Estelle Taylor

Acting

Estelle Taylor

Born 1894-05-20 · Wilmington, Delaware, USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Estelle Taylor (May 20, 1894—April 15, 1958) was an American Hollywood actress whose career was most prominent during the silent film era of the 1920s. Born Ida Estelle Taylor in Wilmington, Delaware, the daughter of Harry D Taylor and Ida LaBertha (Barrett) Taylor, Estelle married three times during her lifetime. Her first husband was banker Kenneth Malcom Peacock, her second was William Harrison "Jack" Dempsey (Jack Dempsey the world heavyweight boxing champion), and theatrical producer Paul Smith. After relocating to Hollywood, she began taking bit parts in films. One of Taylor's earliest successes was in 1920 in Fox's While New York Sleeps with Marc McDermott. She and McDermott play three sets of characters in different time periods. This film was lost for decades but has been recently discovered and screened at a film festival in Los Angeles. Taylor is possibly best recalled for her roles in the 1922 drama Monte Cristo opposite John Gilbert, the enormously successful 1923 Cecil B. DeMille directed The Ten Commandments as Miriam, the sister of Moses; as Lucrezia Borgia in the 1926 Warner Bros.' first feature-length film with synchronized Vitaphone sound effects and musical soundtrack Don Juan opposite John Barrymore, Mary Astor and Warner Oland, 1927's New York, opposite Ricardo Cortez and Lois Wilson, 1931's Street Scene with Sylvia Sidney and both the Academy Award winning Cimarron and the Clara Bow talkie, Call Her Savage in 1932. Taylor married heavyweight boxing champion, Jack Dempsey, in 1925. She was supposed to have co-starred in a movie with actor Rudolph Valentino which would have brought her more widespread fame but he died just before production was to begin. In 1928 she and husband Dempsey starred in a Broadway play titled The Big Fight, loosely based around Dempsey's boxing popularity, which ran for 31 performances at the Majestic Theatre. When she divorced Jack in July, 1933 she walked away with $40,000 in cash as well as 3 of their cars and their $150,000 estate. When a fan came up to her for an autographed picture of her, which had Jack's name on top she allegedly wrote: "This is the last time that son-of-a-bitch will be on top of me." Her marriage to Dempsey produced no children. Taylor was a close friend of Mexican-born actress Lupe Vélez, and on the evening of December 13, 1944 she spent several hours at a restaurant having dinner and drinks with the actress before Vélez returned home and committed suicide. The ensuing press coverage briefly propelled Taylor once again into the headlines. Taylor's last film appearance was in the 1945 Jean Renoir directed drama The Southerner. In her later years, Taylor devoted her free time to her pets and was the president and founder of the California Pet Owners' Protective League. In 1953, Taylor served on the City Animal Regulation Commission in Los Angeles, California. Taylor died in 1958.She had been suffering for some time with cancer and had been bedridden the last six months. She was interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Estelle Taylor was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1620 Vine Street in Hollywood, California. In a 1983 American made-for-television movie biopic of boxer Jack Dempsey, Estelle Taylor was portrayed by British actress Victoria Tennant. Description above from the Wikipedia article Estelle Taylor, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Acting credits

Frisco Kid poster
7.0

After a roustabout sailor avoids being shanghaied in 1850s San Francisco, his audacity helps him rise to a position of power in the vice industry of the infamous Barbary Coast.

Frisco Kid

1935

The Ten Commandments poster
6.5

The first part tells the story of Moses leading the Jews from Egypt to the Promised Land, his receipt of the tablets and the worship of the golden calf. The second part shows the efficacy of the commandments in modern life through a story set in San Francisco. Two brothers, rivals for the love of Mary, also come into conflict when John discovers Dan used shoddy materials to construct a cathedral.

The Ten Commandments

1923

Cimarron poster
5.5

When the government opens up the Oklahoma territory for settlement, restless Yancey Cravat claims a plot of the free land for himself and moves his family there from Wichita. A newspaperman, lawyer, and just about everything else, Cravat soon becomes a leading citizen of the boom town of Osage. Once the town is established, however, he begins to feel confined once again, and heads for the Cherokee Strip, leaving his family behind. During this and other absences, his wife Sabra must learn to take care of herself and soon becomes prominent in her own right.

Cimarron

1931

Desire poster
7.0

Society 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

Show People poster
7.1

Hollywood hopeful Peggy Pepper arrives at a major studio, from Georgia, to become a great dramatic star. Things don't go entirely according to plan.

Show People

1928

Bachelor Mother poster
7.2

Polly Parrish, a clerk at Merlin's Department Store, is mistakenly presumed to be the mother of a foundling. Outraged at Polly's unmotherly conduct, David Merlin becomes determined to keep the single woman and "her" baby together.

Bachelor Mother

1939

Call Her Savage poster
5.8

A high-spirited and short-tempered Texan woman storms her way through life until her luck runs out, forcing her to learn the error of her ways.

Call Her Savage

1932

Honor Bound poster
9.0

When a woman accidentally kills her detested husband, a selfless young man takes the blame and goes to prison. Complications ensue when he is provisionally released.

Honor Bound

1928

The Adventurer poster
8.0

Don Caesar de Bazan, a reckless nobleman, falls for Maritana, a gypsy dancing girl. When Maritana is insulted by a drunk, Don Caesar wins her love by coming to her rescue. The two go to Madrid, where the girl is summoned to dance before the Queen. Maritana also attracts the attention of King Charles. Don Jose, the prime minister, who secretly loves the Queen, plots to get Maritana for the King. To do this, he schemes to have Maritana marry a nobleman so she can enter the King's court.

