Katherine MacDonald

Acting

Katherine MacDonald

Born 1891-12-13 · Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Katherine Agnew MacDonald (December 14, 1891 – June 4, 1956) was an American stage and film actress, film producer, and model. She was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and was the older sister of actresses Miriam MacDonald and Mary MacLaren. Starting her career as a popular model in New York City in the 1910s, MacDonald moved to Los Angeles in 1917. She became one of the first women to produce films in Hollywood, and produced nine features for her company, Katherine MacDonald Pictures, from 1919 to 1921. MacDonald was among the top ranks of actresses financially in 1920, earning about $50,000 per picture from a contract with First National. She achieved the peak of her popularity between 1920 and 1923. From 1922 to 1925 she appeared in films produced by B. P. Schulberg. Her first significant role was her lead role in Shark Monroe (1918) opposite William S. Hart. She was featured in a number of silent films, including The Squaw Man (1918), Mr. Fix-It (1918), Passion's Playground (1920) and The Infidel (1922). Her films typically were romantic dramas. MacDonald made only two pictures after 1923, one each in 1925 and 1926. (Wikipedia)

Acting credits

Speedy Meade poster
10.0

After his assistant, Bud Lester, is killed, Texas Ranger Speedy Meade bids farewell to his girl friend, convent student Mary Dillman, and sets out to break up a gang of cattle thieves operating on the border.

Speedy Meade

1919

High Pockets poster
9.0

U.S. Marshal "High Pockets" Henderson discovers the body of Bud Blythe near the town of Farewell. After leaving his fingerprints on a photograph of Blythe's sister Joy, who traveled West with Blythe to start a ranch, High Pockets informs the sheriff.

High Pockets

1919

Shark Monroe poster
6.0

In this 1918 film, newly restored by MoMA, Hart is a ship's captain in the Pacific Northwest who abandons his post to pursue a woman who does not love him (MacDonald) across the Klondike, eventually rescuing her from the grip of a white slaver.

Shark Monroe

1918

Headin' South poster
NR

A lost film. As described in a film magazine Exhibitors Herald on March 16, 1918: "a forest ranger known only as Headin' South (Fairbanks) goes forth in search of Spanish Joe (Campeau), a Mexican responsible for most of the treachery and outlawry along the U.S.-Mexican boarder. Headin' South gains quite a reputation as he goes along and finally believes himself worthy of joining Joe's band. in a whirlwind finish in which Joe is captured, Headin' South meets one of Joe's near victims (MacDonald) and falls in love with her."

Headin' South

1918

Riddle Gawne poster
NR

When Gawne finds his brother dying and hears that the killer has run off with his brother's wife, he swears revenge.

Riddle Gawne

1918

Refuge poster
9.0

Hoping to gain favor with the people of Moravia and destroy evidence of the rightful prince's claim to the throne, Prince Ferdinand makes plans to marry Countess Nadia. She thwarts Ferdinand's efforts, running off with Gustav Kenski, only to marry Gene, a soldier who she meets on the road. Ferdinand has her found and abducted, but Gene rescues her, and it is revealed that he is the rightful prince of Moravia.

Refuge

1923

Curtain poster
7.0

Nancy Bradshaw (Katherine MacDonald) is a popular stage star who quits her career to marry millionaire clubman Dick Cunningham (Charles Richman). But after a few years of marriage, he starts seeing other women. Figuring that her public was more faithful to her than her husband, Nancy returns to the stage.

Curtain

1920

Domestic Relations poster
10.0

Though Judge Benton unhesitatingly sentences laborer Joe Martin to a year in prison for beating his wife, he thoughtlessly abandons his own faithful wife to the attentions of an artist and demands a divorce when he suspects her of wrongdoing. Through coincidence Barbara Benton and Mrs. Martin become friends, and Barbara learns of Joe's desire for revenge.

Domestic Relations

1922

White Shoulders poster
7.0

Mrs. Pitman seeks a wealthy husband for her daughter, Virginia. The first prospect, Colonel Singleton, insults Virginia and is shot by her brother. They move, assume another name, and find a new suitor, Clayborne Gordon, who changes his mind when he learns of Virginia's past. She then tells her story to poor racing-driver Cole Hawkins, whom actually she loves. He not only accepts her but reveals himself to be one of the wealthiest men in the area.

White Shoulders

1922

Chastity poster
9.0

A young woman trying to make it in Hollywood decides that the only way she can attain stardom is to go the "vamp" route, although in her private life she's nothing like her on-screen character. She gets the recognition she wants, but for the wrong reason--she finds herself in the middle of a notorious society scandal.

