his fiancée and her mother from hurt and dishonor, but Helen's mother, witnessing the pay-off, assumes that Mannering was involved with the girl and refuses to let the wedding proceed.
For a Woman's Honor
1919