The Adventurer

1920

New York poster
9.0

A product of the Bowery, Trent Regan grows up to become a powerful gangster. Regan's girlfriend Angie Miller, hearing that her childhood sweetheart (and Regan's lifelong pal) Mike Cassidy is about to marry Marjorie Church, pays a visit to Mike to offer congratulations. Convinced that Angie is fooling around behind his back, Regan accidentally kills her. A lost film.

New York

1927

The Southerner poster
6.6

Sam Tucker, a cotton picker, in search of a better future for his family, decides to grow his own cotton crop. In the first year, the Tuckers battle disease, a flood, and a jealous neighbor. Can they make it as farmers?

The Southerner

1945

Don Juan poster
6.6

If there was one thing that Don Juan de Marana learned from his father Don Jose, it was that women gave you three things - life, disillusionment and death. In his father's case it was his wife, Donna Isobel, and Donna Elvira who supplied the latter. Don Juan settled in Rome after attending the University of Pisa. Rome was run by the tyrannical Borgia family consisting of Caesar, Lucrezia and the Count Donati. Juan has his way with and was pursued by many women, but it is the one that he could not have that haunts him. It will be for her that he suffers the wrath of Borgia for ignoring Lucrezia and then killing Count Donati in a duel. For Adriana, they will both be condemned to death in the prison on the river Tigre.

Don Juan

1926

Hollywood poster
9.0

Angela comes to Hollywood with only two things: Her dream to become a movie star, and Grandpa. She leaves an Aunt, a brother, Grandma, and her longtime boyfriend back in Centerville. Despite seeing major movie stars around every corner, and knocking on every casting office door in town, at the end of her first day she is still unemployed. To her horror, when she arrives back at their hotel, she finds that Grandpa has been cast in a movie by William DeMille and quickly becomes a star during the ensuing weeks. Her family, worried that Angela and Grandpa are getting into trouble, come to Hollywood to drag them back home. In short order Aunt, Grandma, brother, boyfriend and even the parrot become superstars, but Angela is still unemployed...

Hollywood

1923

Street Scene poster
6.8

The setting is a city block during a sweltering summer, where the residents serve as representatives of the not-very-idealized American melting pot. There is idle chitchat, gossip, jealousy, racism, adultery, and suddenly but not unexpectedly, a murder.

Street Scene

1931

No artwork available
9.0

A fancy masquerade party is the scene of a jewel robbery, and later several suspects in the robbery are discovered to be aboard the same train.

Western Limited

1932

Footfalls poster
10.0

A blind cobbler is able, by dint of his extraordinary hearing, to recognize the identity of a murderer. His own son is accused of the killing, and the old man waits, knowing the murderer will return to prevent the blind man from revealing what he knows.

Footfalls

1921

The Revenge of Tarzan poster
5.9

Tarzan and Jane are traveling to Paris to help his old friend Countess de Coude, who is being threatened by her brother, Nikolas Rokoff. Rokoff has Tarzan tossed overboard. He survives, comes ashore in North Africa, and goes to Paris to search for Jane. In Paris, Tarzan reunites with his old friend Paul D'Arnot, who informs him that Jane was taken to Africa. Tarzan returns just in time to save Jane from a lion attack, and soon defeats Rokoff and his henchmen.

The Revenge of Tarzan

1920

The Unholy Garden poster
6.8

At a hotel in the middle of the Sahara, an old man and his daughter try to keep the location of a hidden treasure from a collection of thieves and criminals staying at the hotel who are determined to get it. A suave gentleman thief arrives at the hotel one day with his own plan to get the loot, but complications ensue when he begins to fall for the daughter.

The Unholy Garden

1931

Lady Raffles poster
7.0

Interrupted during a robbery, thief Lady Raffles hides in an adjacent mansion and is mistaken for a maid during a party thrown by Warren Blake, who plans to present his mother with a diamond necklace. Also in attendance are Lillian and Dick, two jewel thieves who recognize Lady Raffles and fear that she is there to rob Warren as well. But sparks fly between Warren and Lady Raffles, despite Dick and Lillian's attempts at sabotage.

Lady Raffles

1928

Monte Cristo poster
6.5

Young sailor Edmond Dantès is wrongfully imprisoned, escapes, finds treasure, and reinvents himself as the wealthy Count of Monte Cristo to exact revenge on those who betrayed him.

Monte Cristo

1922

The Tower of Jewels poster
8.0

Emily Cottrell, one of the most respected members of a large gang of crooks headed by Fraser Grimstead, is caught while robbing the home of wealthy David Parrish. Emily accepts David's offer of a home and a chance to go straight, but Grimstead is unwilling to lose her, and he insists that she help him steal the famous diamond collar, The Tower of Jewels, which is in David's possession. When Emily refuses, Grimstead threatens to expose her past to Wayne Parrish, her benefactor's son with whom she is in love. Grimstead and the gang surround the Parrish home, then Wayne's cousin removes the jewel case to throw suspicion on her rival for Wayne's affections. Emily's innocence is established later, and her reputation is further cleared by Grimstead, who is shot by the police. With his dying breath, Grimstead describes Emily's gentle birth and states that she is fit to marry Wayne.

The Tower of Jewels

1919

The Whip Woman poster
10.0

A different kind of a story about a different kind of a girl---a modern, young cavewoman who whipped her way into the heart of a man who wanted to forget about love!

The Whip Woman

1928

No artwork available
8.0

Silent drama with two different New York stories. One tells of a good man led astray until a dream causes him to change his ways. The other is about a man whose despair over his love marrying another is lifted through increasingly unlikely events.

The Lights of New York

1922

The Golden Shower poster
10.0

A rich libertine leaves all his money to a college girl who had refused his advances. The ensuing scandal makes her retire to a small town, where she meets the dead man's son.

The Golden Shower

1919