Chastity

1923

Old Loves and New poster
4.0

Gervas Carew's wife, Elinor, has deserted him while he was fighting for France, for Lord Clyde Geraldine, a cad of the first order, but Elinor, in turn is cast off when Lord Geraldine turns his attention to an Irish lass, Marny. Marny has no idea of Geraldine's past nor his brutal nature.

Old Loves and New

1926

Notorious Miss Lisle poster
7.0

Compelled to leave England to escape the notoriety following her involvement in a divorce scandal, Gaenor Lisle meets and falls in love with Peter Garstin. They are wed, Peter knowing nothing of the scandal in which his wife was involved. In Paris, Peter encounters a friend who mentions the affair, but when Peter confronts Gaenor with the accusations, she refuses to defend herself and runs away to England. While crossing the channel, Gaenor encounters Craven, the man who permitted her to be unjustly named as correspondent in his divorce suit.

Notorious Miss Lisle

1920

Battling Jane poster
NR

Jane is a rootless young lady who finds an abandoned child and adopts it as her own. The decision, however, leads to great conflict with the child's vicious outlaw father.

Battling Jane

1918

Mr. Fix-It poster
6.0

A young man impersonates his best friend, and in doing so upsets the decorum at a stuffy family gathering and falls in love. The arrival of a gang of hoodlums further disrupts the formalities, but our hero thwarts them and saves the day.

Mr. Fix-It

1918

The Unnamed Woman poster
8.0

The marriage between Donald and Flora Brookes is under pressure. Donald has eyes for a new girl, innocent at first, but more and more affectionate. But the new girl is unstable and dramatic.

The Unnamed Woman

1925

The Infidel poster
8.0

Lola Daintry (MacDonald) is an actress who's mad at the world, and especially ministers, one of whom -- her father -- was so cruel that he drove her mother out of the house. When Bully Haynes (Melbourne MacDonald) wants her help in showing up a group of South Seas missionaries, she's more than happy to assist. But Lola doesn't realize she's being used so that Haynes can gain control over the copra trade from his rival, Cyrus Flint (Robert Ellis).

The Infidel

1922

The Beautiful Liar poster
10.0

Directed by Wallace Worsley.

The Beautiful Liar

1921

Heroes and Husbands poster
8.0

Susanne Danbury and Walter Gaylord, the man she loves, are among the weekend guests of her publisher, Hugh Bemis, and his wife Agatha, who also loves Walter. Lost film.

Heroes and Husbands

1922

The Woman's Side poster
8.0

Judge Gray, who is running for governor, is supported by Theodore Van Ness, Sr., prominent newspaper publisher, with the understanding that he has a clean record. His opponent, Bob Masters, is attorney for Mrs. Gray in securing a "framed" divorce from the judge on the grounds of desertion and mental cruelty. The judge's daughter, Mary, meets Theodore, Jr., and falls in love with him, though he is unaware of her identity until his father threatens, at the behest of Masters, to publish the story of Gray's divorce.

The Woman's Side

1922

The Squaw Man poster
5.8

Framed for embezzlement, an English nobleman flees to America, eventually finding romance in Wyoming with a young Native-American. This is the 1918 remake of the 1913 original, the first feature length Hollywood film. It is considered to be a lost film with only one reel still extant.

The Squaw Man

1918

My Lady's Latchkey poster
10.0

Young Annesley Grayle, weary of a gloomy, uneventful existence with her aunt, accepts the proposal of a young American that she pose as his wife. Later, they are actually married. When, at a ball, she hears her husband accused of stealing a valuable diamond and realizes that he is indeed a thief, she hides the jewel to save him.

My Lady's Latchkey

1921

Passion's Playground poster
8.0

Mary Grant has a gambling father and a mother who has disappeared. Even though she has been raised in a convent she proves true to her ancestry by running away to Monte Carlo and spending her small inheritance at the gambling table.

Passion's Playground

1920

The Woman Conquers poster
10.0

Tired of her friends and life as a society leader, Ninon Le Compte goes north to the Hudson Bay area to inspect trapping holdings inherited from her uncle.

The Woman Conquers

1922

No artwork available
8.0

Jimmy Duncan, the son of the well-respected Reverend Duncan, takes over his local newspaper as manager. He takes on the criminal element in town with great vigor, until he realizes that his own father is in league with those devils.

His Own Home Town

1918

Behind the camera